Not a month after they revealed their newest landmark would be a pretty blatant knockoff of some other building, Chongqing is drawing ridicule once again for copycat architecture. Its newest project is a 280-meter, 70-floor tower on the bank of the Yangtze river to be completed in 2017. Designed to imitate a pair of rapturous figures posing in the form of "庆," Chongqing's second character meaning "celebration," the design is being compared to Beijing's CCTV tower. more ›

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The Ice Cream Truck's Design, Art & Fashion Fair at Wharf 1846 featured fashion shows, DJ's and fine food, along with a variety of local artists, designers, and other artisans turning out to connect with the local hipster community. It was the sort lazy weekend afternoon gathering of creatives that one might take for granted in any number of with-it urban centers, but happens all too rarely in a city like Shanghai. more ›

If you took part in the recent lights out for Earth Hour and were left wanting to learn more about sustainable eco living, then the upcoming Eco Design Fair should be just the thing for you. The biannual eco design gathering was held at the URBN hotel in 2009, but is moving over to The Waterhouse hotel this year and will be showcasing eco-conscious designers and products to general consumers. more ›

With love from Seoul:
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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 ›

So here's a picture of censored keywords and blocked websites in our lovely lil' country from Information is beautiful. All good and pretty, except there's a couple problems: more ›

One year on and suddenly, Lu Yiying, the Shanghai-born, Australia-based creator of Twitter's fail whale, is suddenly getting a sudden media reemergence. Besides an audio interview with the BBC, she was also featured in a more in-depth piece by digital design site vectortuts+. more ›

What is this? A pretty cool graphic of China twitterers based on where they're located. Thanks to resizing issues, it's hard to read this pic, but head over to @gabyu's web trend map and you'll find a good list of people to follow if you're into China issues (us included!). more ›

The fine folks at TEDxShanghai have offered Shanghaiist readers a chance to crash the event's invitation-only Geeks and Glamour party at M1NT at 7:30 on Monday night. All you have to do is email sage@tedxshanghai.com with this as your subject line: "Me + Shanghaiist + Geeks & Glamour." Send your emails soon — only the first 50 emailers will get an invite to the exclusive party (UPDATE: Entry to the party is RMB 100, paid at the door. The entry fee includes a yet-to-be-announced drink special. Sorry for the confusion!). What is TEDxShanghai? "TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience." Okay, but what is TED? "TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. ... The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)." Geeks & Glamour is the after-party for TEDxShanghai, Shanghai's independently-organized TED event, which is already booked solid (but you can watch a live feed — with simultaneous English/Chinese translation — on Tudou starting at 10 a.m. Monday). You can learn more on their Facebook page. Start sending your emails! See you on Monday. more ›

Last week, the organizers of Cut&Paste held their digital design tournament in Shanghai for the first time ever. Artists from around the city competed in the categories of 2D design, 3D design and motion design at the Shanghai Sculpture Space. It was a fun and hectic day out, followed by an equally fun and hectic night in Yu Yin Tang for the FREE THE WAX live show. more ›

Say what you will about celebs talking politics, but perhaps, this is Jackie Chan at his best - wearing his Greennovate Green T-shirt and looking sweet as a little kitten. And come on, who didn't enjoy the bathtub scene in Shanghai Noon with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan drinking baiju and wearing nothing but bubbles? That almost makes it okay that he thinks Chinese people need to be controlled... right? more ›

Calling all debonair designers with a flair for competition - this is the last week you can enter the Shanghai-based chapter of Cut&Paste, a contest for digital artists interested in showing off their artistic chops under pressure. more ›

Since Shanghai was named one of the five most improved places for gay tolerance it seems that nights around town have become bolder about nailing their rainbow colours to the mast. more ›

Advertising Agency: Euro RSCG Life, Shanghai, China more ›

SmartShanghai has put together a compilation of the best and worst event flyers found on their website last year. Our favourite one has to be this flyer you see on the right, designed by I Love Shanghai for a party last January. We're sure the party went down well (no pun intended) on many a moustached man and cunning linguist in town. more ›

A giant device specially designed for opening sealed bottles otherwise known as the Shanghai World Financial Center has been named the world's "Best Tall Building" this year by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The last time this device made the news was in January when a certain city blog broke the news that a horde of misbehaving monkeys had scaled the giant bottle opener illegally. The monkeys managed to flee the country before police caught up with them. more ›

Forget your banking cube farm in the WFC, Shanghai's coolest office space is Leafy Shade in Hong Kou district. more ›

The most recent medals, well, perhaps not. I present: more ›

Thanks to Twitter’s perpetual failures, Lu’s Fail Whale now features on t-shirts and coffee mugs while other artists create kinetic Fail Whale sculptures. more ›

American urban design and architecture firm Chan Krieger Sieniewicz was chosen by the town to revamp its former international concession port area. The Huangpu River and the heart of the city will be “reconciled.” more ›

Yes, we know there are a lot of websites out there for students of the Chinese language, but have you ever seen one as cute as this? more ›

Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos at shanghaiist.com. more ›

Fashion designers in Shanghai are a jiao a dozen. What is rare is a designer with an innovative concept — not copied, borrowed or recycled from a different era. more ›

Now into its fifth year, M on the Bund’s Shanghai International Literary Festival kicks off this weekend and once again has an impressive line up featuring a string of famous names and expert figures from across the book world. Running for the next three weekends, the festival offers Shanghai’s literati the chance to see some of the best Chinese and international writers. With so many great events to choose from (you can buy tickets and view the full line-up here) it’s hard to select highlights, but below are Shanghaiist’s picks from this weekend’s guests… more ›

Photo from Shanghai Sky more ›

The weekend has arrived and with Chinese New Year looming things have gotten much quieter on the live music front. Friday night Club 8 and Pelle Carlberg, both from Sweden, will bring their pop sound to the crowds at the Shanghai Concert Hall. It had been scheduled for the Dream Factory but due to lack of a proper live music license has been moved. Shanghaiist's interest in this show has been piqued by the oddly high ticket prices. Advanced tickets are selling for 200rmb while those who don't plan ahead (that would be us) can expect to pay 250rmb at the door. Is this band really worth it? Well, we are curious to find out. If you aren't willing to shell out the hefty door fee then we suggest you check out the 9th edition of Pecha Kucha being held at the Living Design Center. Might not include live music, but will definitely stimulate your mind. Either Bai Yun (folk) or Kidney Stone (covers of hard rock) will be playing out at Live Bar... or maybe they are playing together, been getting different information from different people. more ›

Adding to the flux of design studios and boutique start-ups in the artsy enclave of Taikang Road, we stumble upon yet another new kid on the block. Projection 216 is a design studio/boutique started by fashion designer Jenny Ni who has also rounded up several of her friends including design duo Perk, T-shirt collective The Thing, artist/graphic designer Tyakasha, sneaker designer DK and even a manicurist, Mary to join her in this endeavor. more ›

We want some of whatever this guy is smoking: more ›