Despite earlier protests, there will be a new maglev line between Shanghai and Hangzhou. This week, the local government announced that the construction of this line will start in 2010, three years later than planned. It is supposed to be finished in 2015, when we will be able to go to Hangzhou in just 30 minutes.Things are looking dark on the Shanghai stock market: This Monday the Shanghai Composite Index ended down 5.34 percent, at......

The Maglev station in Pudong has long been a breeding ground for taxi drivers eager to rip-off new arrivals. You step off the train, and into a den of thieves. Things are looking up for visitors however, as a ring of eight drivers have been arrested and held for systematically ripping-off passengers they picked up at the Longyang Road station. More details here. Tips for travellers:Always get a receipt for a taxi ride; if you......

A group of Shanghai residents who had applied to the government for the right to hold an anti-maglev protest were rejected by the government. Despite this, small numbers of them intended to go on another "walk" in order to publicly air their grievances. This time, they were stopped by some other residents. According to this AP article, this is what happened: Residents in armbands used a megaphone to warn people not to "linger here too......

By James Creegan As part of the ongoing upgrade of Pudong airport, there is now a new branch of Motel 168 open in the transportation centre, right next to the entrance of the Maglev station. Double or Twin rooms are available, both at 348RMB per night. A little more than the chain usually charges for couples rutting like beasts between filthy sheets, but not too shabby for a hotel bed within walking distance from an......

Al-Jazeera's report on the anti-Maglev protest has interesting footage of how the city government is collecting feedback and an emergency residents meeting in one neighbourhood. While municipal authorities have promised more research and feedback opportunities, train protesters have been warned not to conduct any illegal protest during Gordon Brown's visit to Shanghai. Previously on Shanghaiist Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev: don't call it a come back Return of the Maglev protests Maglev protest videos Anti-Maglev protests derailed More......

BBC's Shanghai correspondent Quentin Sommerville goes to the Pingyang neighbourhood south of Shanghai and finds that the anti-Maglev protests have not quite abated. In his report [VPN required], he makes the following observation:Rarely have protests in China been so well organised, or the protesters so well-dressed. The Maglev protests are really a case study in acts of civil disobedience with Chinese characteristics. Knowing that their protests would never be approved by the authorities, demonstrators decided......

Translation of captions:OPPOSING THE SHANGHAI MAGLEV ONSTRUCTION PLAN: 10,000 RESIDENTS TAKE PART IN THE 'HARMONIOUS WALK' NEAR PEOPLE'S SQUARE On 12 Jan, Saturday, as agreed through signs that had been placed through the various affcted neighbourhoods, people gathered at 2pm at People's Square for the "harmonious walk". At 2pm, over 100 people had gathered by the Urban Planning Museum. There were about 30 policemen and 10 police cars. These were all normal policemen, there were......

Yesterday, we were tipped off on our Contribute page that an anti-maglev protest was going to take place today 2pm at People's Square. Apparently that has been derailed by the police. From Reuters:Police in China's financial hub of Shanghai detained scores of people on Saturday after hundreds showed up to protest a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation train, or "maglev", worried it would emit radiation. Police bundled demonstrators who had gathered in front......

Thanks to the commenters on that last post, especially the one that alerted us to videos of the protests/marches that were on the Taiwan Youtube site. There were two that we found, embedded below. The first one is just a short clip of people walking around during the day. The second is from Xujiahui in the evening, with more chanting, from the evening of January 6. Oh yeah, and to the commenter who mentioned that......

From Boxun.com (you need a proxy) we discovered that there was a maglev-related protest on January 6th. It first started around 11am, around the Xinzhuang/Minhang area, and was dispersed, only to form again sometime around 3pm, this time in the busy Xujiahui CBD. It managed to, in some form, last until 11pm. Protesters carried signs saying "out for a walk" (散步), while other chanted slogans about protecting their homes. The proposed maglev was to link......

The state media had reported around May of this year that the proposed Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev was canceled. In the report just linked to, it says that the official reason why the thing was canceled was because of health and environmental concerns, while the supposed "real reason" was that residents in the maglev's path were starting a petition. Reading over this report reminds of how this issue has been ping-ponging back and forth for years. We......

Photo taken by meckleychina at the Pudong International Station. Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Simply post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos[at]shanghaiist.com.......