If you've been looking to fly to Europe for that much-needed break, ladies and gentlemen, that time is now. Air fares to Europe are at all-time lows and have never been cheaper in the six years that we've been here. Lufthansa leads the pack with the eye-popping offer of a return flight to Germany from Beijing at RMB3,760 and from Shanghai at RMB4,880. Air France has the very special web deal of a return tic......

After a successful month running at reduced capacity, the new Terminal 2 at Pudong Airport took another 18 airlines under its wing today. Whilst you should double check when you get to the airport (the airline who sold you the ticket may not be the one running the plane), the full list of airlines now operating from Pudong reads as follows:AeroflotAerosvit (Ukraine)Air CanadaAir China Air IndiaAir MacauAir New ZealandAlitaliaANA NipponAsiana (RoK)British AirwaysCathay PacificCebu PacificDragon AirEVA......

The idea is simple: get five internationally reknowned directors to make short, impressionistic films about Beijing, showing the people of Beijing in their everyday lives and as they prepare for the Olympics—and in the kindest light possible. The five filmmakers were: Patrice Leconte (France), Andrew Lau (Hong Kong/China), Majid Majidi (Iran), Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy), and Daryl Goodrich (UK). You can find a rundown of each film's style and content as well as a link to......

A new airport will be built in Beijing and scheduled to open by 2015. Even with a third terminal opening at Capital International Airport opening next month, Beijing will need a new airport to meet the rising demand for air travel as no further large-scale developments are being planned for Capital.Meanwhile, across China, a grand total of 97 new airports will be built by 2020.About 3,250 flights in all have been cancelled due to the......

Photo from Yansi Gordon Brown's China trip The Independent: Brown invites China's 'big red chequebook' to Britain Reuters: Brown hails environmental work with China Xinhua: British PM visits Shanghai The China Eastern saga Bloomberg: China Eastern `Doubts Sincerity' of Air China Bid Forbes: Air China parent formally proposes China Eastern tieup, to reveal details Jan 22 Trading Markets: China Eastern Airlines suspended from trading in Hong Kong China's land rush WSJ: Buying Into China's Land......

77% of China Eastern shareholders have voted against Singapore Airline's proposed HK$7 billion bid for a 24% stake in it. Disappointed by the results of the vote, China Eastern chairman Li Fenghua has vowed not to ally with Air China:"We will never consider Air China as a strategic investor. The most important thing is not the price. The most important thing is to improve China Eastern Airlines' brand and management." "There's not much difference between......

Looks like the much talked-about HK$7 billion bid by Singapore Airlines and its parent Temasek Holdings for a 24% stake in Shanghai's loss-making and debt-laden China Eastern Airlines may not happen just yet. Blocking the bid is its arch-rival and shareholder, Air China, as well as its parent China National Aviation Corp. (CNAC), which has now upped the ante by saying it would bid no less than HK$5 per share if shareholders vote against Singapore......

Shanghai wants 50 top minds every year “Local authorities are offering lucrative packages to lure leading academics to the city under a new scheme to help boost its competitiveness.” Shanghai to launch int’l channel targeting foreigners “The ICS programs, covering news, information, fashion, entertainment, foreign TV shows and movies, will be aired in English and Japanese, with Chinese captions, for 19 hours a day.” Shanghai GM to launch Buick LaCrosse hybrid prior to Olympic......

Air transport AFP: Air China, Shanghai Airlines join Star Alliance XFN: China Eastern says partnership with Singapore Airlines, Temasek 'only option' AFP: Singapore Airlines says won't raise China Eastern bid Finance Reuters: U.S. says China recognises need for stronger yuan NYT: Little Headway With China on Finance FT: Beijing lectures US on effect of weak dollar Drugs, drugs and drugs AP: China Shuts Down Leukemia Drug Maker Xinhua: China issues new drug recall method......

With 20 million Muslims around China, it is only in recent years that they have been able to go on the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holiest city, in substantial numbers. Thanks to rising affluence, growing numbers of Chinese Muslims are now able to fulfill their spiritual obligations of performing the Haj at least once in their lifetime, and this year, a record 10,700 of them are expected to do so. Five departure ports......

China confirms presence of toxic substance in bead toys [Economic Times] China's quality control watch dog has confirmed that the bead toys which the US and Australia have recalled in millions over safety fears contain toxic substance. US sees no rapid shift in China's currency reserves [AFP] Amid a plunging US dollar, China has again threatened to diversify its mountain of dollar foreign reserves but US officials are unperturbed while experts do not see a......

Okay, Shanghaiist has got several hundred blogs on his RSS that he scans through everyday. Some things scream at us, others are quickly forgotten and yet others are hidden in some corner of our brain for (mostly useless) information ready to be used at some future point in time. There are all these bloggers that you've never met personally that you can form an impression of only after a long period of reading their blogs.......

Like we told you before, Chinese state media are beginning to get the hang of the art of spin. CDT informs us that People's Daily Online ran an article about President Hu's wonderful skills in the traditional Chinese art of paper-cutting and this has spawned yet another wave of satirical commentaries from Chinese bloggers, read here, here and here (in Chinese). Really, Shanghaiist would love to lay his hands on a pic or video of......

Beijing's housing market bubbles [IHT] Prices for high-end homes in China's capital have been bouncing to record new levels all year, even with dramatically fewer transactions, rental prices flat and many new units empty. Beijing Knocks Down Petitioners' Houses [Guardian Unlimited] Chinese authorities knocked down part of a rundown neighborhood in Beijing on Wednesday where people live, sometimes for months, while petitioning the central government for help fighting grievances in their hometowns. Though water is......

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Singapore Airline’s joint bid for a 24 percent stake of China Eastern Airline finally received its blessing from Beijing last week. The deal valued CEA at HK$3.80 per share. China Eastern’s Hong Kong listing after a three month halt resumed trading earlier today and promptly doubled from HK$ 3.73 to HK$ 7.50 before paring back to settle around HK$ 6.90 in the afternoon. Today’s surge in gave the two new investors......

Not content with making cars and computers for the world, China is now on to its next big thing -- aircraft. The long-awaited ARJ-21 (pictured here) is China's very first homegrown commercial aircraft and has been launched amid much fanfare by the aircraft maker AVIC I. Now only a name is lacking, and if you can come up with a creative Chinese name of between two and four Chinese characters before September 28, RMB50,000 will......

Shanghaiist is somewhat of a frequent flyer to Beijing, and because he isn't employed by some big multinational but rather runs his own little business, he can only afford to put himself on cattle class and often has to scour the internet for the cheapest available deals. We especially love this nifty little function on eLong.com which shows you the cheapest available flight within a week of your selected departure date. That has worked to......

The last time we heard from Air China, it was hit by an embarrassing spate of accidents. Not so long afterwards, it announced an order for 15 units of the new Boeing 767 Dreamliner. This time, Air China has proclaimed its ambitions to grow its market share in Beijing from the existing 44% up to 50%. And just how does it hope to do that? Well according to Vice-President Zhang Lan, the airline intends to......

Five Chinese carriers have committed to buying 57 of the new fuel-efficient, long-haul Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and three Chinese companies are producing parts and components for the new plane. Air China and China Eastern Airlines have each ordered 15 of the new planes. China Southern Airlines has ordered 10, Shanghai Airlines nine and Hainan Airlines eight. Boeing has won 677 orders for the Dreamliner, which means it will be sold out all the way......

Even while Shanghaiist is waiting with bated breath for direct flights to the east coast, China Eastern Airlines is set to sell a 25 percent stake to Singapore Airlines, the world's largest carrier by market capitalisation, for HK$7.9 billion (US$1 billion) worth of new shares. In the meanwhile, Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore's state-owned investment arm with $85 billion of assets, may join Singapore Airlines in its bid for a stake. China Eastern suffered a net......

In light of this week's national holiday, here are some transportation stories for your enjoyment: Shanghai to host 4.4 million tourists during the May Day holidays: That is five percent more than last year. Yay. Avoid People's Square and other hot spots these week.China May Day spells nightmare: This AP story claims that the Chinese government is looking to develop "a new system of staggered holidays" to ease the burden on the nation's transportation systems.......

A China Eastern Airlines jetliner emblazoned with flashy colors and the not-so-flashy "Better City, Better Life" slogan of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai made its maiden voyage yesterday. Here are some photos of it arriving in Tokyo. We have a confession to make: Before moving to Shanghai, we had no idea that World Expos (also known as World Fairs) still took place[1]. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that we are......

Didn’t take long for our first new year wish to get squashed. On Tuesday, United Airlines won preliminary approval from the US Department of Transportation to operate a daily non-stop flight between Washington, D.C. and Beijing starting this March, beating out proposals from fellow carriers Northwest (Detroit to Shanghai), American (Dallas to Beijing) and our favorite, Continental (Newark to Shanghai). The politician and lobbyist types are cheering the decision. "It means that I probably save......

Tickets for domestic Chinese flights may be cheap, but really, is it worth it? Last week, we told you about the China Eastern plane that blew out its tires while landing. And over the weekend, reports emerged of a China Southern plane that had its tail cone (the rear of the airplane's fuselage) fall to the ground "just before the plane was to taxi to the runway": Inspectors later found more than a dozen screws......

The airport was Hongqiao, not Pudong. And, yes, the airline was China Eastern. This happened yesterday afternoon at 2:09, when a Boeing 737-300 was arriving from Qingdao. None of the roughly 100 passengers on board was reported injured in the accident — passengers and luggage were evacuated from the aircraft in around 30 minutes — but Hongqiao Aiport, the city's main hub for domestic flights, was closed and normal operations didn't resume there until 6:45......

Non-stop flights from Shanghai to New York are now available. China Eastern Airlines will fly the route four times a week starting today. Photo from Howard W. French. Shanghaiist features a "Photo of the Day", daily pictures of life around the city. We want you to share how you see Shanghai. Simply post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your......

From a reader we learned that all flights leaving and arriving at Pudong airport after 2 pm were canceled or rerouted. They sent us a link to the only new story on this so far, which is from the AP: SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Flights at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport were suspended Friday "to control air traffic volume," the city government said, refusing to give any further explanation for massive flight cancellations at both of......

Like many people, Shanghaiist ducked out of the country for a few days over the October 1 holiday. We didn’t go far: just across the water to Seoul. The South Korean capital is an impressive city. In fact, we’d argue that it’s highly underrated as a holiday destination. It was so enjoyable that we weren’t quite ready to leave -- even the clean, cosmopolitan Incheon International Airport, laden with Burger King and the like (hint,......

Everyone that loves pralines should know where Montargis, France is. But little known is the role it played in the birth of the Chinese Communist Party. in the early 20th century.As of December 8, you will be able to take a direct flight from Shanghai to New York. The catch: it's with China Eastern. Four US airlines are in the process of applying and should be able to provide service in 2007. Plus, Chinese airlines......

There was a fire on the maglev train. The train was evacuated but no one was hurt.Google's blog service, Blogger, is now accessible within China without a proxy server. We tried it -- it works.If 2010 gets any better, Jesus won't have to come back -- in addition to Disneyland, the Expo, and 5,000 subway lines, we're going to be home to Asia's largest railway station, to be located somewhere in the Hongqiao area.A pilot......