Merry Christmas Shanghai! Plenty to do this weekend if snuggling up by your fake fire isn't stimulating enough. We've got a Christmas reggae party, a huge Bar Rouge giveaway (200,000RMB worth!), a magical mask party at MJ club, or some Christmas rockin' at Not Me. Rounding out the weekend, we'll also give you a few options for Christmas day brunch and dinner. Read on for details, or check out our calendar for more. more ›

Isabelle Dugal-Thompson, the general manager of The Apartment, has sent the following statement to Shanghaiist in response to the accusation by a customer that she was manhandled by their bouncers and the altercations left her with bruises all over her body: more ›

The Apartment is a generally a pretty classy place, but one of our readers recently tipped us off to some shenanigans occurring over the weekend at the Yongfu Lu mainstay: more ›

The newest addition to Shanghai nightlight held their grand opening party this past Saturday. If you've visited The Apartment, you'll already have a feel for what The Geisha is like: lounge style, chic venue, but the same old Shanghai clubbing vibes. more ›

If Fashion's Night Out wasn't enough for you, then head down to Fuxing Park to see models strut their stuff @ Shanghai's Fashion Week! We have our Saturday jam packed with the Closet Swap and a MeWellness bootcamp for boobies (i.e. in support of breast cancer), as well as an Oktoberfest for kids. If you're hungry, head over to Bubba's chili cook off (yum!), and end your weekend with a nice block party at the Brownstone on Sunday. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more. more ›

Et tu, Hengshan Lu? In a follow up from yesterday’s post about the end of the sketchy Tongren Lu era, rumors are now spreading that the bars along Hengshan Lu are also on their way out. City officials argue that business along the street has been declining as upscale bars and clubs like those of Xintiandi take off, justifying the need to change things up. more ›

If you remember PinkHome, the erstwhile institution in gay clubland, chances are you've been in Shanghai for a long long time. The masterminds behind the club are back after a long break, and they're back with a vengeance. Their latest venture comes in the form of Club Angel, located underground on the corner of Wulumuqi and Hengshan Roads. more ›

Two new clubs are opening tonight: Tantra and Zeal. Zeal (which is a completely different venture to a similarly-named Shanghai institution of years gone by) seems to be the more interesting one with its South Bund address. They're even claiming to have the best view of Pudong and the Bund. We're not so sure about that, but it's worth checking out. BEAN, after a fun and very successful scavenger hunt, is now inviting everyone out bowling. Also, O'Malleys has organized a full schedule of live music, games, and raffle prizes to support relief in Japan. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more. more ›

Would you love to see Usher perform live at the Mercedez-Benz Arena but are a bit low on cash this month? Then you're in luck because here's one, or fourteen rather, ways you could get to his concert for free! Starting tonight at M1NT, AEG is hosting a series of Usher pre-concert parties at multiple venues across town. Whether your party style is Club 88 or the Apartment, you'll have chances to win. Our source says you can expect to see models in Usher-ibilia, live dance performances, Usher impersonators, and ticket raffles given out for bottles bought. Racks is also doing beer pong tournaments and the prize for that includes tickets worth 680RMB. You can check out the full list of ticket giveaway parties right here. more ›

All the things you'd want to do this Monday through Thursday. On the schedule this week: It's Shanghaiist Scrabble time again so see you at Cotton's! We've got some interesting people dropping into Shanghai. First, there's Ed Wang, the very first Chinese football player to be drafted into the NFL hosting a happy hour at the Boxing Cat, and the Macau Playboy bunnies doing an appearance at M1NT. Read on (or check out our calendar) for more! more ›

Nick Taylor of City Weekend has edited his account of what happened at Velvet Lounge on Wednesday evening. The new story makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Love it!:

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 ›

Every Friday, Weekendist brings you our picks of the best of what's coming in the next three days. 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 ›

Spotted by Dan Washburn right outside the entrance to Club G Plus at Xintiandi:
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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 ›

Everyone we've been talking to has been curious as to how the owners and investors of the new club in town could have blown US$15 million and still made it look like crap, so we got in touch with the Las Vegas architect Cagley & Tanner that is supposed to have designed the club. Below an exchange of emails between us and them: more ›

The city's Public Security Bureau has sought to reassure the Shanghai expatriate population through the Shanghai Daily that there will be no mass closures and no mass raids of clubs and bars during the Expo. But they want you to carry your identity card or passport with you wherever you go -- even when you're busy getting sloshed. But says a police spokesman because "[w]e are not going to check everyone... We only check people we find acting suspiciously," Uh, okay. Another interesting tidbit in the article is what Gary Wang, owner of the soon-to-be-closed Shelter, told the paper. "We were told to close over safety concerns," said Gary, and that "we should be cooperative" during the Expo. Hmm. more ›

Didn't make it to Obama Club's soft launch on Monday? Worry not! Their "hard launch" is coming up real soon, we hear! But in the meanwhile, we've got videos from Monday night for you! Be sure to watch all three... it just gets better and better!
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Oh my Obama. The first thing we noticed when we arrived for the Obama Club’s soft opening party last night is that the place is massive! You could see the sign from two minutes away in a cab and we were already wondering how much they spent on the Las Vegas styled water display out front. No sign of the pink leg that was on their logo so that was a bit of a disappointment. Said to be designed by renowned American interior designers Cagley and Tanner from Las Vegas, the circular built club however had a familiar karaoke glow (think CashBox 钱柜) to it with golden fixtures and golden dance poles. more ›

One of my former co-workers is now working with the club, and threw a relatively small gathering for their birthday there a few weeks ago, which I had the good fortune of attending. I'll admit, the styling is a bit typically Chinese gaudy, but I have to disagree on it being "yet another cheesy karaoke place." more ›

And quite frankly it looks like it's going to be yet another cheesy karaoke place (despite what they'd like us to think). At least that's the impression we got from the website, which doesn't allow you to turn off its very annoying music. But like the guys from Huffington Post and Vanity Fair, we're still looking forward to their soft opening on April 26. It's just, it's just... we haven't gotten their invitations yet. more ›

FREE the WAX is back in town for a gig. This time they are bringing DJ Vadim and MC Yarah Bravo (Ninja Tune/BBE) to China for the second time running. If you had missed their explosive show last year, you know what to do this time. more ›

Looking for a dose of Shanghainese culture immersion? You will do well to skip Zhou Libo and those yappy middle-aged ladies at the neighborhood market. Check out what we'd stumbled upon last weekend at Club G+. Homeboys rappin' up a storm in the Shanghainese dialect, complete with bubble machines, gorilla suits, confetti and cardboard props. more ›

This week and the next, Shanghaiist takes a look back at their favorite shots from various Shanghaiist contributors through 2009. If you want to contribute your photos to us, it's a super easy process - just tag your favorite Shanghai shots with "Shanghaiist" on Flickr or send it to us by email (photos@shanghaiist.com) and it'll show up in our Flickr pool. more ›

CNNGo went around Shanghai's bars and clubs recently in a confusing article about air quality. Confusing namely because they said they're testing for the best and worst, but only six bars/clubs make the story and, really, the only one that got lambasted was The Shelter, which had a ppm ([thousand] parts per million of criteria pollutants) of 350. Regular air quality in Shanghai is 230 and the U.S. FDA says 150 is in the high end of the safe zone. Because we needed an air quality meter to tell us that it hurts to breathe in The Shelter. Anyway, apparently one of the best places to go for a breath of fresh air is Sin. But while your lungs will feel clean, can all the ventilation there stop your soul from feeling dirty? more ›

Maybe you've never heard of Onra or Arnaud Bertrand but you may actually recognize one of his songs, "The Anthem", which was featured in a Coca Cola ad for the Beijing Olympics starring 3D animated versions of Yao Ming and LeBron James. more ›

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Last Friday at Yuyintang, Nosaj Thing shone in his beat-heavy live set laced with synth sounds and slaps amid an obvious underlying hip hop influence. He worked the Akai Mpd-32 controller, laptop and audio interface and yes the crowd lapped it up. more ›

Nosaj Thing, a.k.a. Jason Cheung, is a L.A.-based music producer whose geeky charm at first sight deceptively conceals his sinister and innovative musical agendas. At the age of 13, he molded his father's rudimentary PC that struggled with even Word documents into a Frankestein Intel Celeron home studio. more ›

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here). more ›