Huzzah! Line 2, Shanghai's busiest Metro line is stepping its game up beginning on Thursday, by shortening waiting times along certain stops, in addition to extending service hours. The move is being made to meet demand from travelers and residents who need evening access to the city's two airports. The stretch running from Guanglan Road Station to Pudong International Airport will now provide daily service from 6am to 10pm, extending the current daily service time by 1.5 hours. The waiting time between trains from Guanglan Road to Pudong Airport will be reduced to 7 minutes from the current 8.5 minutes during rush hour. Three extra trains will be added for the section between Guanglan Road and Yuandong Avenue, with services concluding at 10:24pm. As for the western section of Line 2, trains running from Yuandong Avenue station to East Xujing station (which includes both Hongqiao Airport stops) will have their intervals reduced to 6 minutes 42 seconds, down from the current time of 10 minutes. Current end of service for the downtown sections of Line 2 is 11pm. more ›

Alas, we apparently weren't rich enough to get on the guest list for China's first "Private and Business Jet Expo" ever, held over the weekend in Hongqiao airport, since we just found out about it now. People who could schmooze their ways in were treated to private jet aircrafts displays, demonstration flights and exhibition pavilions, as well as some measure of controversy. It seems that private jets have yet to be added to the list of Chinese goods under the "luxury tax," turning private aviation pollution "into a legal vacuum where no related department is involved in" - an especially sensitive issue considering both the rising wealth gap and China's growing environmental concerns. more ›

Good news for anyone who lives in Puxi and wants to visit our economic rival/friendly sister city to the South: China Eastern Airlines and its newish subsidiary, Shanghai Airlines, will now be launching direct flights to Hong Kong from Hongqiao International Airport. They'll start up on Sept. 10 and increase the weekly flights between the two destinations to over 200. Yay for at least a 50% reduction in last minute taxi fares to the airport! more ›

Hongqiao International Airport's second terminal won't be open for business for another two weeks, but they're opening up the second runway a little sooner. While Shanghai Daily doesn't go into detail about why they're doing this, apparently the runway will be ready on March 11, five days before the March 16 opening of Terminal 2. On that day, Shanghai will be able to claim the superlative of the city with the "most runways in China." Yippee! more ›

Oh rich ladies - we love hearing about your problems! Xinhua reports that over 20 Jiangsu taitais were stopped at Hongqiao International Airport's customs a few days ago after arriving from South Korea. The reason: all of them had gone to the peninsula to get plastic surgery and had come back so unrecognizable that customs officers couldn't use their existing passport pictures to place them. more ›

Well, here are two options: more ›

We think we've finally figured out why so many people here carry umbrellas. They're not for sudden thunder showers. They're not for keeping skin fair and white. They're for keeping crap from falling on your head. From the Shanghai Daily: more ›

The latest on Typhoon Matsa based on various news reports: more ›