Now hey, this is cool. Cityweekend has a new online feature where they'll text you the address of your destination free of charge. Their website has just added a handy button beside their venue listings that sends the address in Chinese and English straight to mobiles. We just gave it a go and the text came within 5 seconds--super! This is definitely something we can get behind...because as much as we love 96288 sometimes when your taxi driver is scowling at you and the 962288 number is still playing that darn song, this could be just what the doctor ordered. You will have to have an account with Cityweekend and for the moment, the sms service only works it for their "highly-buzzed" restaurants but we like where this is going--this and their "call for free online" feature. Read more about it straight from the horse's mouth. more ›

In case, like me, you completely screwed up your planning this weekend and missed the literary event of the year, City Weekend has helpfully put up its audio recordings. Listen to Sarah Brennan reading her Chinese calendar-inspired children's story , Thomas Keneally - author of the book that was turned into Schindler's List - talk about his life, and Pankaj Mishra and Ian Johnson talking about the resurgence of religion in India and China... and more! more ›

Sometime over my vacation, City Weekend did a complete face lift on their site. And now... it looks like a blog! more ›

Nick Taylor of City Weekend shares with us his horrible experience of getting overcharged for drinks at Velvet Lounge and tells you why you should sign up for ICBC's text alerts:

At Velvet Lounge last night I was charged twice for a drink. I paid by card, entered my pin, then was asked to enter it again because it didn't work. more ›

Another day, another ad on City Weekend:
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Nick Taylor of City Weekend writes:

Our friends at Muse tell us they have received notice from the powers that be that they have to close at 2am from now on. Last orders will be at 1:30am, then everyone has to leave the club. more ›

The Wending Lu Christmas Market, an "outdoor extravaganza" of Christmas joy that will feature shops, fake snow and an actual skating rink, starts today. It'll run to December 31st and is open 4 to 9pm on weekdays, 11am to 10pm on weekends. The address: Wending Living Style Plaza, 258 Wending Lu, near Kaixuan Lu. more ›

We came across this alarming piece of "news" from the Parenting column at Cityweekend about hand sanitizers and your children (dun dun dun!). Apparently, they had just "heard" the following story about a young four-year-old named Halle who was rushed to the ER for being severely lethargic and incoherent in her classroom. more ›

Greek munching: The Fat Olive, another recent David Laris project, serves some pretty good food. It's just that there's not very much of it. We went there a couple of weeks back and became smitten with the burger, which is served open-faced on a pita that cushions the drizzling juice from the tender, glazed patty. The meat on the kebabs were big, succulent, with a hint of spice but overwhelming original in flavor. A basket of toasted pita and tangy tzatziki were able sidekicks. But as far as mains go, that's about it. The Fat Olive is more for imbibing than it is is for eating, what with that huge terrace and the glam view of Pudong. Snacking on some simple Greek offerings is probably the more operative term. Check it out. more ›

So after last night's festivities, City Weekend revealed the winners of its Readers' Choice Awards. Most of the entries weren't too surprising: Jean Georges won for best French in the city, Cantina Agave swept up Best Mexican and “Newcomer of the Year,” and Whisk was the crème of the crop for desserts. We were surprised, however, by Element Fresh's win for Best Wi-Fi. Really? While the Jinqiao location's wi-fi isn't bad (though nothing to write home about), the Portman-Ritz Carlton one only works on the second floor most of the time, and spottily at that. Oh well, we guess it was a hard to quantify category to begin with. Read who won what at the City Weekend site. more ›

Chinese customs dictate that a woman who's just given birth spend about a month after delivery inside, in bed, without any form of stress (including eating cold foods). Usually, they have a specific type of ayi to help with zuo yuezi, called a yuesao. Now, according to City Weekend, expat women can partake in the tradition too! For RMB3,000 to 5,000 a month, your yuesao will help you with newborn care and make sure you follow Chinese traditions to a tee. While we're trying to remain open minded to the option, the only way we would possibly want to stay indoors for a month post-partum is if every day and every night included a nice stiff drink. more ›

Didn't manage to make it to all the Shanghai Lit Fest authors you wanted to see? CityWeekend, already having done us a great service by liveblogging the event, was nice enough to record a bunch of podcasts for everyone who couldn't be there. Currently, they've got Week 1 and Week 2's writers up, and Week 3 is supposedly going to be added soon. Head over there to listen to the people you couldn't catch live... or just the people you want to hear again. We know we'll be re-listening to the James Fallows podcast. Maybe on repeat. more ›

City Weekend has an interesting look at some of the troubles that face Chinese bands trying to widen their appeal abroad. Recently, Wuhan punk band SMZB had an opportunity to tour the U.S. after being invited to participate at Washington D.C.'s Shamrock Festival. Unfortunately, they never made it there, thanks to visa problems: more ›

Shanghaiist just got back from the Hedgehog gig at Yuyintang and what a great show it was. Yuyintang was packed out, with latecomers unable to get into the main room once hedgehog took the stage. The audience seemed tentative at first but into the second number they broke into action and the band ate it up. more ›

This weekend venues are still suffering from the New Year hangover and not many events are happening. You might check out blues band, Studio 188, who will be performing at the Blues Room on Saturday. Or maybe join the firecracker loving crowds throughout the city for a bit of noise. more ›

Yet. For those who like to keep up to date on Shanghai-English-language-website news — yes, all three of you — head on over to Urbanatomy.com. That's the future home of a new website from the folks at That's Shanghai. And if Urbanatomy.com is as half as good as thatssh.com ... someone seriously needs to be fired over there, because thatssh.com is really quite awful. But they know that — hence the new site. But why... more ›

Shanghaiist loves our dear readers because you never hesitate to let us know when you disagree when it comes to a restaurant recommendation. Well, now's your chance to put a little of your own skin in the game. Famed restaurant guide Zagat is currently collecting survey responses regarding restaurants in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Users who submit the survey by the September 23rd deadline will receive a free copy of the resulting 2008 China's Restaurants and Hotels Guide when it's published. According to Zagat they are covering over 175 restaurants in Shanghai. We signed up (site registration is required in order to take the survey) to take a peek. The restaurants are broken out by district, and glancing at the full list it looks like usual suspects from the listings on City Weekend (which, by the way, appears to have upgraded their website). more ›

The latest copy of City Weekend draws our attention to the launch of BooksDirect.com.cn, a tripartite joint venture between Xinhua Media, Chaterhouse Booktrader and Bertelsmann DirectGroup. We understand this to be the first online English bookstore in China, and guess what, they also offer free delivery to locations in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing! We checked out prices on the website and they seem to be fairly cheap. Hardcore supporters of Shanghaiist who are in the market for books, especially of the more dissident and subversive variety that would not be available here, might also like to check out our rotating Amazon ads. more ›

As much as you want of the above for 150 kuai. more ›

Tomorrow night, a possibly pregnant Christina Aguilera will perform at the Shanghai Grand Stage. Since May, Shanghaiist has been looking forward to this extravaganza and now that we bought our tickets (thanks Taobao!), we are as happy as a clam! Based on her previous stops in her Back to Basics tour, the setlist should look something like this: 1. Ain't No Other Man 2. Back in the Day 3. Understand 4. Come On Over Baby... more ›

Where: Abbey Road, 45 Yueyang Lu, near Dongping Lu, in the former French Concession. Tel: 6431-6787 more ›

And it is "a match for anything on the Bund"! No surprise there. But wait, there's more. Spago "has already become a popular lunch spot with pasta, Western, pizza and Asian sets for ¥19, 29 and 39" and is perfect for "fashionistas on a shoe-string." What? Huh? more ›

We want some right now. more ›

Shanghaiist was browsing around on SHExpat Forums yesterday, and came across a thread discussing the loss of one of Shanghai's renowned cheap eating establishments — Turk's. more ›

And at least one person (a former editor of the magazine) hates it: more ›

We were leafing through the latest City Weekend* over breakfast this morning when we realized we forgot to tell you something very important: We love Southern Barbarian (南蛮子). It's a Yunnan restaurant that opened in the fall (we have mentioned it briefly twice before). It is easily one of our favorite restaurants in the city, Chinese or non-Chinese. The food is fantastic — tasty and plentiful — and it is cheap (especially when compared to another Yunnan restaurant that opened recently). An added bonus is that Feng Jianwen, the owner (yes, he's from Yunnan), is a lover of beer — the result is the best selection of bottled beers we have ever seen at a Chinese restaurant. There's Hoegaarden, Chimay, Coopers (Sparkling Ale and Best Extra Stout), Leffe and a bunch of others. They are priced reasonably, too. Hoegaardens are 28 kuai; Coopers are less than that. Or you can always just get a tall bottle of Suntory for 6 kuai — they have that, too. more ›

Michael Ohlsson is an American living in Shanghai. He's a DJ named Ozone. He writes about Shanghai's music scene for City Weekend. And, like many people we know, he eats meals ever day. On his Weird Meat blog (where he writes about eating, um, weird things) he recently posted a list of restaurants he likes in Shanghai. It's not meant to be a definitive list, but he does say he has worked as a food critic and knows "good food." Anyway, lists like this are always good conversation starters, and who knows — you may discover a great place you didn't know about before. more ›

It was in high spirits that Shanghaiist joined BookCrossing last week. After all, we love to read, we dig the ra-ra-sharing spirit of the movement, and we have participated (happily and successfully) in other yay-serendipity collectives. more ›

Because the boss tells them to. more ›

This week’s editions of SH and City Weekend, summerviewed. (That’s a combination of summary and review. Look it up.) more ›