Many of you, like us, might have slept through spectacular electrical storm that passed through Shanghai around 1:30am last night. Here's what you missed, courtesy of local night owl photographers on Weibo. Special kudos to @席子-上海 for catching the Pearl Tower shot! more ›

Prepare yourselves for Mufia, the latest typhoon that might be headed towards Shanghai. Forecasters reported yesterday that the typhoon is currently picking up steam and is expected to make contact with neighboring Zhejiang Province. Regardless of whether it hits Shanghai directly, its influence will still result in tons of rain and wind. 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 ›

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 ›

Looks like a high intensity lightning bolt hit someone at the China Daily recently that foreign journalists want to know the truth about China, so they decided to do an article to inform their readers, just in case they, erm, didn't already know. Here's an excerpt from the story:French journalist Caroline Puel wants to present the real China to her readers, who are eager to know more about the country with the Beijing Olympic Games... more ›

Shanghaiist loves good music gossip, and we are tickled purplish-red (our face usually turns this color after being overly tickled) to be the first to report that Busdriver, underground rapper extraordinaire, will be coming to China in October. Don't know who Busdriver is? Well, damn it, you should. more ›

Image from silvercord56. more ›

In the spirit of keeping you, the readership, informed as to the latest and greatest Shanghai happenings, we thought we would share an exciting email we received from our friends over at Spli-t Works. We've been told to keep our calendars clear on the 30th of June, as Absolute House is expected to be graced by The Go! Team. more ›

Shanghaiist has a fondness for elephants retained since our childhood exposure to Barbar. In mid-May we linked out to a Washington Post report that stated that the world's illegal ivory trade was being facilitated by Chinese-run smuggling rings that have extended their reach into Africa over the last decade. more ›

Just recently, we came across a report from December 2006 about the lives of seven individuals, each making 1,000 yuan (US$128) per month, living in seven different Chinese cities. The cities included Beijing, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Changchun, etc., as well as our own city of Shanghai. The following is our translation of the interview with Xiao Nao, who lives in Shanghai. Although it was published in December, some of the references (like taxi fares) lets you know the interview took place some time before that: more ›

The raddest thing in the world happened on Sunday when a ceremony was held in Shunde (near Hong Kong) to formerly inaugurate the planning of a new theme park based on kung fu legend Bruce Lee! The article entitled, “Ground Broken on the New Bruce Lee Theme Park” comes to us care of the sensible Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) but probably should have been entitled, “Ground Broken and Shattered into a Million Pieces by Lightning-Quick and Deadly Fists and Kicks on the New Bruce Lee Theme Park.” more ›

• Shanghai cuisine is set to be "improved", so that a menu can be created for Expo visitors, and they're hoping that "Shanghai snacks in the 2010 Expo will enjoy such worldwide fame as sushi, hotdog, and ice cream." The competition to create new snacks is open to the public, and they say that people can participate via Sohu.
• You can also contribute your thoughts about the layout and other details of the Expo by taking part in the poll on the Expo site, according to Shanghai Daily. However we had a quick look around and couldn't find much about it.
• People's Daily reported an article (from China Daily) several days ago, which bemoaned the sacrifice of old land to make way for futuristic buildings, complaining that vintage Shanghai homes were being destroyed. The article pleads for this not to be the case with the Expo site. Good luck.

Some have been heard to lament China's love of traditional aspects of society, citing many traditions as being hinderances to real social development and progression. Those people who do feel so may be dismayed, though not surprised, at the recent news that filial piety is still given such importance in 2006: more ›

In case you needed reminding, M:I:3 may not be screened in China, where 20 percent of its scenes were shot, because: more ›

Of all things we miss from back home, clean air and fast broadband come to mind the most often. Well, that’s about to change. In 2010, while we’d still be coughing our lungs out and spitting phlegm on sidewalks, we can at least take comfort in the fact that sound medical advice from WebMD, the CDC and assorted other sites will arrive on our computer screens -- if computers still have screens in 2010 -- at lightning fast speeds ... or will they? more ›

Ready yourself to run to a telephone and call home: The record for daily marriage registrations in the city has been smashed. 1,720 couples gave in to predictability and chose Valentine's Day to sign their lives away. How long will their marriages last? Not long, according to other statistics -- 100 husbands and wives in Shanghai divorced each day in 2005. more ›

Increasing amounts of Shanghainese residents are employing spies to spy on prospective spouses of their presumably spoilt sprogs. more ›

In the context of ever-increasing divorce rates, and with Chinese parents placing pressure on their offpsring to marry, a "Lightning Round" of marriages is the next crazy attempt at finding a VW Passat, an unfurnished apartment in Pu Dong and someone else to help make paper money to burn for your deceased relatives happiness (article in Chinese). It seems that 100 people arrived in order to meet a partner, decide in a matter of minutes if they are "the one", and then marry each other there and then. more ›

Shanghai is bracing today for what is being billed as a "catastrophic storm," as it bears down on Eastern China. "Coastal authorities should be well prepared for the typhoon as it could combine with a local spring tide to cause increased devastation," the National Meteorological Center warned Thursday. "In the next three days, damage is likely to be caused by weather including lightning, thunder, hailstorms and gales." Some Shanghai businesses are letting employees go home early today. Shanghaiist suggests you take your bosses up on that offer, buy some nice bottles of wine and hunker down. Be safe, everyone. more ›