Last Sunday night marked the return of the annual Vogue's Fashion's Night Out (摩登不夜城) in China - the after-sundown one-night-only event that highlights fashion and supports retail with special events. Invading Shanghai for the first time, FNO took over Huaihai Lu - stretching from Printemps-Shanghai to Shanghai Times Square. more ›

Back when we covered the opening of Shanghai's first apple store in the IFC building of Lujiazui, we mentioned that this was just the beginning of a full retail onslaught Apple had planned for China. Now several people have reported seeing the next Shanghai Apple Store on Huaihai Lu. more ›

Around 1:30pm this afternoon thick plumes of black smoke could be seen coming from the corner of Huaihai Lu and Fuxing Lu, just above Laifu Restaurant. There is a small roof garden on top of the building and this seemed to be the main source of the fire, though officers from the five fire engines that arrived also gave the adjacent Hot Pot King restaurant considerable attention. The streets became flooded with people - evacuees and onlookers - while the toxic smoke covered the section of Huaihai Lu between Laifu and the Citic Bank opposite. There appeared to be no injuries or casualties. more ›

An anonymous driver slammed into the Adidas store on Huaihai Middle Road and Ruijin No.1 Road earlier this morning. Shop employees discovered an abandoned motor vehicle lying by the side of the store when they shuffled in at 7am. Thankfully, since the shop was not yet open, nobody was hurt, and while a side column and a billboard suffered some damage, none of the goods inside the store were broken or stolen. The driver, who sneakered off sometime after the accident, was no where to be found. What a heel. Source: Xinmin more ›

Alas, it seems like Huai Hai Lu stalwart Bon Bon may have closed up shop over the weekend, and the only guys who noticed were SmartShanghai. It's Thursday and the club still has to issue official notice of the closure, but according to the nightlife website, they're planning on moving locations. But where will Shanghai's trance-loving expat high school crowd go until then?! WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN? more ›

We pass this billboard (almost) every day, between Shanghaiist headquarters and the gym. For a long time it featured Barack Obama on the cover of the Chinese version of Men's Health. Recently a Twitter user named Shaquille O'Neal has taken the president elect's place. It's an ad for Li Ning basketball shoes, Shaq's brand of choice for a couple years now. (You might remember the real Li Ning from such Olympic opening ceremonies as Beijing 2008.) more ›

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". more ›

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). more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

Photo by Anton Berkovich. more ›

Seen any other unbelievable store names while shopping around Shanghai? Why don't you snap a picture and send it to us at info AT shanghaiist DOT com? more ›

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. more ›

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 menu in 15 kuai. We had an OJ for that price in a decent sized cup (see photo) and it was good. You can watch the juices being made, too, so you know they aren't throwing in anything strange. We are regulars at the Huangpi Lu station and we foresee ourselves becoming regulars at Super Sonic, too — not only because summer is upon us, but because we like to buy juice from shops named after J.J. Fad songs. more ›

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. more ›

We've never been to an H&M before, but it can't be worth waiting in line for, can it? more ›

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 ceiling with 20 x 30 x 20 cm boxes that display everything from postcards to T-shirts to jewelry. more ›

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 between this and Google Maps for the US. You can't use satellite or hybrid mode in the Chinese version. If you want a satellite you have to go back to using Google Earth or other such sites, and of course it's hard to find your way there because all you see are blotches of rooftops. Ditu.google.cn just has the regular graphics. more ›

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. more ›

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 the 66 seats, large windows, and hi-fi stereo system mention in the English article (first link), a Chinese report (second link) says that the hi-fi stereo system also includes a DVD system, that some of the seats in the front can swivel 360 degrees (for better viewing), and that there are five coffee tables (茶几) in the back. more ›

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 that the author of the Access Asia newsletter is a fervent supporter of smoker rights, who refers to pansies like Shanghaiist as "killjoys who think they are going to live forever."): more ›

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 another Yunnan restaurant that opened recently). An added bonus is that Feng Jianwen, the owner (yes, he's from Yunnan), is a lover of beer — the result is the best selection of bottled beers we have ever seen at a Chinese restaurant. There's Hoegaarden, Chimay, Coopers (Sparkling Ale and Best Extra Stout), Leffe and a bunch of others. They are priced reasonably, too. Hoegaardens are 28 kuai; Coopers are less than that. Or you can always just get a tall bottle of Suntory for 6 kuai — they have that, too. more ›

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. And we were quite confused why someone would steal this pair, then we came to the conclusion the thief must be a man, since the shoes left untouched were all high-heels or very feminine boots. The pair that was gone was masculine style riding boots. more ›

About six months ago, we introduced the user-generated Shanghaiist Contribute page. Here is what we said back then: more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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 of China's big cities, such as Chongqing, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, etc. are on board. Not only are they going to encourage more people to walk, bike and use public transit, they might even carve out a no-car zone in parts of the cities. more ›

Because the boss tells them to. more ›