Results tagged “chicago”

Beijing Capital Airport's spanking new Terminal Three opens this Friday. The Norman Foster-designed building is being touted as the largest building in the world. And it is colossal. To give you an idea of just how big it is, the terminal is the size of 170 soccer fields put together, and that is 17 percent more floor space than all of London Heathrow's five terminals put together! The terminal is shaped like the character 人 which means people, and its design reminds one of the dragon, complete with 'scales' oriented south-east to capture as much of the winter sun as possible.

Monsters & Critics: Taiwan accesses damage after US unveils Chinese espionage

This is just a rumor at this point. But it is a strong rumor. Not a weak rumor, or a flat out lie (like these). Basically, we think you can mark your calendars ... and use pen.

NYT: China Censors a Film, Then Bans It Entirely

We attended the Chicago Improv All-Stars show at Henry's last night ... and we enjoyed ourselves. It kind of had the feel of a theme party at a friend's house (assuming that friend was very popular, brewed their own beer, had a very large living room with poorly placed pillars, was bad at training their staff and charged guests RMB 280 at the door). If you have ever seen an episode of Whose Line...

See the Chicago Improv All-Stars!

In our 10 years of clubbing life we have never seen anything like this:

China Construction Bank’s A share began trading yesterday. The ￥6.45 IPO closed at ￥8.53 , a whopping 32 percent gain, eye popping in any Western markets, but here in China, a big yawn. Two other smaller companies went public on the same day, both advanced 200 percent plus, cha-ching! CCB was the largest China IPO to date(￥58 billion), but that title will soon belong to Shenhua Energy, the nation’s largest coal miner. The offering attracted a record ￥2.6 trillion(USD $355 billion) of funds looking to buy shares. The actual amount raised, based on projected ￥37/share and 1.8 billion shares offered would fall somewhere in the neighborhood of ￥66.6 billion, still a lot of zeros.

Jakob Montrasio points us to a most unbelievable ranking of the world's top 25 cities with skyscrapers published by the German magazine Spiegel:

Ok, whatever people might say about the Bund – tacky, over-priced – most are still damn glad it's there rather than not. It is, after all, the most enduring reminder of Shanghai's decadent international past. Consequently, when the paradigm of this past, the Peace Hotel, recently closed for its US$65m makeover, a few questions were raised about the area's future.

OK, we've never heard of East Star Airlines before, but it has just become the first private airline in China to be authorized to operate international flights. A Xinhua report tells us that under Civil Aviation Administration of China regulations, new airlines may apply to operate international flights only after three years of operations. East Star has been in business less than two years, but it beat rivals Okair, Ueair, Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines to be the first. Hmm... we wonder what made them bend those rules!

Pitchfork ran a post recently that touched on some Shanghai live music news, mostly the role they felt was played by the "slightly-more-repressive-than-ours" Chinese government. (Pitchfork is based in Chicago.) We've already offered you some reasons why Pretty Girls Make Graves canceled their April 28 gig at 4live. Pitchfork talked to their label, Matador, which said "following some miscommunications with promoters, Pretty Girls were unable to secure work visas in time for the shows." Hmmm. Wonder if the Shanghai-based promoter would want to comment on that? (The Pitchfork story also mention that Sonic Youth's Shanghai gig "went off without a hitch" — for the fans, yes ... but, again, the promoter may sing a different tune.)

For most of the day yesterday, we here at Shanghaiist were wondering if we should post anything about the horrific mass shooting at Virginia Tech, a university in the United States. On the surface, the answer should have been an easy "no" — Blacksburg, Virginia, is nowhere near Shanghai. But news started to trickle in about the suspected killer: He was Asian, possibly Chinese. And then, yesterday morning, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed posted a story labeled "exclusive" that started out like this:

We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists.

Who are the happiest citizens in China? Not us — although we're close to the top. At least that's the conclusion of a recent survey (story in Chinese) conducted in 31 China cities by Oriental Outlook and University of Chicago professor Xi Kaiyuan from December 2006 to January 2007. Xi, also known by the English name Christopher K. Hsee, is a professor of Hedonomics (related to "hedonics"), the "science of happiness", which operates at the crossroads of psychology (quantitative measures of subjective well-being) and economics (aspects of consumer behavior).

star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the new graffiti king in town, Bill Cosby's adorable dog, and the disturbing tale of a yoga instructor who was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, a dancer from Ohio who stripped to make ends meet.

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.

While the rest of the world is wondering how George W. Bush will further fuck up Iraq and where Becks and Posh are going to settle in L.A., we came across a report about a concert event in Las Vegas:

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to.

Happy Holidays!

Torontoist has some awesome, cutting edge news: A movie is being made about a gay hockey player - filmmakers even got approval from the NHL and the Toronto Maple Leafs! Also awesome: Toronto's "Do the Sneeze Sleeve Campaign". And most awesome is this dreamy photograph of Toronto's skyline in fog.

is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour.

Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you ask, are indie film makers, screenwriters, R-Rated movies, and indie rockers.

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder?

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place.

You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater.

Northwest Airlines has submitted a proposal to start nonstop service between Shanghai and Detroit on or about March 25, 2007. The report says they have filed their request with the U.S. Department of Transportation. We're not quite sure how this clearance works, but wouldn't they have to get approval from China, too?

Hey, have y'all been using our new "Recommend this" feature at the bottom of each post? This week we're bringing you the "Most Recommended" posts from across the -ist world, as well as recommending some of our own.

Here are Miss Chen's qualifications for the 2006 Da Er Wen (达尔文) Award: