Useful new feature alert: Google's Translate service now displays Pinyin results when translating into Chinese characters - which makes it that much easier for us to figure out what the heck a word is after we've changed it over from English. If you want to use the feature, hit "Show romanization" once the translation comes up. Thanks Google!
Google Translate: Now with Pinyin
Hao Niang Niang Vegetarian Restaurant: Come for the food, stay for the menu
In a former blogging life we crowned Vegetarian Lifestyle the best vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai. That may very well still be true — we just got an email from a vegetarian who agreed with our assessment — but we don't go there much anymore since we moved from the neighborhood ... and because we discovered a new vegetarian place right around the corner from our new apartment. Call us lazy, call us fickle — or better yet, call us French Concession loyalists.
This Week In -ist: Elsewhere in the Gothamist Network
It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend...
Still lost in translation, but with Google we lose less
After an enthusiastic e-mail circulated its way through some expatriate distribution lists last week touting the precision of an ostensibly upgraded Google Translate tool, the verdict from at least one blog is in: meh. According to China Herald:

