Photo from erussel1984Via email from Shanghaiist reader Ned: I just wanted to let you know there was a fire at approximately 3.45pm in the Shanghai Centre. I am not sure what floor it started on but was in the Portman Hotel. I work in the office tower and we had no warning until we saw smoke outside the windows. I got to the lobby with my camera but the staff made me delete the photos......

Various reports on yesterday's bus explosion in Yangpu District have attributed the cause of the fire to flammable material that one passenger brought onto the bus, but Hong Kong's Apple Daily《苹果日报》has suggested a "suicide-style bombing" (自杀式炸巴士) by Xinjiang terrorist groups. Here's part of the report, as translated by ESWN:... Even more frightening to the citizens than the casualties at the scene is the vague reporting by the media. The description covered 'self-ignition,' 'ignited explosion (that......

This just in, from Xinhua: At least three people were killed in a bus explosion in Shanghai at about 9:00 a.m. Monday, according to fire fighters who rushed to the scene. The cause of the explosion is not yet known. Fire fighters estimated that there were about 50 passengers on board the No. 842 Bus, which suddenly exploded en route between the Guoxing Road and Shunguo Road in Yangpu District, to the northeast of Shanghai.......

Photos by Marc Dominic Cirkel Some of you have been asking on our Facebook page (remember to sign up as a Fan!) if there will be an update of the Shanghaiist logo once the WFC — you know, the building that had to be redesigned because it reminded people too much of the Japanese flag, took forever to be built because of a property glut, was almost burnt down, and recently suffered a security......

By W.E.B Lowery When you’re a musician who’s lived in/contributed to the scenes of storied musical cities such as New Orleans, New York, London, or Melbourne, seeing live local music can pretty much define who you are. Those of you who’ve been here awhile understand how this causes a major inner confliction, because we do love living in Shanghai. It’s just that for us, an underground music scene is something out of the tales of......

... but it's been found to be a photoshopped fake. From Southern Metropolis Daily [Translation by ESWN]: In November 2007, the 12th annual China International Photographic Arts Exposition was held. Ye Weitang's won a golden award in the Social Lives and Customs section. Beijing Times Photography Supervisor Luo Yonghong raised these doubts: In the photo titled , there were several spots in which digital alterations clearly occurred. A1 and A2 were clearly the same......

This news just in from Shanghai Daily:FIVE workers were injured in an explosion at a demolished building near Shanghai's landmark Jin Mao Tower in Pudong New Area this morning, Eastday.com reported. Three people were seen flying out of the building due to the impact of the explosion, the report quoted a witness surnamed Meng. The injured, three men and two women, are all in stable condition, the report cited Sun Zhiyang, deputy chief of Oriental......

The WFC may not be open to visitors yet, but that has not stopped some friends of ours crazy laowai's from making their way past security guards to get to the top of the building. On several occassions they were stopped by the vigilant guards, but they tried and tried again — and, at crazy hours, too, like 5 in the morning! Climbing the 101 flight of stairs took... erm... forever... but they were......

Fire broke out last night at about 8pm in the 12-storey Dehui International Plaza in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Almost 200 fire fighters and 48 fire engines were sent to fight the fire, which they did all night, right up till this morning when they were forced to retreat fearing the tower might collapse any moment. Alas, the fire had by then spread to another neighbouring 20-storey, and they had to continue working. All guests were evacuated......

We arrived in an incredibly foggy but wonderfully warm Wenzhou on a business trip Wednesday morning. On our way from the airport into the city, we were forced to make a detour and found ourselves unable to make our way to our destination because an entire area had been cordoned off. All we could see was a HUGE plume of smoke billowing out from a building which made us wonder if someone had bombed it......

What would you do if you paid a shitload of money to study at some college, thinking it would legit and all, only to be told that your diploma would not be recognised after all? We don't know about you, but we would definitely riot. Well, that's what some civilian students at the Hefei PLA Artillery Academy did a few days back. And it turned out to be a very bloody incident. Iron doors were......

Two weeks ago, when we told you that China's new labour law was going to be a big, big thing, we had no idea it would also be the cause of some serious blood-letting. Local gangs and triads have been attacking the Shenzhen Dagongzhe Migrant Worker Centre which has been instrumental in providing legal advice for rural migrant workers and informing them about their rights under the new labour law. In separate attacks, they shattered......

Southeast Asian pact exposes rifts [NY Times] Southeast Asian leaders signed a charter here today that was drafted as a watershed document to bind the region together as a European-style economic community but has instead exposed the sharp divisions over Myanmar and other issues among the signatories.Malaysia busts DVD lab in its biggest raid in 2007 [Reuters] Malaysia has raided a laboratory capable of churning out $52 million worth of pirated DVDs a year in......

If you, like us, are already cursing the arrival of winter, watch this. There is a little 5 year old girl in Jiangxi who is still prancing around in her birthday suit, and revelling in the cold waters as if its still summer. Her parents say that since she turned one, the girl started showing her great dislike for clothes. She goes to bed nightly without even a blanket on, and if someone actually tried......

Overheard in the comment section of our earlier story on the Chongqing cooking oil stampede was the opinion that the pushing and shoving here in Shanghai is much worse than in Chongqing. Agreed. We see so many potential stampedes happening here everyday and wonder why more people are not getting tromped to death on a daily basis here. But this story by the Financial Times tells us a similar cooking oil stampede that occurred right......

If you fancy yourself a punker, pretend to be a punk, or just like watching punks, then the 1234 Beach Rock Festival, is a dream (possibly wet) come true. Scheduled for the 20th and 21st of this month, the 1234 BRF is bringing together some of China's best punk/skinhead bands and adding a sprinkle of international flavor. Included in the line up are well known Chinese punk bands: the Unsafe, SMZB and Misandao, while Shanghai......

... at least that is what Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas would have us believe (h/t to Danwei). She recently wrote in to China Daily columnist Raymond Zhou after reading his opinion piece on recent comments by Chinese celebrity Sun Haiying (孙海英) who not too long ago ignited a huge debate with his comments that homosexuality was unequivocally "criminal in nature" ("同性恋就是犯罪“):Dear Raymond The very day that Godless China decriminalized......

Well, at least Puxi appears to be safe. Thank god for the Huangpu! When we first saw this at our Kunming hotel, we figured it was just a complementary bootleg DVD of UltraViolet II. But we were excited to discover it was really an XHZLC 40 FIRE ESCAPE MASK! Just in time for the Shanghaiist Halloween Party ... where perhaps the theme should be "Pudong is burning"? If you would like your very own XHZLC......

Low-priced Chinese cars quietly gain a foothold in Europe [The Boston Globe] China's quiet inroads into Europe are the first test of rich markets by Chinese automakers as they build dealer networks and deliver small shipments of cars to test the reaction of drivers and auto industry experts. The game the Japanese mastered in 15 years, and the Koreans in 10 will possibly take the Chinese just five years. China coal mine blaze kills three,......

Yet another fire has broken out in Shanghai and not too far away from where the last fire broke out! This video shows some building on Nanjing Lu on fire and the fire brigade actively working to douse the fire. It remains unclear from the video (or from the comments) which building that was. Was any Shanghaiist in the area today? Related link Fire at the World Financial Center......

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......

Fire broke out today at the US$910 million 101-storey tall Shanghai World Financial Center in an elevator shaft on the 40th floor at about 4pm today. Eight fire trucks were dispatched to douse the fire, and it was eventually extinguished by 5.42 pm. There were no reports of injuries or deaths. An AP report offers an excellent recap of the numerous travails that have faced the wedge-shaped building in the last few years (some of......

If you've been still wondering how the woman who rammed her bike into the bus actually managed to do it, this one takes the cake! Today's Shanghai Daily tells us of a truck that got stuck under a bridge while trying to force its way through on Songxing Road in Baoshan District yesterday at 7pm. In fact:Police said the driver knew the crane bases on his truck were taller than the bridge, but he still......

We don't know how it happened, but it did. No, wait a minute. With the driving/riding etiquette of people around here, we're actually surprised it didn't happen more often. This woman, presumably hurrying her way to somewhere (the Chinese would say 赶去投胎, which literally means running off to her next reincarnation) couldn't stop in time when the lights turned red, and rammed her electric bike into the back of the bus. As a result, both......

So about a week ago, the news surfaced that German-born Swiss-based couturier Phillipp Plein released a limited edition T-shirt that screamed "F-U-C-K YOU CHINA". OK, it was more like a whisper - the words were only readable up close and as we all know, couturiers are all about subtle elegance. We didn't think too much about it but boy did it create a massive furore on the Chinese internet (see here and here). Someone else......

China to be world's third largest economy China's sizzling economy grew even faster in 2006 than previously reported, the government said Wednesday, moving it closer to overtaking Germany as the world's third-largest and possibly adding to fears of overheating. China falling short on energy-saving goals China is falling short of its goals in a campaign to boost energy efficiency in its fuel-guzzling economy - the world's No. 2 oil consumer - but is starting to......

For one reason or another, when it comes to nightlife, Shanghaiist has its reservations about the Bund. Sure, we do the promenade/requisite bar crawl when out-of-towners come to play but, at the end of the day, we’re just not sold on it. (Our aversion was further amplified upon recently discovering a Facebook group called “THE SHANGHAI ELITE” – yes, they’re so elite they need to shout their name wherever they go. The activities of this......

Students top pregnancy hotline list Nearly half the women calling the city's first hotline for unexpected pregnancies are students. Hotline officials released the figures yesterday in a move to promote young people's sexual awareness ahead of World Population Day on Wednesday. Prostate awareness drive goes national Ten Chinese hospitals will kick off the nation's first coordinated research into chronic prostatitis, or inflammation of the prostate gland. Beijing opens first counseling clinic for prisoners A special......

A 29 year old Japanese man, Saitou Takuya (斋藤卓也) who is madly in love (so he thinks) with a girl he saw on the Beijing subway has put up a video of her (that he secretly took with his cell phone, he admits) and asked the public to help him in his search for her. He looks and sounds very desperate to find her in his video uploaded on Youku (we are beginning to LOVE......

There's been lots of explosions around China this week it seems, all kinds of explosions. The video here, sent in by a netizen to 56.com, shows a fire which broke out in a cinema in Hunan Province's Hengyang city. Only one person was killed, the cinema's on-duty manager. Meanwhile Reuters tells us of a nightclub blast which killed 25 and injured 33 in Benxi, Liaoning. In yet another freak accident, a 22-year-old Chinese man died......