Less than a month after airing this commercial featuring Richard Gere driving the new Fiat Delta from Hollywood to Tibet, Italian automaker Fiat has been forced to withdraw the ad, and issue a statement extending its "apologies to the Government of the People's Republic of China and to the Chinese people". Readers of this blog (a group which no doubt excludes anyone from Fiat or their agency) will be aware that Richard Gere is a......

Effective today, China will raise gasoline and diesel fuel prices 16 percent and 18 percent, respectively, news that sent global oil prices down nearly US$5 a barrel. Electricity prices are also expected to rise sharply. Reuters offers a poorly displayed chart that shows China's domestic gasoline prices, fixed since November 1, have climbed 95 percent and diesel prices have more than doubled since 2003. Retail fuel prices in China are expected to increase to $3.05......

Photo by 2 dogs Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos at shanghaiist.com.......

Shanghaiist wishes all female readers a happy International Women's Day (三八妇女节快乐)! Ladies, sit back, relax and watch this video specially made for you by the wonderful guys from SexyBeijing TV:International Women's Day is this Saturday, March 8 so we're posting this video to celebrate two of the badass women we admire in Beijing's rock scene. Atom is the drummer for Hedgehog and Li Qing is the drummer for Carsick Cars and guitarist for Snapline. This......

From Sexy Beijing:Snowboard pros from around the world converged on Beijing's Nanshan ski area this winter for the Nanshan Open, battling it out for $25,000 in prizes. Sexy Beijing correspondent Rachel Dupuy headed out to Nanshan to see what's going on with China's newly forming snowboarding scene. Featuring music by Beijing band Carsick Cars.......

This ad by French car-maker Citroen reads: Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops. We are once more going to put in motion all the machinery of our technological ability, in order to repeat in 2008 the successes obtained in previous years.Needless to say, the ad invoked the fury of the Chinese community in Spain and Citroen was forced to issue an......

From National Geographic: Cars are racing into China supercharging its economy, and delivering dreams of a better life. But Chinas cars are clogging its highways and spewing out clouds of pollution. The rest of the world better watch out, because some Chinese automakers have plans to flood the world markets with cheaper Chinese cars be they made by GM or Chinas own Geely Automotive. We go inside the Geely plant in Ningbo, and follow a......

After a long and wild New Year's break, things have slowed down on the music front and it seems that everyone is still trying to shake off their extended hangovers. Luckily, this weekend there isn't much happening, but if you are able to push yourself off the couch then head to 4Live (yes, it is still open!) where there are a couple of shows this weekend. On Friday, Beijing stalwarts, Catcher in the Rye, give......

We have never actually experienced or even witnessed a person's ears bleeding from a live show, but last night we were pretty damn close. Thursday, the Ex-Models put on an interesting show of sharp, sonic blasts for a small 4Live audience. If you happened to miss it, no worries, the band will be joined by Carsick Cars and Torturing Nurse on Saturday at Yuyintang. Carsick Cars has enjoyed a stellar year, opening for Sonic Youth......

As the weekend starts Shanghaiist is giddy with excitement. Not because this weekend is overly exciting (though there are a few good shows out there), but because this weekend marks the unofficial end of the summer music drought. Next week Coolio and Avril Lavigne with both be in town (where are our media passes?), AK-47 along with Brain Failure and Top Floor Circus will hold a special pre-1234 Beach Rock party and the following week......

It is time you got Carsick. This week we profile yet another band from up north (Beijing). The band, Carsick Cars, is known for being the ones handpicked by Sonic Youth to open for them in Beijing. What brought Carsick even more attention was the fact the Chinese government decided to step in a few hours before the curtains fell and pull them from the lineup. To make up for it, Sonic Youth is......

200 RMB fines have gone a long way in making our streets quieter, but it looks like years of blasting the pipes have left drivers with itchy palms. Shanghai Daily is reporting that in an effort to circumvent the recent ban on horn-honking, some drivers have turned to customizing their horns to make different sounds when pressed. An inventive cabby who drives for the Qiangsheng taxi fleet showed off his new honk to a Shanghai......

The Chinese-made Brilliance BS6 sedan, currently being sold in the European market, splendidly failed a German 40mph frontal crash test. Reuters said:"In the event of a side crash, the strain on the driver's chest and abdominal area would be so high that a person would have little chance of surviving in a real accident," it said of test results for the Brilliance BS6 model. If you really want us to ruin your Saturday, check out......

We were taking an afternoon stroll down Xiangyang Lu today in our pajamas when we had our first ever encounter with Shanghai's high-tech parking meters. The meters aren't exactly new; according to the Shanghai Municipality website the first were installed in 2005. There were 141 meters at the beginning of the year installed across 22 road sections, but that number is now up to 555. Yes, we don't get out much, but we were still......

Shanghaiist thinks there aren’t enough cars in Shanghai. The air, quite frankly, is incredibly clean. There’s nary a spot of traffic. And really, couldn’t taxi drivers be more conscientious by honking their horns just a LITTLE more often? Shanghai needs more cars. Definitely. And what better place to encourage additional consumption than the Shanghai Auto Show! The Shanghai show has become a major stop on the automotive circuit. GM, BMW Audi, and many others are......

For those of you headed to the Shanghai Concert Hall tonight to see Sonic Youth, above you'll see a little taste of what you can expect. Maureen Fan reports that Beijing opening act Car Sick Cars were "suddenly cancelled." She suspects foul play. The crowd, she says, was "young and arty, and very moshy." We're not sure how much moshing will go on tonight in Shanghai's comparatively staid venue. Another Beijing blogger offered these......

Whew! Well, folks, the NPC is finally over, and what a party it was! Well, it wasn't quite as fun as C-Span, but after all the sanctimonious sloganeering, we were pretty excited about the New Socialist Countryside, Harmonious Society, Peaceful Development, growing the economy and creating win-win situations for mutual benefit. After so much excitement, we decided to cut-loose for a bit, and check-up on the latest banalities of everyone's favorite Shanghai deviant and scoundrel,......

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! Austinist was all about controversy as new construction to increase urban density ran rampant in 2006, as did threats to the city's image from gigantic corporations looking to set up shop in town, leading to......

Although the typhoon in the south will be diminished by the time it reaches our throbbing city: The typhoon's powerful wind is expected to bring Shanghai showers tonight, however, the full brunt of the storm won't directly hit the city. Winds are expected to hit Force 6 to Force 8 in the city over the next two days. The Beaufort scale defines force 8 winds as: "39-46mph. Twigs broken from trees. Cars veer on road."......

Driving in Shanghai...

Here's the good news: Shanghai is reportedly going to ban the use of heavily polluting vehicles between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. The restrictions will go into place starting February 15. Here is the news that makes the good news seem a little less good: The restriction will only take place on the city's inner-ring "elevated" roads, which makes it seem like all the heavily polluting vehicles will be forced to ground level ... where......

They pretty much roll like your average rap star. The Hurun Report surveyed 600 of Mainland China's wealthiest, those with at least RMB 10 million in the bank or under their mattresses. The results aren't really too surprising, but Shanghai's rich search the Internet with Google, while the rest of the country prefers Baidu. And Shanghai's wealthy like to travel to Europe, while Beijing's like to jet to the United States. We have reproduced the......

With Harley's Bar accused of stealing equipment and Hong Doudou no longer interested in hosting live music, the Shanghai underground rock scene has moved from Xujiahui to Yangpu District. Last night's No Beijing concert marked the official opening of Live Bar, a medium-sized venue in a quiet neighborhood near Fudan University. More than a hundred people, mostly students, showed up -- which was surprising considering the lackluster turnout at previous events. Drawing inspiration from Brian......

Here's a useful tourist map of Shanghai -- it labels 14 choice spots to go kill yourself. Adapted from a location map for the 2002 4As Creative Awards Roadshow, this image began circulating online last year but has only recently caught the attention of the traditional media. Experts have been trotted out to decry the harmful influence it will have on the youth, and the subway option has attracted quite a bit of attention, since......