In honor of Science and Environment Day today (Saturday), Sagevision and the Ruijin Community Cultural Center, are erecting a ‘Community Trash Art Mural’ in Fuxing Park. They aim to “create public awareness and interest regarding the impact of trash on the environment in China and the world.” Shanghaiist has diligently been washing our plastic and metal trash and storing it for this big day. Participants will watch a short video on a product’s life cycle......

Just off the northern edge of Fuxing Park, this unusual building was the original French Club (le Cercle Francais Sportif) circa 1904. Later it was moved what is now the Okura Garden Hotel (and much later moved to Cafe Montmartre). For a while this was the French Concession's most prestigious public high school, Le College Francais. You can still see the monogram 'CFS' cast into the wrought-iron railing of the main staircase. There's also some......

Will the Dalai Lama reincarnate before he dies? Calgary Herald: Two Dalai Lamas? Reuters: China condemns Dalai Lama for ideas on succession The Times: Dalai Lama offers his flock a vote on whether he should be reincarnated The Economist: Communists can live with reincarnation. A referendum is a different matter AP: China Reports Riot in Southwestern Tibet Sino-US relations NYT: China Explains Decision to Block U.S. Ships Bloomberg: China Denies Saying Incident Was `Misunderstanding'......

September is quickly sliding into history, which means for all us music fans that the orgy of music festivals Shanghai will experience in the first weeks of October is almost upon us. And of course Shanghaiist is here to bring you the latest in festival news..... The 1234 Beach Rock Festival - A scrappy fighter always getting knocked down but never going out for the count (did that make sense?). Postponed once again, it is......

Shanghai, typically a live music wasteland, is preparing for a gaggle (Shanghaiist has the hippest vocabulary) of music festivals, all scheduled for the normally dead October Golden weekend. Get ready for 4...yes, count'em....f-o-u-r....music festivals, with some pretty damn exciting bands. October 2nd-4th - 1234 Beach Rock Last year the Beach Rock festival was a blast for the few people who braved the weather and long 2 hour bus ride. This year the location has changed,......

Yan Feng's Shanghai Wedding: Photos and video A great glimpse into a suburban Shanghai wedding. Dozens of photos and a montage of video clips. Wal-Mart recalls lead-laced baby bibs from China "The bibs, sold under the Baby Connection brand name, came in packs of two to seven bibs, with embroidered prints or images of Sesame Street characters. Some were sold as long ago as 2004. The bibs were made by Hamco exclusively for the......

Send your close friend who doesn't have a sweetheart a box of chocolates and sign it anonymous. Really, Valentine's isn't just for boy- and girlfriends. Send a heartfelt Valentine's Day card to someone you haven't seen in a long while or someone who has inspired you in a special way. Spend time with kids at an orphanage with him/her. Who says candlelight dinners are the only way to celebrate Valentine's? Make it a special one......

Editor's note: Sorry for getting this up so late in the day. But if you still happen to be stuck behind a computer, there is plenty of time left to show your love for Australia! This isn’t the latest personals ad from Shanghai’s Craiglist, but a call to all Shanghai resident Aussie cobber digger mates to celebrate Australia Day. January 26th signifies an important date in Australia’s history. For most Australians, it represents an opportunity......

After Shanghaiist learned from Shanghaiist that street names changes are in the works, we thought it appropriate to post about something we recently found at a Chinese bookstore: a series of maps of old Shanghai. The bookstore (Ji Feng in the Shaanxi Lu subway station) had maps from 1927, 1932, 1948, and 1956. Each map is printed on old-fashioned, yellowish paper and comes in a little folder with the date printed on top. Although we......

“Great day, great bands, great venue…but we wished more people would have turned out”. -- Unnamed Fuxing Park Jazz Fest promoter Oh, we feel your pain. Here’s hoping that you attended one, if not more, of the gigs listed below. We’ll start with the one mentioned: Fuxing Park Jazz Fest: We attended Friday night’s show, and it was well put on. Despite the early rain soaking the asses of the ass-less pants wearing kids there,......

Today is the first of three days of jazz music in Fuxing park, and if you aren't into jazz then perhaps the enticing prospect of being allowed to sit on the grass field is enough reason to show up. Yes, folks, you heard it right- an outdoor music festival on a lawn, in China. The last time they had a music festival here, the grass was covered with some protective hard lego-like pieces of plastic......

We were naughty last weekend and became that which we hate -- we went to absolutely no shows (lovely weekend in Xitang, though). So please fill in the blanks: 4Live: Despite the _________ promoters of GigLive jabbing it a “hack job”, we attended Zooma’s Friday night offering and were __________ to have been there. We hope to ________ more things like this happening. Our favorite was ___________.Live Bar: We paid the ________ taxi fare to......

GigShanghai: Pinkertones, goth an the NFL?...

There's a lot of treats in store for jazz listeners over the next couple weeks, starting with the Juno award-winning David Braid sextet dropping into town on Saturday to play at JZ Club. Then the Norway-China ("NOTCH") music festival kicks off during the October holiday week, with concerts taking place at JZ aand Rojam. Most of the shows, including Bugge Wesseltoft (who played two years ago at JZ Club) will be at the Rojam disco......

Not that we’ve ever taken Shanghai for being un-eclectic, but a weekend of 80s themes (anyone else find Peijin attractive in cinnamon rouge?), skateboarding in Fuxing Park and experimental electronic at Live Bar (?) on the Lord’s Day leaves us most un-loquacious. While enough will be said about the Happy Hour at Freelance, we would like to point out the lack of (our only request) Michael Damien’s “Rock On” was duly noted and, rest assured,......

Recent reviews of the best burgers in town made Shanghaiist want a drink -- a cocktail, to be exact. Don’t get us wrong, we love our local favorites -- we’re addicted to Xinjiang Black Beer now that it’s stocked at the nearby convenience store. We’re even known to occasionally take a healthy shot of baijiu alongside our Qingdao Beer during dinner. (At least, we think so -- we usually don’t remember the details of baijiu......

For a city notoriously lacking in live music, last night Shanghai rocked. While we (along with headliners Another Kind of Light) weren't able to make it to the opening of Yuyintang's Music Warehouse, we did manage to catch local rock-with-Chinese-characteristics band Three Yellow Chicken at Shuffle before heading to Tang Hui's pre-re-opening party, Electro Town. Co-organized by Tang Hui and Shanghai Real-Live Entertainment, Electrotown was the second in a series of events combining DJs, VJs,......

Last weekend was quite a stunner, what with Japanese punk, Korean horror-movie music, and a new addition to the C's revival (better than "200 people turning up to DKD wearing mp3 players and dancing in their own heads all night"); but we live in the city where 酒不醉人人自醉 ("people, rather than alcohol, enebriate") and with a population of 13 million, the party doesn't stop so easily. Read on for this week's contributions to our city's......

Here's a useful tourist map of Shanghai -- it labels 14 choice spots to go kill yourself. Adapted from a location map for the 2002 4As Creative Awards Roadshow, this image began circulating online last year but has only recently caught the attention of the traditional media. Experts have been trotted out to decry the harmful influence it will have on the youth, and the subway option has attracted quite a bit of attention, since......