Got photos of this morning's storm or the flooding that followed it that you'd like to share? Email them to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically show up on our Contribute Page. Flickr users, simply tag your photos "shanghaiist".......

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).......

There might be a recession on the way, but American culture is doing just fine. Although we've said nunca más to Taco Bell, but we got the MLB coming our way, Rambo's back in a way that Rocky Balboa could only dream of, and best of all is the surprising news that Dunkin' Donuts is on its way to Shanghai. We used to be jealous of Hong Kongers because they had Krispy Kreme, but that......

These are definitely the dog days of summer and as in summers past, live shows have dried up with the heat. Ironically enough Shanghaiist has chosen to skip town and head to even hotter Hong Kong where PK-14, Hedge Hog, New Pants and the Re-tros will be playing in the cramped but intimate Fringe Club on Sunday. For those of you stuck in Shanghai and hankering for some live music check out Etienne (Gypsy Jazz......

Part of Huaihai Lu to be shut for 20 months due to subway expansion A section of Huaihai Road W. between Xinhua Road and Huashan Road will be shut down for 20 months starting on Saturday due to construction on a new subway line, metro officials said yesterday. Use of transport card to be expanded Local residents will be able to use their transport cards to pay taxi, bus, and subway fares in Nanjing and......

Yes, we do know of scatting as a form of singing in jazz where the human voice is used as an instrument and no real words are used. But the first time we saw the name of this store in a mall right on the corner of Huaihai Lu and Maoming Lu, we were like, "Oh my God, did they really call it scat?" because the first thing that comes to our mind (and......

The China Daily recently reported that we are soon to see the opening of The Absolut Icebar, billed as Asia's first ice bar. The concept is that there's a lot of ice and ice sculptures, and it's really cold inside. Absolut says that the ice being used isn't just any old ice, but the pure stuff from the Torne River in Sweden. The problem is that this place is being billed as "Asia's first ice......

We stumbled upon what must be one of Shanghai's cheapest juice bars last night. It's called Super Sonic Bar and it's located in the basement of the Pacific Shopping Center (tai ping yang bai huo or 太平洋百货) on Huaihai Lu, easily accessible from the Huangpi Nan Lu metro stop on Line No. 1. They have lots to choose from — including non juice items like bubble tea — and the most expensive thing on the......

Shanghaiist has finally found a great local place to buy vegetarian bacon. We could have probably tracked it down much earlier if we had bothered to look properly, but we are still happy to be able to buy meat free bacon and sausages from Vegetarian Lifestyle on Songshan Lu. We recommend you go there for a wholesome, cheap, tasty meal, before heading over to the freezer in the foyer that stocks the "meat" you can......

This video was taken early on Saturday afternoon — a full nine days after Shanghai's new H&M store on Huaihai Lu opened. We've never been to an H&M before, but it can't be worth waiting in line for, can it? Here's a little tip for those of you who don't feel like waiting in line: Walk east on Huaihai to the blocked-off entrance. It appeared as though if you walk fast enough, and with enough......

After attending the massive NeoSpring Creative Festival on Suzhou Creek, Shanghaiist had high hopes for the so called Creative Box, or Ushigokoro. The concept behind this gallery is displaying art in tiny boxes; anyone can apply to display their works. They currently have an exhibition called "Lost and Found", in which participants bring in whatever they find on the street to add to the exhibition. The rest of the gallery is filled from floor to......

We're not sure when the beta version of Google maps for China came out, since we hardly ever use the Chinese version of Google . We saw that it had the little "new" tag affixed to it, and from some searches it seems that it was sometime in February, so not too long ago. This service, located at ditu.google.cn, has replaced Google Local, which was at bendi.google.cn. First off, there's a couple of big differences......

From the blog Shopgirl's Shanghai we learned that Swedish clothing store H&M is going to have a flagship store in Shanghai, to be located where Benetton used to be (Huai Hai Lu/Si Nan Lu) and will be opened on April 12 of this year. Their official website confirms this date and doesn't say much else. According to answers.com this isn't their first store in Asia; a Hong Kong store was opened in in late 2006.......

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......

Although we haven't seen the double-decker bus in real life, we assumed that it was a tourist bus until we read that it only travels on Huai Hai Lu and only costs 2 yuan per ride. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the number '911' on the front—which is no coincidence, because the bus runs along the 911 route. It's basically a fancy version of the 911 bus. In addition to......

We are writing this while choking on second-hand smoke at a Huaihai Lu cafe/eatery. Our choice, we know, but we had a meeting here and then decided to have lunch — and now we are having our neighbor's Marlboro Lights for dessert. Anyway, a nice little midday reminder of why we prefer to work at home. But is relief on the way? According to the latest Access Asia Weekly Update, maybe so. (Keep in mind......

We were leafing through the latest City Weekend* over breakfast this morning when we realized we forgot to tell you something very important: We love Southern Barbarian (南蛮子). It's a Yunnan restaurant that opened in the fall (we have mentioned it briefly twice before). It is easily one of our favorite restaurants in the city, Chinese or non-Chinese. The food is fantastic — tasty and plentiful — and it is cheap (especially when compared to......

When we woke up yesterday morning we discovered a new year's surprise: Our beloved shoes are gone. Like many good Chinese girls, we keep our shoes outside our front door (but inside a locked gated corridor ... with metal bars perfect for stealing shoes through, evidently). First we thought we might have just misplaced them (we can be kind of messy). But after searching our pile of shoes, we were very certain they were gone.......

About six months ago, we introduced the user-generated Shanghaiist Contribute page. Here is what we said back then: Share Links: Using popular bookmarking website del.icio.us, you can tell other Shanghaiist readers about news stories, websites and other wonderful stuff on the internet that you think they might find interesting, entertaining or useful. All you have to do is tag a link with for:shanghaiist and it will automatically appear on our Contribute page. For information on......

That's what one report suggests is happening, as certain domestic Chinese brands are unable to renew their contracts on Nanjing Lu despite being willing to pay whatever increase in rent was necessary. The three companies detailed in the report are casual fashion company Metersbowne (美特斯邦威) , Shanghai based underwear maker Three Guns (三枪), and traditional Chinese beauty and health products maker Herborist (佰草集). These stores have been told by their landlords that when their rental......

We simply got tired of waiting for the optical cable guy to arrive. We also started experiencing the internet withdrawal shakes had some research to do. A man can only organize his Gmail inbox so many times. So we laid down some cash and got things working again. Here's how. The Taiwan earthquake broke undersea internet cables — that's why your ADSL connection likely can't reach many foreign websites right now — but certain wireless......

Shanghai's recent cafe boom has left Shanghaiist out in the cold — we don't drink coffee, and only a little tea. Our frigid weather beverage of choice is (start laughing now) hot chocolate, and our savior arrived in Shanghai a few weeks ago: Whisk Choco Cafe. We first learned of Whisk from a commenter (who mentioned paninis, not hot chocolate) and figured we'd try it out since it is just a short walk from our......

We're a bit confused here: We just read a report (in Chinese) that says 70 mayors of Chinese cities have signed agreements that make World Car Free Day -- September 22 -- somewhat official. However, it seems that Beijing tried this in 2005 in an attempt to meet "blue sky" goals. Supposedly Chengdu was the first Chinese city back in 2001 to try to do something for WCFD. After the signing of this agreement, most......

Because the boss tells them to. Or at least that is the answer we have received ... on many occasions. We like Charmant, the Taiwanese restaurant on Huaihai Lu near Fuxing Lu. We have written about how much we like it. And now that we live pretty much next door, we go there quite often. But we have always wondered why the female manager and every single one of the waitresses has a short, boyish......

When in China, don't do as the Romans would do ... or something like that. China is preparing to install another bishop without the Vatican's consent. The ceremony consecrating Wang Renlei, vicar general of the Xuzhou Diocese in Jiangsuu, could take palce as soon as Thursday.Are Shanghainese becoming more accepting of people from other province? Accepting enough to marry them.Top 8 models at Beijing Auto Show.This is scary. Another person was electrocuted while taking a......

Shanghaiist wandered into Shanghai Times Square on Huaihai Lu the other day -- against our volition, of course (this being a shopping mall and all). But in the end it was worth the pain of having to stand inside various clothes shops and nod glumly in support of countless new items that the better half seemed incredibly energetic about the purchase of. The reason? David Laris (yes, of Laris) has opened a deli, Slice, on......

The pedestrian experience in Shanghai is an interesting one, and by “interesting” we of course mean near fatal. Drivers don’t seem to have a lot of respect for traffic laws (in so far that they exist). Getting from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time possible is the only rule that applies. Anyone who dares stand in the way is, well, expendable. It’s like that game Crazy Taxi, except it’s not......

A fire broke out at the Huai Hai Lu Parkson's on the night of September 7 around 8:45 PM (article in Chinese). One of the escalators caught on fire, they had the fire out in a couple of hours and the store was closed on Friday. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but what was interesting was this short article which stated that customers were asked to pay for their purchases before evacuating the building (article......

Shanghai finishes the summer in style this weekend with a 40-strong DJ performance at Dino Beach under the guise of the Splash! music festival, kicking off at 3 pm this Saturday. The city might have been graced with international names such as Richie Hawtin and Goldie in the past couple of weeks, but it’s the Shanghai-based crew who are putting on the show and proving that big names are not necessary to have a great......

For gay men around the world, the gym is always a potential hunting ground, and, no, not this type of hunting. Shanghai is no different from any other metropolis in this regard (but is put to shame by this place in “conservative” Singapore, which Shanghaiist believes to be the only 24-hour gay gym with foam parties in Asia ... please leave a comment if we’re wrong!). After taking an impromptu survey at Club Deep over......