A couple of months back we headed down to Zhujiajiao for the day and had a blast at the Antidote Festival. Walking down the narrow lanes of the water town we kept expecting the street to widen into a field or something that we would recognize as a festival location. It didn't. more ›

The Los Angeles Dodgers take on the San Diego Padres this weekend at Beijing's Olympic baseball stadium. Seating capacity is limited to 13,000 spectators, and sure enough Emma has sold out their allotment of the cheap seats here in Shanghai. We're curious as to the scalper situation in Beijing, but for the risk-averse, other Chinese ticketing websites still have a small number of tickets left. A little internet sleuthing can still get you into the RMB 88 section! As far as the line-ups, San Diego is bringing a mix of veterans and new players to Beijing:

The Padres traveling contingent includes players with substantial experience in the Major Leagues (closer Trevor Hoffman), up-and-coming regulars (Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff) and a host of players who will play in the Minor Leagues in 2008.

None of the pitchers on the roster played more than 16 games in the majors last year. Non-roster invitee Chan Ho Park, who is seeking to revive his career, is the most experienced with 11-plus years of major league service, and will be joined by pitchers including Hong-Chih Kuo, Eric Stults and Eric Hull, who spent most of last year in the minors.

Having soft-opened since February 9th, Lawry's the Prime Rib is ready to put on its best face for Shanghai's beef lovers beginning with its grand opening tomorrow. Shanghaiist was able to do some preview dining and we were left with one distinct impression: this place takes its prime rib traditions very seriously. more ›

Steven Spielberg's decision to withdraw from arranging the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics caused press around the world (except for China) to rub their hands with glee this week at the prospect of China's dirty laundry being flown from the flagpoles of Beijing. more ›

href="http://torontoist.com/2008/02/phototo_snowbal.php">photographing a big, organized snowball fight.

Earlier we had reported that America's favorite pastime might soon be making its Chinese debut and now it's official. The China Series 2008, as its being called, will feature two games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres on March 15-16. The games will be held at Beijing's Wukesong Baseball Field, which will also be used for the upcoming Olympics. No word yet on when tickets will be available or how much they will be. more ›

Photo Credit: Malingering more ›

The last time an anchor from our favourite TV channel made it to the news, he created such a brouhaha that culminated in the eviction of one coffee company from the Forbidden City. In the news this time is New Zealand-born anchor Edwin Maher who for many years before arriving in China was a weatherman with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Los Angeles Times published a profile of Maher that started it all off. It... more ›

Well...after a day of bloating ourselves on turkey and pumpkin pie (sorry Shanghaiist is American and assumes that everyone else wants to be one) the perfect cure is a night of live music. Lucky for us Convenience Store, one of Beijing's longest lasting and most reputable Brit-pop bands, is going to be playing out at Live Bar tonight. Shanghaiist has waited along time to see this band, in the past we were busy or too... more ›

New Burger on the Block: Thanks to the always up-to-date Christine Lu from the China Business Network, we learned that Los Angeles based burger joint Fatburger is planning on expanding big into China, starting with their first restaurant at the Venetian in Macao. From their press release: Additional Fatburger restaurants are scheduled to open in Hong Kong in the coming months: the first on Queens Road East and the second at Jia Hotel in Causeway... more ›

After a loud and exciting Halloween, tonight is a good chance to head out, sit back and chill to the soothing tunes of The Swamp and 21G at 4Live. Alternatively, composer Mark Chan has put together a live score for the classic, silent Chinese film Little Toys and will be performing it during the film’s screening at the Shanghai Concert Hall. If you are craving excitement, then head to Live Bar where a Beijing Brit-pop... more ›

There isn't a live music update this week, but it's art shows galore TONIGHT. Three picks that aren't in your conventional Moganshan Lu / Taikang Lu destinations. more ›

He's performed shows around the world from London to Los Angeles, from Vegas to Berlin and from Zurich to Tokyo. Earlier this year, world-class magician Marco Tempest, the Virtual Magician, was hired by Daihatsu for Auto Shanghai, apparently the world's second largest car fair. Watch him in this newly released video as he goes around Shanghai, rehearses for the big show and impresses the girls backstage. Pretty interesting stuff. At least we now know one car company is not just counting on the tall svelte models dressed in metallic mini-skirts to pull in the crowds. more ›

China hurting in world opinion polls [China Post]

In a survey covering 18 countries which account for 56 percent of the world's population, 38 percent said China can be trusted to act responsibly while 52 percent said the country can't be trusted.

Video of Blind Stereo MV more ›

OK, we've never heard of East Star Airlines before, but it has just become the first private airline in China to be authorized to operate international flights. A Xinhua report tells us that under Civil Aviation Administration of China regulations, new airlines may apply to operate international flights only after three years of operations. East Star has been in business less than two years, but it beat rivals Okair, Ueair, Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines to be the first. Hmm... we wonder what made them bend those rules! more ›

Air China has been hit by a spate of minor accidents lately. Yesterday flight CA941 (and that's a Boeing 767 you see in the picture), headed to Dubai from Beijing, was ready for takeoff with 148 passengers on board at about 5:15pm, when its "fore-undercarriage suddenly took back, leaving the plane nose on the ground". Ouch! Just two days before this though, yet another Air China flight (a Boeing 747 this time) had to make an emergency landing at the Los Angeles International Airport. The plane had just taken off when the captain reported a tire blowout. Thankfully there were no reports of injuries, although tire debris was found on the runway. more ›

For those of you who aren't quite ready to prance around in a swimming suit showing off your pasty white, jell-o like spare tire, don't fret there are plenty of quality bands playing in the dimly lit bars where t-shirts are required. The Scoff an energetic (pogo friendly) garage band from Beijing will headline the 2nd installment of 4live's Young Beijing series. At Live bar, Boys Climbing Ropes celebrate the arrival of summer with a final show before 2 members head back to Canada for vacation. If that wasn't enough to keep you busy on a Friday night, Pirates Bar is throwing its hat in the ring with Electronicat and amazing, one man electro/noise pop band from Europe. Saturday the Go Team! will be strutting their stuff at Absolute house, Rock It will be in full swing and for those of you into something a little quieter, the Dream Factory is holding an acoustic guitar night. For those of you into hip-hop or Dj's with skill (not the laptop variety) then head to 4Live for the DMC championship. more ›

Mercer HR Consulting has once again released the findings of their annual Cost of Living Survey (it's almost as if they release a new report every month, doesn't it?). more ›

If you are familiar with drinking heavily or going to Chinese banquets (basically the same thing), you've probably been forced to chug try some Maotai. Deemed "China's national liquor" by Reuters, Maotai or máotáijiǔ (茅台酒) is one of the most famous brands of Chinese rice wine (or báijiǔ). Although dignitaries like Margaret Thatcher and Richard Nixon have put this put-hair-on-your-chest drink to their conservative lips, the popular liquor is now threatened. You see, Maotai is... more ›

The upcoming May holiday sees a Shanghai band heading to the US and a US band (not Pretty Girls Make Graves) coming to Shanghai. more ›

Torontoist has some awesome, cutting edge news: A movie is being made about a gay hockey player - filmmakers even got approval from the NHL and the Toronto Maple Leafs! Also awesome: Toronto's "Do the Sneeze Sleeve Campaign". And most awesome is this dreamy photograph of Toronto's skyline in fog. more ›

It is said that the first step toward recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Of course, this begs the question: recovery from which problem? Whatever the impetus for these changes, China has finally admitted to taking the organs of executed prisoners. Does this mean an end of the free-flow, all-you-can-afford, buffet-bonanza on the virile organs of hapless young peasants executed under one of China's 70 capital crimes? more ›

is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. more ›

Zhu said that after 10 minutes of treatment Bai's lung cancer had been cured and he would recover quickly. more ›

The two photos above are from Shanghai. The second, we think, is Shanghai Railway Station. Barbieri's work comes to our city as part of the Shanghai Biennale and the Year of Italy in China. More Biennale events are listed here. more ›

Shanghai malls haven't been doing too hot lately. The Cloud Nine Shopping Mall in Zhongshan Park can claim to be "the city's biggest shopping center in terms of floor space," but suffers from a severe lack of tenants and had to cede their home-grown basement grocery store to Carrefour in in June due to lackluster sales. In July, the Los Angles Times exposed Shanghai's luxury malls as "ghost malls", spearing Plaza 66 and others for renting space to designer name brands at cut-rates in order to create a façade of prosperity and high fashion for the city. more ›

It's a brilliant idea. And we can only hope she keeps it up for decades to come -- and then maybe we can see some changes. What we learn from this segment of her life is that Asian women don't age much in three years and that Miss Lee abandoned black-rimmed hipster glasses for a short period of time and then decided to give them another try. A good move. They look good. more ›

This may be old news (in fact, according to this link, it's almost three-year-old news) but we just learned over the weekend that McDonald's delivers in Shanghai, so we thought perhaps it would be new to some of you, too. We're not sure if every McDonald's in town delivers, but the one we were at in Yu Yuan (don't ask) does. The sign says they deliver between 9 am and 9 pm and require a minimum order of 50 kuai -- which means Shanghaiist won't be getting delivery anytime soon, since the only reason we ever go to McDonald's is for their ice cream. more ›