McDonalds is set to raise prices for the fifth time in two years. Citing the pressures of rising food and rental costs, McDonalds said it would increase the prices of some of the items on its menu by between 0.5 and 2 RMB. With the changes, a 5-piece box of McNuggets now costs 1 kuai more at 8RMB, and a Big Mac 18.5RMB, up from 17.5RMB previously. more ›

In Cafetique, Shanghaiist reviews coffee shops and cafes around Shanghai that provide the two things our writers need most in life: caffeine and wireless internet. How does your neighborhood hangout spot stack up? more ›

In Cafetique, Shanghaiist reviews coffee shops and cafes around Shanghai that provide the two things our writers need most in life: caffeine and wireless internet. How does your neighborhood hangout spot stack up? more ›

In Cafetique, Shanghaiist reviews coffee shops and cafes around Shanghai that provide the two things our writers need most in life: caffeine and wireless internet. How does your neighborhood hangout spot stack up? more ›

When it becomes difficult to distinguish Shanghai’s a luxury shopping center (West Nanjing Rd) from a level of hell from Dante’s Inferno (seedy bars full of sexy time), it gets locals thinking whether or not they’re sending the world the right message about Shanghai. In 2010, in preparation for the semi-world famous World Expo in Shanghai, the awkwardly located sketchy bars of Tongren Lu began to shut down. And now, a year later, some of the old establishments are being turned into calm and quaint coffee shops that will better “blend in with the ambiance” of West Nanjing Road. City officials still haven’t released or confirmed any other future plans for the street. more ›

In Cafetique, Shanghaiist reviews coffee shops and cafes around Shanghai that provide the two things our writers need most in life: caffeine and wireless internet. How does your neighborhood hangout spot stack up? more ›

With the review of 2666 Library, we've reached No. 10 in our Cafetique series of cute little cafes in Shanghai that have Wifi, serve coffee and sometimes serve food. So what better time than now to map it all out? Here's a map of the Cafetique reviews we've done, as well as locations for some chains (in case you don't care that your coffee isn't from someplace "small business"): more ›

In Cafetique, Shanghaiist reviews coffee shops and cafes around Shanghai that provide the two things our writers need most in life: caffeine and wireless internet. How does your neighborhood hangout spot stack up? more ›

Circulating wildly now on Sina Weibo and the Taiwanese media -- Starfucks, a shanzhai cafe, located in Liuzhou, Guangxi Province. We dug around a little and found that Liuzhou Laowai discovered this gem in March. Maybe he can give us an update on how it's doing? more ›

Do you think that Starbucks...a) serves crappy coffee at prices that warrant a boycott b) the leading symptom of Western imperialism or c) the embodiment of all that is wrong with globalized society? If you selected any of the above well, you're out of luck because Starbucks has just outlined its plans to more than triple the number of its stores in China, up to 1500 locations by 2015. more ›

In Cafetique, Shanghaiist reviews coffee shops and cafes around Shanghai that provide the two things our writers need most in life: caffeine and wireless internet. How does your neighborhood hangout spot stack up? more ›

Heh, while it's been a while since we've seen a Starbucks rip off (it seems that their efforts at litigating the crap out of everyone here weren't in vain) in Shanghai, it seems like they're still popping up in smaller, less visible cities. And this has to be the funniest of them all. more ›

Hot on the heels of the dubious iTunes vouchers, it seems that less-than-kosher Starbucks vouchers have now hit the streets of Shanghai. This warning was spotted on the wall of the Starbucks in Metro City, XuJiaHui. more ›

Starbucks has launched a new brand of coffee grown in Yunnan Province in southwest China called South of the Clouds, the meaning of Yunnan (云南) in Chinese. Martin Coles, president of Starbucks Coffee International, told AP that his goal is to bring Chinese coffee not just to China but to the world: "Ultimately I'd love to see our coffees from China feature on the shelves of every one of our stores in 49 countries around the world." more ›

For those planning on hibernating this winter, it just got easier to add those crucial extra layers of fat. Dunkin' Donuts just opened in Shanghai, much to the delight of Marc van der Chijs and probably many other people. SH mag says, "This is supposed to be store number one of one hundred." SH also suggests our city might be in the midst of a "donut war." Aussie brand Donut King opened this month, as well. Our money is on the Americans. more ›

"Donuts: Is there anything they can't do?" Homer J Simpson more ›

There might be a recession on the way, but American culture is doing just fine. Although we've said nunca más to Taco Bell, but we got the MLB coming our way, Rambo's back in a way that Rocky Balboa could only dream of, and best of all is the surprising news that Dunkin' Donuts is on its way to Shanghai. more ›

• 
  
  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 Games
  
  
  “The move will make Shanghai GM the third joint venture automaker to deliver a hybrid vehicle in China following Toyota and Honda. Toyota Motor Corp is currently the only carmaker that builds a hybrid car in China.”


• 
  
  China Eastern to resume Shanghai-Saipan flights
  
  
  “China Eastern will resume its twice weekly Shanghai-Saipan flights starting Jan. 11, 2006, close to five months after the charter flights were suspended because of the decline of tourists coming in from China.”
  
  


• 
  
  China to survey dialects to better protect them | World | Reuters
  
  
  “A focus will be the Shanghai dialect … ‘As more and more young people in Shanghai use the dialect to communicate online, and as its vocabulary expands, it will be standardised and promoted as a distinct local language.’”
  
  


• 
  
  China’s New Bestseller: The Bible
  “Amity has churned out 41 million Bibles for Chinese believers at its plant outside … Nanjing, including more than 3 million copies last year. (About nine million copies have been exported to Africa, other parts of Asia and Central Europe.)”
• 5 nabbed in whisky sting
  “Police have arrested five people alleged to have duped a Swedish man into paying nearly 5,000 yuan ($680) for coffee and whisky during a recent business trip to the city.”
• Cyclists to race to top of city’s tallest tower on December 31
  “One contestant, Zhang Jincheng, the Guinness record keeper, is a 23-year-old from Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. His two challengers are 28-year-old Andorran Xavi Casas and 34-year-old Colombian Javier Zapata.”


• 
  
  City tightens protection for historic buildings
  
  
  “The city government issued new rules last week banning road expansion on most of the 144 downtown roads lined with historic houses. The rules also ban tall buildings from being built in conservation areas.”
  
  


• 
  
  blognation China
  
  
  China tech blog worth checking out.
  
  


• 
  
  China Web2.0 Review
  
  
  Another China tech blog.


• 
  
  China: Pollution map of China released
  
  
  “Just over a year since their first mashup was released, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, headed by journalist-environmentalist Ma Jun, has just released its Air Pollution Map, complete with its own BBS and space for feedback forum.”
  
  


• 
  
  Todd Crowned China’s Sole Survivor
  “The 22-year-old flight attendant and world-class schemer outwitted, outplayed and outlasted his competitors for 39 days to be crowned the $1 million winner of the reality show’s 15th edition and the youngest winner in the series’ history.” 15!
• Three Beijing buildings on Time magazine’s best list
  “Three architectures in Beijing are on the list of 10 best architectural marvels (new and upcoming) selected by the Time magazine to be published on the Dec. 24.” None from Shanghai.

Above, dear reader, you will see an example par excellence of lazy journalism. The header to this post is about as hackneyed as they come, but then so is the approach of a new periodical we stumbled across this week, the rubbishly titled SLmagazine. more ›

... and going with strange girls who want to practise their English to coffee shops is STILL a bad idea, folks. Yet another chump — this time a Swedish guy on a business trip — has fallen for the time-honoured scam by following a pair of temptresses who were "dressed like university students" (so wearing mortar boards, presumably) to the Manabe coffee shop on the 3rd floor of the Brilliance Shimao Plaza, Shanghai Daily reported... more ›

The last time an anchor from our favourite TV channel made it to the news, he created such a brouhaha that culminated in the eviction of one coffee company from the Forbidden City. In the news this time is New Zealand-born anchor Edwin Maher who for many years before arriving in China was a weatherman with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Los Angeles Times published a profile of Maher that started it all off. It... more ›

Where to go, where to go: Shanghaiist is still trying to figure out where to carb up for our big dodgeball game tonight (that's right, patches, dodgeball). Pure, the fancy new Japanese restaurant that is part of The Collection at Xintiandi, has been offering their new sushi menu for 50% off since last Thursday. The special ends tomorrow night, however, so if we enjoy ourselves tonight we may find ourselves there tomorrow as well. On... more ›

One of the things that makes being on the tube during rush hour even more miserable than we had previously imagined possible is the "film" made by Starbucks and Pepsi showing on the subway TV. Titled 晴天日记 (Qingtian riji), the film is about a young man and a young woman, blah blah blah. Of course the film takes place in Shanghai but most of the scenes take place in Starbucks. We think the whole rationale... more ›

DONGPING ROAD: DOOMED OR REDISCOVERED? As some readers may know, the strip of Dongping Road on the south side from Hengshan to Yueyang Roads is leased to the bars, restaurants, tailors etc by the music college behind them. Most of the leases are coming up for renewal over the next 2-12 months.There has been some concern that the music college may decide to reclaim their land for their own expansion purposes, rather than renew the... more ›

For all displaced Americans and tryptophan lovers, consider these lovely Thanksgiving dinner options for tomorrow night in our cozy little Chinese metropolis: more ›

Nanheyangrouchuan is the most unabashed China-basher and the most hated commenter/troll in the English-language China blogosphere. If you still haven't heard of him by now, check out the trail that he has left all over the Internet, and some of his comments left on this blog. This is possibly the most unconventional interview we've ever done on Shanghaiist (not to mention the "riskiest"), and some of you are probably going to wonder why we are... more ›

A few weeks ago, we introduced a coffee service that delivers Yunnan coffee to your door. Now, Shanghai coffee lovers can get their beans from Vietnam sent to them as well, courtesy of HaoHaoCoffee. We asked founder Matthew Newhook a handful of questions about Vietnamese coffee and his service, and he was kind enough to respond: more ›

Starbucks Corporation, the world’s biggest coffee shop chain, recalled 250,000 children’s plastic cups made in China after receiving reports of the cups breaking and posing a choking hazard. more ›

CCTV-9 news anchor Rui Chenggang should be happy now. Finally, a store that serves not just coffee but traditional Chinese beverages like tea too! After all, Rui was the wonderful guy who sparked it all off with a post on his blog which said that having a Starbucks in the Forbidden City, "is not globalising, but trampling Chinese culture". The coffee chain is "a symbol of low-end US food culture presence" which "undermines the Forbidden City's solemnity' and is 'an insult to Chinese civilisation". His vitriol attracted half a million hits within two days, and eventually led to the ousting of Starbucks from the Forbidden City. more ›

One of the great things about living in China is the relatively low cost of courier services which means you can get just about anything delivered at next to nothing at all. China Herald informs us that now, you can even get fresh Yunnan coffee delivered to your house, for FREE (if you live within the French Concession and the Jing'an area, that is, or if you order over 100RMB). Otherwise, you pay just RMB10 if you live in Puxi and RMB15 if you're in Pudong. Very reasonable! more ›