This latest video from China's Green Beat takes a look at the waste that results from excessive packaging in food, the associated cultural reasons that come along with it and how we can do our part to solve the problem.......

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).......

The perennial search for good pizza continues … from this side of Huangpu River. Finding good pizza in Shanghai, or anywhere in China, is like being in a Western movie. You’d have tried and seen it all - the good, the bad … and the kind that tastes like melted plastic. We’ve found our tiny slice of paradise in La Casbah’s Pudong outlet located along Pucheng Lu, sandwiched between a Motel 168 and Karma Yoga......

Left: Preview of a groundbreaking documentary, Jesus in China, by Evan Osnos on PBS Frontline/World. Osnos also reports of the explosive growth of evangelical Christianity in the Chicago Tribune, and notes how underground churches in China these days are, well, not so underground anymore. Also of interest are these two audio slideshows: "Christianity sweeping China" and "Bible empire grows in China" as well as this v-log by Osnos. Right: France24 says Ningxia is China's......

As any English speaker knows, reading translated menus can sometimes be more mind-boggling than struggling through the Chinese. With that in mind, the government has come up with a booklet of 2,000 translated titles for different dishes, which it is distributing to Beijing hotels in time for the Olympics. Sorry kids, no more "Chicken without sexual life." It's "Steamed pullet" now. [Source]......

Once in a while, we feel trapped in a sea of ordinary looking restaurants lodged in the bowels of malls. Nizang promised nothing of that. The restaurant is located in the back of a housing estate along Dongchang Lu in Lujiazui. A short stroll past apartments and small shops will land you in front of Nizang’s blazing neon signboard. Enter through a stone-cobbled pathway and flickering bamboo trees to the soundtrack of quiet running water,......

Right when we walked into Issimo, the classy new Italian restaurant at the Jia boutique hotel, we wanted to fall in love with the place. Dressed in brick and wood and adorned with dark leather furniture, Issimo seduced us with its warm beauty. The staff seemed to be in on the game as well, lining up near the large and lively open kitchen to greet us as we walked in. Immediately after we were seated......

A new hotpot restaurant in Chongqing that named itself after the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12 has been shut down by authorities after a huge public outcry. The Chinese characters used in the name of the restaurant "512震宗锅" (or "512 Quake Pot") was a homophonous pun for "authentic hotpot". Netizens have called it the "most shameless hotpot restaurant in Chongqing" and the owner of the restaurant has apparently been sent in for "criticism and re-education".......

From Sexy Beijing:American style fast food is big in China these days and chains like McDonald's continue to expand across this massive market. At the same time, young Chinese are fatter than their parents were. Coincidence?......

We figure that it was time to do a post about our favorite Shanghai restaurant of them all. Assuming that the overarching criteria for "favorite" is how often one goes to eat at a certain restaurant, then Coco 壱番屋 (more lovingly known amongst its many fans as Coco Curry) towers above all the other establishments on our list (and apparently, we're not the only ones). This Japanese import franchise (there are seven of them scattered......

It's perfect BBQ weather! As we're sure you've all heard, tonight's the night for the Shanghaiist Benefit for Sichuan’s Earthquake Victims at Sasha's. Word travels fast in Shanghai and some people have received the benefit announcement from five different sources! The value of the raffle prizes has now topped 30,000 RMB and includes travel vouchers, hotel suites, jewelry, wine, beer, concert tickets, and much more. Click here for the complete list. Thanks to all the......

By Sue Anne Tay The search for the perfect lunch in Lujiazui is also the perfect sojourn to the hum drum office life. Our half-Jamaican colleague told us that Shanghai’s first Caribbean restaurant just opened up near our office. The food, he raved, was both reasonably priced and delicious. The next week, armed with a fistful of 10RMB bills, we were determined to find our sliver of island paradise after a frantic morning at work.......

UPDATE: More than RMB 20,000 in lucky draw prizes donated so far! More details here. What: Shanghaiist’s Benefit for Sichuan’s Earthquake Victims When: This Wednesday- May 21st, 2008 Where: Sasha’s Restaurant and Bar (rain or shine) 11 Dongping Lu, near Hengshan Lu (东平路11弄，近衡山路) Time: 6pm-10pm The Deal: BBQ with sausages, burgers, chicken kebabs, short ribs, salad bar, AND free flow Stella Artois beer. Veggie options will also be available. Cost: 180RMB (100% of proceeds,......

Set back from the junction of XinLe Lu and XiangYang Lu, opposite a blue-domed Russian Orthodox Church stands the Mansion Hotel. A limestone building in manicured grounds, this place gives off the same whiff of 1920’s luxury that you see in the grand old financial institutions of the Bund; if you like Hamilton House you’ll love this place. On the fifth and highest floor, the Mansion Veranda restaurant is one of the nicest terraces in......

The title of "Best pizza in Shanghai" is a hotly contested one that frequently sparks passionate debates, not least within Shanghaiist towers, and these days, it's a crowded field in Shanghai, with a number of restaurants jostling for position. However, in this correspondent's humble opinion, Pizza e Pasta might just pip the others to the post. Quite simply, this is authentic Italian pizza. We'd always assumed that such a thing was impossible outside of Italy......

From nocas via our Contribute page:today we went to the restaurant downstairs and finally took a picture of this gem in the menu (which i dont think neither of us would have the courage to taste). and just now i found out that this same virus is actually lethal and killing children in anhui province. not nice. Xinhua says the enterovirus 71, which can cause the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) has hit......

Before you click play on this video, be warned: it is not for the squeamish or for animal lovers. A little while ago we headed out to He Lin, a Korean seafood restaurant on a street crammed full of other Korean and Japanese seafood restaurants, in Minhang district. We live beyond the ring road in the wilds of Putuo, but even we thought it was a bit of a trek to get there — and......

“You’d think Mister Tsuri would’ve tasted the food before he opened his stadium,” slurred a jovial member of our dinner party, as we spilled sake down our throats in a red-shag-carpeted cube. “There is no Mister Tsuri,” we explained. “It’s called Matsuri – it’s a restaurant name, not a person.” “Shut up and drink,” he shouted, toasting over a table littered with half-eaten dishes. That pretty much summed up our experience at Matsuri 123 Japanese......

By Benjamin Cohen Shanghai is full of Chinese-owned “Italian” bistros that serve up overcooked and overpriced corn and ketchup pasta. We found a place that breaks that stereotype. Tucked away on Anfu fu, a few doors down from Enoteca, is a small café with inexpensive authentic Italian food, Lavazza coffee and imported wines. Caffé Saluto's been around for a few months. While the décor is nothing special (as you can see in the picture), the......

We were invited to a private beer tasting at the soon to be opened Boxing Cat Brewery, and we always enjoy free food and beer (even if it is in Minhang). Boxing Cat Brewery is a collaboration between Gary Heyne (former brew master of Henry’s) and Kelley Lee (from iiiit!). They’ve put together a nice pub/restaurant that has a warm homey feel, a place likely to draw a lot of “regulars”. Gary plans on keeping......

Not far back, Shanghaiist gave out the tip on Sofa Bar and Cafe – the hidden gem in the Xinhua Road community. We got a big surprise when a reader came on the comments section to also tip off the legendary Malatang stand just two doors down. Since the cat is already out of the bag, here are the details. Chongqing Zhoushi Mala Tang 重庆周氏麻辣烫 (Chongqing Zhou Clan spicy soup) is the best Jerry …......

Photo of qingtuan, a traditional Tomb Sweeping Day treat that turns glossy when steamed, by mofli1982 小米 on Flickr 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.......

We checked our mail this morning and were happy to see a new Sherpas menu dropped in the box. However, when Shanghaiist flopped down on the couch and ripped open the plastic out fell a ... K.K. Rabbit menu? The Sherpas site is still up and, as far as we know, running fine. This rules out the suspicion they'd been bought out by someone with less money. Unless a reader knows better? So we guess......

We know that this sounds like an April fool, but China could be facing a rice shortage. No, seriously. We told you a few days ago about KFC upping their prices; now the cost of the other staple in Shanghaiist's diet, rice, could be facing a hike due to fears over supply. For the moment, the government has frozen the price of rice — as well as that of other goods such as cooking oil......

The trial of Chen Liangyu (陈良宇), Shanghai's former Communist Party chief and the highest party official to be ousted in more than a decade for corruption, has just begun in Tianjin.Vegetable prices in Shanghai have plummeted by as much as 20 percent as a vast amount of produce from neighboring provinces flows into the cityShanghai's Metro Line 2 will dispatch its first train at 5:55am from today, half an hour earlier than before, said Shanghai......

Photos here and here Recently we've had the pleasure of dining in two local restaurants in Qingpu Town, technically part of Shanghai but very close to Jiangsu Province, and both times our plates, bowls, cups and spoon came vacuum packed in plastic, supposedly "sanitized" for our pleasure. We had never seen this before, despite having dined at our fair share of greasy spoons throughout the country. But the folks we ate with last night......

Can't get enough about Hamilton House? We came across this short video piece from New Zealand's TV3 on our very own Hamilton House, which we enjoy visiting quite a bit. General Manager Richard Xavia is a Kiwi, and the angle of the piece is about how a place like Hamilton House is attractive to the increasingly sophisticated tastes of the young elite. Not a mind-blowing point to make for those of us here, of course,......

It wasn't until we read this interview in Salon with Jennifer 8. Lee (and that's not a typo, folks), New York Times journalist and author of the book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, that we suddenly realized that it has been forever since we've had beef with broccoli or General Tso's chicken. We think it's because we haven't made room in our ordering agenda given the unbelievable amount of......

Most Shanghaiist readers are familiar with legendary dive bar C’s and with the music pub Logo too. Darkness, taxi rides and alcohol make the rest of the area a bit of a blur but we have the benefit of living there. The area, called The Xinhua Community, is centered around Xinhua Lu’s heritage architecture and greenery. We covered this a bit by introducing J. G. Ballard’s old home in a previous post. It also has......

Photo from danwashburn Way back in '04, when we were young(ish) and brazen, we declared that Da Marco on Yandang Lu had the best pizza in Shanghai. "I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life," is what we said. It was easier to be so sure-minded about pizza back then, because there were very few reasonable options Shanghai. Are there more now? We think so. But perhaps, after nearly six years, our......