Hurrah for the first day of Dragon Boat Festival vacation! You may have traveled, walked, rowed, slept...whatever floated your boat (ha!). Or, did you go to the Expo? Around 503,200 (the official count) did on Monday, pouring into Expo grounds under drizzling skies. more ›

While today might be a little on the drizzly and muggy side (with a humidity of 80% - ugh), apparently the weather for the rest of the vacation will make up for the fact that many of you had to work on the weekend. Tuesday is set to be mildly breezy and sunny with temperatures of 22C to 30C and Wednesday promises even lower temps, though there may be scattered clouds. Anybody up for a picnic? more ›

Like many, we had our doubts, but Thursday's warehouse party on Guilin Road left us surprisingly pleased. With the Void crew manning the turntables, a large empty building was transformed into a thumping nightclub with a raw, underground atmosphere and a reasonably priced (albeit simple) choice of beverages. more ›

Apparently worried that nobody would believe this party was real, the mysterious hosts of that mysterious warehouse party invited us to check out the venue - as long as we promised not to tell who they were or where it was. more ›

Uh oh! Looks like Shanghai's got another mystery event coming its way - and like the disasterously daft and not quite punk last one, it emerged first on Facebook. Unlike that last one though, there doesn't seem to be a big name and a 500RMB charge, just the promise of dancing and drinks at a "REAL WAREHOUSE" right before the Dragon Boat Festival Vacation, put on by the Shanghai Insurgency. Okay, we admit - our curiosity is a little piqued. more ›

Ok folks, it’s official! Now that the State Council has released its 2009 holiday schedule, we can start our planning and make full use of the precious vacation time for the coming year. more ›

Following up on yesterday's post about China's new holiday lineup for 2008, we now have the official official list of dates, so now everyone knows what Saturdays and Sundays they might be asked to work (and that nonsense starts soon). Here we go: more ›

Well, then: Oops. What last month we said was going to happen, this month was made official. China has scrapped May holiday, one of its three Golden Weeks, and turned three traditional festivals into national holidays. Here's how your official 2008 Chinese holiday schedule now looks: more ›

You will get to see scenes like the one above on Nanjing Lu a lot less often from next year on. All those rumours that we've been hearing have been confirmed. The May Golden Week holiday is going to be cut down to one day, and this may happen as early as 2008. In the meanwhile, three more national holiday have been added: namely the Tomb-sweeping Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. This... more ›

Expats it’s time to start renegotiating your contracts! The Shanghai Daily reports in the past week the price of zongzi (粽子), the delicious pyramid-shaped dumpling made of sticky rice and meat, has according to reliable sources increased by a whopping 10 percent. The treats are now fetching a prohibitive 2.50 RMB. The reason for the increase is probably due to the coming Dragon Boat Festival and the ever-rising price of pork. While there are rumors that the Duke Brothers might be behind the rise, others believe that the demand for pork in an increasingly wealthy China is outstripping supply of the animal. In the past year pork prices have risen 70 percent, a record level. more ›

Today is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. What does that mean to you? Well, probably nothing (unless you happen to be using a lunar calendar). But if you're keeping track, you'll know that it is Duan Wu Jie, also called the Dragon Boat Festival or the Dumpling Festival. As these names suggest, the two main symbols of this Chinese summer holiday are dragon boats and rice "dumplings", which you know as zongzi. more ›