McDonalds is set to raise prices for the fifth time in two years. Citing the pressures of rising food and rental costs, McDonalds said it would increase the prices of some of the items on its menu by between 0.5 and 2 RMB. With the changes, a 5-piece box of McNuggets now costs 1 kuai more at 8RMB, and a Big Mac 18.5RMB, up from 17.5RMB previously. more ›

A farmer has put out a call for help on Weibo hoping netizens will take pity on him and use their social networking magic to help him sell his 55 tons of radishes before the cold weather destroys his harvest. more ›

Chinese families are more easily able to afford food compared to their American counterparts, according to a Gallop poll released Wednesday. more ›

The WSJ speaks to one woman who says Hong Kong's skyrocketing apartment prices are increasingly out of reach for her and her family.
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China Premiere Wen Jiabao has a piece in today's Financial Times about China's economy. He says in the article (most of which is behind the FT's paywall, grr!) that China is capable of sustaining fast economic growth and that it has brought inflation under control. more ›

Gold diggers, listen up! The chances of meeting your future millionaire husband (or wife) have just been raised. According to the recently released Shanghai Wealth Report 2011, one in every 175 people, meaning 132,000 individuals, living in Shanghai now has a personal wealth of more than 10 million yuan. That's 8.2 percent more then last year. more ›

Yesterday, Mayor Han Zheng told a news conference that our local government will hike up the city's minimum wage. "We have to raise minimum wage this year. The final adjustment will be well above 10 percent. " Shanghai's minimum wage is currently 1120 RMB a month (or 37.3 RMB a day), the highest in the nation. Guangdong is also planning to raise its minimum wage by 18.6%, which could be a sign that the golden age of dirt cheap Chinese labor is slowly dissipating. more ›

Jim Chanos has never visited my friend's neighborhood, but he would love it. It is the apotheosis of everything he says is wrong with the Chinese real estate market, which more than a year ago, the influential short-seller famously outlined. more ›

Remember when we said not everything caused cancer, especially not mushrooms? Um, well, we take that back. A recent experiment by a grade-six pupil in Beijing has found that more than 90 percent of fresh mushrooms in markets are tainted with fluorescent brightener to make them appear fresh, which is considered to be potentially carcinogenic. more ›

Given our ongoing preparation for the zombie apocalypse, Shanghai's announcement this week of a planned food storage facility comes as a huge relief. In the event of, well, whatever it is they are anticipating, the new storage base will supposedly guarantee the supply of one week's worth of meat and vegetables for Shanghai's 19+ million citizens. more ›

"Uncontrolled printing of [U.S.] dollars and rising international prices for commodities are causing an imported inflationary 'shock' for China and are a key factor behind increasing uncertainty" more ›

• A 13-year-old student has become the second person in Beijing to be hospitalized with mercury poisoning after drinking a can of Sprite. Yeesh, we're gonna cut back on our soda habits. [China Daily]
• China is planning on building twelve new hydroelectric dams along the Yangtze River. While this is supposed to be a boon for local residents, Melissa Chan of Al Jazeera has found the neighborhood thinks otherwise. [Al Jazeera]
• Well, at least one guy thinks China will eventually reduce its censorship of the internet: the guy who created the world wide web. [Times Online]

From JLM Pacific Epoch comes rumors that China is planning to issue a new RMB 500 bank note in November - one which would feature the face of Deng Xiaoping. Currently, the most valuable note you can get in China is the 100, which can get kind of ridiculous considering how many deals are still done in cash. Still, the chances of this rumor proving true are pretty darn low. Not only has the People's Bank of China gone out of its way to deny plans for a 500, it's also not the first time we've seen news like this circulate. Still, we do find JLM's take on the psychological impact even speculation of a Deng has on the market interesting. In their words, the "big banknote... mirrors a big problem": the frailty of China's economic recovery considering its basis in loosey goosey monetary policy. more ›

From CCTV:

Easing inflation over the last few months may be good news for China's power regulator. It's saying continued falls in the growth rate of the Consumer Price Index leaves ample room for hikes in the retail prices of electricity. more ›

"Coca-Cola Co plans to seek approval under China's antitrust law for its $2.5 billion bid for top domestic juice maker Huiyuan, the final obstacle to what would be the largest foreign takeover of a local firm." more ›

From Beijing-based techie Frank Yu: "iPhones for sale in Beijing. 1st Gen 8 gig iPhone USD 735. 2nd Gen 8 gig 3G iPhone USD 1,176. The Older iPhones rose almost 42% since 3G." [Source] 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 ›

Effective today, China will raise gasoline and diesel fuel prices 16 percent and 18 percent, respectively, news that sent global oil prices down nearly US$5 a barrel. Electricity prices are also expected to rise sharply. Reuters offers a poorly displayed chart that shows China's domestic gasoline prices, fixed since November 1, have climbed 95 percent and diesel prices have more than doubled since 2003. Retail fuel prices in China are expected to increase to $3.05 per gallon for gas and $3.31 for diesel. Says the New York Times, "Costlier fuel and electricity could prompt businesses and individuals across China to use less of it, slowing somewhat China’s voracious increase in oil consumption in recent years as well as its steep rise in emissions of global warming gases." [Sources: AP, Reuters, LAT, NYT, CNN] more ›

We know that this sounds like an April fool, but China could be facing a rice shortage. No, seriously. We told you a few days ago about KFC upping their prices; now the cost of the other staple in Shanghaiist's diet, rice, could be facing a hike due to fears over supply. For the moment, the government has frozen the price of rice — as well as that of other goods such as cooking oil — in an effort to curb food costs following their 23% leap in February, but has not ruled out price rises in the near future. They have also announced that farmers will receive increased prices for both rice and wheat as China attempts to avoid the rice production problems currently engulfing some other Asian states. more ›

BBC's take on inflation in China includes footage of the Chongqing Carrefour stampede for cooking oil that we haven't seen before.
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A stampede in a Chongqing Carrefour hypermart has left 3 dead, 24 injured and another 7 seriously injured. The culprit? Cooking oil. As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, a 5-litre bottle of cooking oil that was originally priced at RMB51.40 was to be sold at only RMB39.90. This news was enough to get Chongqingers to start queueing from as early as 4am in the morning. Sometime around 8.20am when the doors were finally open,... more ›