Jesus seems to be making a comeback in the PRC. Since the introduction of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox missionaries to China, many of them to Shanghai, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Christianity has been a popular minority religion. While practice abated during Mao’s hay day, China has experienced a resurgence in past years. Just two weeks ago, we reported that Orthodox priests were allowed to lead a service in Shanghai for the first time......

For those with little money and fewer scruples, a new business is taking off in town — wedding venue scalping. With this being the popular marriage year of the Olympics and lucky number 8, demand for reception spaces has been at an unprecedented high throughout the city, forcing many to contact the new wedding banquet resale moguls who reserve spaces in advance and charge desperate couples a fee to use them.A Hong-Kong based human......

Photo taken at Ambassy Club, Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Fuxing Lu 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).......

A recent survey by the PEW Global Attitudes Project shows favorable opinions of China on the decline worldwide, with positive opinions falling significantly in nine of 21 countries over the past year. The growing anti-China movement cites unilateralism, poor treatment of human rights and environmental abuse as the major strikes against the nation. Approval may be down, but respect is certainly up: majorities in a number of countries think China has “a significant amount of......

Just after we so recently expressed our jealousy over the upcoming arrival of the iPod 3G in Hong Kong, Apple has announced the opening of its first botique store in mainland China this August. Sorry Shanghai, the honor is slated to go to Beijing, which will see a three story giant open at Sanlitun Village.The BBC, the only British media allowed into Olympic stadiums, has announced they will not hide demonstrations and protests that may......

From the BBC:Stephen Sackur talks to Liu Mingkang, Chairman, China Banking Regulatory Commission. Will China escape the downturn in the American economy? UPDATE: The embedded video no longer works. To view this video, please use this link.......

By JFK Miller You may have heard by now the news that the latest World Bank estimates have China's economy as being about 40 percent smaller than previous WB estimates, ie., a mere US$6 trillion rather than US$10 trillion. So why is this important? Well, it probably won't mean a great deal to the average Chinese, even the extra 200 million who, because of the new figures, are now technically living below the poverty line......

Air transport AFP: Air China, Shanghai Airlines join Star Alliance XFN: China Eastern says partnership with Singapore Airlines, Temasek 'only option' AFP: Singapore Airlines says won't raise China Eastern bid Finance Reuters: U.S. says China recognises need for stronger yuan NYT: Little Headway With China on Finance FT: Beijing lectures US on effect of weak dollar Drugs, drugs and drugs AP: China Shuts Down Leukemia Drug Maker Xinhua: China issues new drug recall method......

If you have never seen what a Chinese job fair looks like, you NEED to take a look at this clip. Recruitment fairs usually have more security guards for crowd control and police on standby than other fairs, but it looks like even the organisers of this most recent fair in Jiangxi were taken aback by the turnout. As captured on the clip, a stampede almost broke out but fortunately, it did not. The truth......

Business and Economy WSJ: China Takes Additional Step To Cool Economy AFP: Underground money traders flourish on Hong Kong border Religion Xinhua: China-based Christian group prints 50 mln Bibles Reuters: Dalai Lama says sorry he can't meet Pope SCMP: Student leader finds meaning in life with God's will on campus [Subscription] AP: Dallas evangelical Christian seminary offers online courses in Chinese Miscellaneous AP: China Detains 33 in Deadly Mine Blast CNSNews: For China, Even......

Shanghai Awaiting Approval on Disneyland [AP] Shanghai is awaiting approval of mainland China's first Disneyland, and the theme park could be built on an island in the Yangtze River, according to reports in the mainland and Hong Kong media.Shanghai sets up $1bn fund [FT] Shanghai's city government is setting up a financial investment company with about $1bn to spend on investments in China and overseas.New mechanisms required for China's climate change efforts - Greenpeace [Forbes]......

For those of you wondering what Shanghaiist's founding editor Dan Washburn has been up to for the past half year or so (other than not posting very much on Shanghaiist) there was some evidence last week that he is alive and well and doing more than sitting on his couch counting his Shanghaiist money (really, that would only take around five minutes). Go to ESPN.com (here, here and here) for stories related to his book......

This a rough translation of Fan Gui's response to Sun Liping's essay (which we wrote about here): 1. Regarding Sun's first point, I believe that he has ignored a very crucial fact—the growing gap between rich and poor. 20% of the population controls 80% of the wealth, how can you say that such a status quo has "flexibility"? While Professor Sun divides the population into urban and rural, does he mean that the urban poor......

Sun Liping is a professor of sociology at Qinghua University, and we recently read a short article he wrote about why Chinese society is going to remain stable. There have been several writers who have written responses to Professor Sun's article, but before we get to those we'll try to translate the gist of Professor Sun's article as best we can. Sun's basic thesis is not that Chinese society is going to get ever more......

One of our favorite Chinese sites seems to have run afoul of the net nanny: vip.bokee.com has been on again off again, but perfectly viewable with a proxy. Using the proxy we saw an article about a list published in a Chengdu newspaper of the top-grossing authors in China, at least based on royalties from the sales of their books. At the top of the list was a Guo Jingming, a young author (born in......

Question: “Who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen?” Or lately: "Name three people hating on the once mighty US dollar." On Tuesday, Cheng Siwei, the vice chairman of China’s National People’s Congress suggested that China’s foreign exchange regulators ought to consider shifting the country’s massive USD $1.4 trillion reserve into “stronger” currencies. The greenback has been on a downward spiral since 2003. Little did Cheng know that his remarks would trigger a......

Okay, Shanghaiist has got several hundred blogs on his RSS that he scans through everyday. Some things scream at us, others are quickly forgotten and yet others are hidden in some corner of our brain for (mostly useless) information ready to be used at some future point in time. There are all these bloggers that you've never met personally that you can form an impression of only after a long period of reading their blogs.......

According to Bloomberg News, finance ministers of the G7 nations, currently meeting in Washington are once again expected to issue a strongly worded statement prodding China to do more with an undervalued yuan. The traditionally US championed trade tussle is getting some very vocal support from the Europeans and the Canadians this time around. Of course, Beijing will tell you that its ongoing currency reform is doing just great: the yuan gaining roughly 10 percent......

Like we told you before, Chinese state media are beginning to get the hang of the art of spin. CDT informs us that People's Daily Online ran an article about President Hu's wonderful skills in the traditional Chinese art of paper-cutting and this has spawned yet another wave of satirical commentaries from Chinese bloggers, read here, here and here (in Chinese). Really, Shanghaiist would love to lay his hands on a pic or video of......

... and the rumor-mill is running in overdrive. Recent reports suggest that Shanghai Party Chief Xi Jinping's (习近平) recent entry into the race - apparently at senior leader Zeng Qinghong's (曾庆红) insistence - has shaken things up; forcing Hu Jintao to make some last-minute maneuvering. The Jiang Zemin and the Hu Jintao camps both want their own guy to take over the top-job in 2012, and each are doing their best to make it happen.......

How should a government combat runaway inflation? Most sensible economists would suggest a series of tightening monetary and fiscal policies to realign the aggregate supply demand picture. Well, China has raised interest rate four times this year, twice last month, to no avail. Prices, at both the producer and retail levels continue to bubble up, as do asset prices, such as the real estate and the equity market. So we get this, from AP’s news......

Shaanxi official fired after mistresses revolt [Shanghai Daily] 11 angry mistresses have caused Pang Jiayu, 63, former top political adviser in Shaanxi Province, to lose his job. China pledges more support to Caribbean region [Xinhua] China plans to offer 4 billion yuan (US$530 million) in low-interest loans to Chinese firms in three years to encourage more investment in Caribbean regions. Western acts rock Beijing music fest [AFP] Thousands of Chinese music fans flocked to a......

Yesterday evening, China’s central bank hiked deposit reserve requirement another 50 basis points (1 basis point=0.01%) to 12.5 percent, the seventh such maneuver this year, and ten dating back to June 2006. “Deposit reserve” is a balance all retail banking institutions must maintain at the nation’s central bank, often expressed as a percentage of its total deposit. A higher reserve requirement means banks have less funds for lending or other investment projects. This latest move......

The $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel is finally open for business on Macau's Cotai, and can you believe our local Blue Frog is somewhere in that building? Las Vegas Sands claims the 10.5 million square foot Venetian — twice the size of the Las Vegas original — is the largest building in Asia. Sands' next casino in Asia -- which at US$3.6 billion will be one of the costliest casino-resorts ever -- will......

Journey to the West: Chinese Tourists Do Europe -- in 14 Days [Spiegel Online] Chinese tourists have recently discovered Europe as a destination. SPIEGEL traveled with a group who covered 11 countries in 14 days by bus, snapping the sights and buying up brand names. A Glimpse of the World: A Chinese Century? Maybe It’s the Next One [NYT] China claims that its economy is growing at 10 to 11 percent a year, and......

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Student comes under fire for rap video of Malaysia's national anthem An ethnic Chinese Malaysian student has enraged ministers and the man in the street alike with his allegedly seditious rap video of the Malaysian anthem. In the video, he raps about racial discrimination against the Chinese, corrupt cops and indolent civil servants, most of whom are Malay. He does so against the Malaysian flag, with the Negaraku melody playing in......

Shanghaiist is somewhat of a frequent flyer to Beijing, and because he isn't employed by some big multinational but rather runs his own little business, he can only afford to put himself on cattle class and often has to scour the internet for the cheapest available deals. We especially love this nifty little function on eLong.com which shows you the cheapest available flight within a week of your selected departure date. That has worked to......

Hu in new bid to tighten screws on rival faction, by Chua Chin Hon of the Straits Times:One has died from an undisclosed illness while another is already behind bars on corruption charges. But there appears to be no let-up in Chinese President Hu Jintao's attempts to put the squeeze on members of the rival Shanghai faction, a group of senior leaders and officials allied with his predecessor Jiang Zemin. News emerged in recent days......

In just three hours ago from a Reuters report:Three underground priests - Liang Aijun, Wang Zhong and Gao Jinbao - who have been unwilling to join China's Catholic Patriotic Church have been detained by plain clothes police in Inner Mongolia, having fled there from neighboring Hebei province, a Catholic stronghold. From the article: [Joseph Kung of the Cardinal Kung Foundation] said he did not know if the men have been charged. Another underground priest, Cui......

China tipped to be main driver the global economy this year [The Times] China will become the biggest driver of global economic activity this year for the first time, the International Monetary Fund said yesterday as it raised its already bullish forecasts for growth. China 'rejects Vatican call on bishops' [The Age] China rejects the Vatican's demand that it stop appointing bishops without papal approval but is willing to talk, a state newspaper said on......