Shanghai's experiencing flashbacks worse than the last time you toured with Phish. Over the weekend, the China Pavilion saw numbers and lines reminiscent of last year's peak Expo days, with queuing times of up to four hours! 60,000 people visited the pavilion on Saturday and Sunday each, immediately forming lines stretching hundreds of meters. more ›

All the things you'd want to do this Monday through Thursday. On the schedule this week: It's Golden Week! And to celebrate the holiday Shanghai has a slew of ongoing events throughout the next few days to keep you busy, including fireworks, forest park shenanigans, Swan Lake, local rock, and a Yanni concert! Read on (or check out our calendar) for more! more ›

Here's our last installment of "How I survived Golden Week," about one of the busiest pavilions in the Expo during what was supposed to be one of the busiest weeks - National Holidays. Scott Goldman is a student ambassador from Duke university who works with the Protocol team at the USA Pavilion. Here's a peek into his day. more ›

What's it like to work the Expo at one of the busiest pavilions? We asked several USA Pavilion staff to record a diary of their day during Golden Week during what we expected to be one of the busiest weeks. (It didn't turn out quite so. The numbers for that week were actually lower than usual, probably due to the ticket price mark up for the public holiday...much to the relief of all Expo staff.) Amy Kao is a student ambassador from UCLA who works with the Sponsorship team. Here's a peek into her day. more ›

What's it like to work the Expo at one of the busiest pavilions? We asked several USA Pavilion staff to record a diary of their day during Golden Week during what we expected to be one of the busiest weeks. (It didn't turn out quite so. The numbers for that week were actually lower than usual, probably due to the ticket price mark up for the public holiday...much to the relief of all Expo staff.) Siew Yen Chai is a student ambassador from Rutgers University who works with Facilities & Logistics. Here's a peek into her day. more ›

What's it like to work the Expo at one of the busiest pavilions? We asked several USA Pavilion staff to record a diary of their day during Golden Week during what we expected to be one of the busiest weeks. (It didn't turn out quite so. The numbers for that week were actually lower than usual, probably due to the ticket price mark up for the public holiday...much to the relief of all Expo staff.) Ben Frohman is a student ambassador from Georgetown university who works in Communications. Here's a peek into his day. more ›

What's it like to work the Expo at one of the busiest pavilions? We asked several USA Pavilion staff to record a diary of their day during Golden Week during what we expected to be one of the busiest weeks. (It didn't turn out quite so. The numbers for that week were actually lower than usual, probably due to the ticket price mark up for the public holiday...much to the relief of all Expo staff.) Melissa Monnier is a student ambassador from Hamline university who works with the Operations team. Here's a peek into her day. 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 ›

It is official...the golden week has finally hit Shanghai, and it is hitting us hard, with a multitude of music festivals. So for those of you who are taking the vacation serious and drinking so much you can't think straight, Shanghaiist is here to do the thinking for you. Feel free to print and paste the sample itinerary listed below to that one pair of underwear you plan on wearing for the entire week. more ›

If, like us, you're stuck in Shanghai over the National Day holiday (hey, somebody's gotta give everyone else stuck in town something to read and entertain themselves with, right?), we suggest you stay right at home. Because if you haven't been around during any Golden Week, you won't know what a nightmare it is going to be out there. more ›

We report that The Shanghai Daily reported on a Xinmen Evening News report (in Chinese) that teenage abortions peaked during the May Golden Week holiday period. The article states that this mirrors a trend for all the Golden Week holidays, where students take time to recover from the procedure which would normally eat into study or internship responsibilities. The Shanghai Daily report quotes that 80 percent of the abortion patients were under the age of 18. more ›

"A local education official who organised the song and dance performance, Kuang Li, locked herself in the toilet, keeping out children who suffocated, according to Chen's blog. Kuang was jailed for four years." more ›

Xinhua reports: more ›

Meanwhile, locals watched skater exhibitionists, had near-death experiences snowboarding, checked out the flowers in Century Park, sang their heart away, went to their favorite bars, and, well, did their laundry. more ›

Photo from spiky247. Taken on April 2006 using a Hasselblad camera. more ›

• Officials in Beijing deny ing rumors that 1 million migrants would be expelled from the capital during the Olympics. However, as we mentioned earlier, 50 of the 239 schools for migrant workers have been closed down recently -- in some cases by the police, en masse. On the brighter side, those that get to remain in Beijing will have a spiffy new light-rail system by 2008 to whisk them around from place to place!
• The 8th Yunnan province Minority Games has been kinda of a mess: male athletes using wigs to dress up as women, people fighting, and athletes that only speak with donbei (northeastern) accents.
• After a recent BBC undercover investigation into illegal organ transplants in a Tianjin hospital, Chinese officials replied by sayingthere was no such thing happening.

胡锦涛主席启程出访五国
Chairman Hu Jintao sets out to visit five countries, including 美利坚合众国 (the USA). Did you hear about the dinner at Bill Gates' house? more ›

Chinese holidays -- or "golden weeks" -- have always confused Shanghaiist. The "official" days always seem to be announced at the last minute (like less than two weeks before the actual holiday) even though based on past holidays you can pretty much guesstimate when the golden week will be. Adopting a "when in China" stance, many foreign companies in China wait until the last minute to tell employees what days they will actually have off. The end result is a mad rush of about a billion people to get out of town. Thank God for ticket agents. more ›

From the story in the Jiefang Daily: more ›

After yesterday's confident announcement on China's ability to contain bird flu, Shanghaiist winced as we thought we heard rumbling overhead, and then we went straight to various sources searching for news of more bird flu outbreaks. The last time China tempted the gods made an announcement like this in November, Shanghaiist seems to recall the beginning of a rash of new outbreaks throughout the country. Just a day after yesterday's big announcement, China has reported its first new outbreak of bird flu in two weeks in Suichuan county in Jiangxi province. Along with this outbreak comes news of China's sixth reported human case of bird flu. more ›