Frequented spots within the downtown core, including the Bund and part of Lujiazui, will be off-limits to cars and trucks for chunks of time from Friday to Monday as Shanghai authorities work to ensure that traffic runs smoothly as the nation's 62th National Day holiday gets underway. more ›

Somebody took new info over at United Metro and made us another insane mock up of what the metro will look like in 2030! We've already seen the madness predicted for 2020, but this map managed to clean things up a bit. See a bigger version here. more ›

Also known as "dogging" (or is that a term for sex in a public place in general?), bumping uglies in your car has been a favorite pasttime of pimply teens and enthusiastic lovers since the dawn of the automobile. Apparently that trend has arrived with full force in China, where it is known as "car quaking" (车震, chēzhèn). Thanks to this post circulating on the Chinese internet, we now have a map of the best places in Shanghai to grab a park 'n' pet. more ›

Thanks to a tip by Marc Van Der Chijs, we have discovered the sometimes frustrating but potentially useful City8.com. more ›

Ever wonder how the Shanghainese truly view the rest of China? Well wonder no more! These great maps come courtesy of The China Expat and explain the rest of the country in light-hearted terms as seen through the eyes of a Shanghainese. Click on the images to get a pop up interactive version complete with English translations. more ›

Hey check it out! Continuing in the vein of mapping out our private bits (see map of global penis size vs. IQ here), take a look at the world's boobs by breast cup size! Yet another example of Target Map's ability to provide indispensably important data in clear, geographical form. Unfortunately for China, they're not scoring too high on either index. The source of the boob data wasn't given, so we can't comment further on reliability or underlying variables. But it looks like some high fives might be happening up in Northern Europe and Russia... more ›

This Penis Size Map is from a completely serious new website called TargetMap.com. According to this map, Congo, Ecuador, Ghana, Colombia and Venezuela are the world's most well endowed nations, while South Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, India and Burma -- all in east Asia -- are the world's least well endowed. Chinese men, clocking in at 10.89cm (4.3in), are the world's #8 least well endowed. Unfortunately though, because of difficulty in collating data, what you see on this map is from statistics compiled at different points in time. The data for China was apparently from the heady days of revolution (and malnutrition) in 1953.
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Global Voices called our attention to a recent project created by an anonymous Chinese blogger devoted to charting incidents of violent eviction throughout China on a "Bloody Map" (xuefang ditu, 血房地图.) His motive is to inform the public and encourage new home buyers to boycott any property stained by violent acquisition. From his Sina account:

The goal of Bloody Map is to collect and list cases of violent eviction which have, or will, already faded from public view; some cases going back 2-3 years I had to dig up myself, but with your support, it'll be much easier. When I say that new housing is being built right now on land covered in blood, people know what I mean. more ›

• Who knew that one simple gesture, like holding your own umbrella, could mean so much? Obama made an awesome first impression by shielding himself from rain on Sunday evening, thanks partially to the habit of Chinese officials usually having a flukey to hold their umbrellas, P. Diddy style. [Wall Street Journal]
• The LA Times has a great look at the story behild Jiyuan, a place known for manufacturing lead batteries where lead poisoning has gotten so bad that entire villages are being evacuated. [LA Times]
• So should we be calling President Obama 奥巴马 (àobāmǎ) or 欧巴马 (ōubāmǎ)? Both have been used in press releases, though the U.S. Embassy said it was now standardizing the Chinese translation of Barack's last name and should now be using the latter exclusively. [Danwei]

While on our regular traverses through the internets, we came across these hilarious netizen-made maps detailing what people from specific regions of China think about the other regions around China. And if you've ever been in a conversation with a Chinese person, you'll know they're full of opinions about what their Henan brethren are like, or what those damn Shaanxi people are always up to. more ›

We'll be the first to admit that navigating Shanghai's streets can be a monstrous task at times. Maybe you're new to the city. Maybe, like some of us, you have the navigational ability of a sea cucumber. Either way, this shirt we found with a map of central Shanghai printed on it seems like the best low-tech way to get yourself un-lost. more ›

A blogger out of Fujian has compiled an open-source google map that places major pollution sites around china. While similar sources have existed in the past, this is the first one that allows other users to contribute sites with pollution problems. The map, which was created by Guo Baofeng, has attracted a lot of interest on Chinese BBS' and Forums: check it out while you still can, because you never know when it could suddenly disappear. more ›

Ever wanted to look at Shanghai through the lens of one of those older Sim City games? While we've discovered this 3D map of Shanghai before, James Fallows over at the Atlantic brought it to our attention again (it has been two years since we last swooned over it, after all) and we've re-realized how cool it is. It's called Edushi.com more ›

As is the tradition, each year Google creates a rumor or a hoax that is designed to give the internet community a bit of a giggle. This year Google rehashed an old theme especially for us Chinese "fools." more ›

Buses are everywhere and go everywhere in this city. But for those of us less familiar with the system, it can be tough to puzzle out which ones we can actually use. Well... did you know that Google Maps now shows exactly where the various bus lines running around the Shanghai area stop? Even though ditu.google.com is in Chinese, it's bound to be a great resource for anyone who lives more than a ten minute walk from a subway station. Hurrah! more ›

The Explore blog notes that a shuttle bus transfer is no longer required when traveling from Yishan Lu (Lines 3/4) to Guilin Lu (Line 9), or vice-versa. The best Shanghai metro map around has been updated to reflect this change. Have fun on Line 9! more ›

Source: Real Clear Sports more ›

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(2008 Edition) brought to you courtesy of the nice people at Immersion Guides (affiliated with the unfortunately named That's BJ Magazine/website/thebeijinger.com). We have a lot of Chinese guidebooks, but we have yet to encounter one quite so thorough as this one. At just over 700 pages, it leaves no stone unturned*. Covering everything from buying art to child rearing, it's a valuable resource for tourists and residents alike. more ›

The Crash Test Dummy Video Blog features videos of bike journeys around Shanghai. Recently they have been chewing over the same problem as Shanghaiist: Bought a good bike, Shanghai is great for cycling ... keep running into no-bike dead spots. Good for us, they have just released their first version of a Puxi cycle map. more ›

So if you’ve ever fancied travelling from I’m a hot dashing dinosaur (Shanghai Indoor Stadium) to Thoroughly Hawaiian Satanists (Shanghai South Railway Station) to Drab Penguin (Nanpu Bridge) now is your chance! more ›

When Shanghai resident and blogger Jakob Montrasio posted this photo on our Contribute Page, we wondered exactly when he visited the Forbidden City, because the blue skies in the photo weren't in Beijing last week when we were there. Then we realized the photo was taken in Zhejiang Province — a place called Hengdian World Studios (横店影视城) — where a seemingly life-size replica of the Forbidden City can be found (with a small mountain... more ›

A few months ago, we informed you of the latest information about the 15th edition of CBS' Survivor: China, to be held...in China (surpise, surprise). In a few short weeks, the show will debut after filming its episodes during July and August. As the stentorian narrator in this early promo for the show says, "For the first time, a major American show goes behind the Great Wall to shoot entirely in China. It's a place... more ›

Among the many things one can do to make China "lose face" in the international eye: more ›

Pioniers, a minor league team in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2007, he was signed by the Beijing Tigers of the China Baseball League (more info here). The CBL season already over, Kim recently answered some of our questions via email. more ›

Two bits of transportation news from random sources: more ›

The Shanghai Daily and local media report that a historic slaughterhouse located at 10 Shajing Rd in Shanghai's Hongkou district is set to open in July as a luxury shopping shopping center featuring "house jewelry and car shops". The old slaughterhouse, built in 1933, is famed for being one of three in the world with a unique octagonal architecture, and whose twisting passages, balconies and bridges have been a prized target for wily photographers who could talk their way into the off-limits building used as a factory and warehouse since the 1950s; this "reporter" couldn't get in, but others have. The Metro Express article-cum-press-release linked to above likens the project to Xintiandi and certain areas of the Bund, and reports that architects are referencing old photographs of the building during the restoration process. more ›

The back cover of yesterday's Xinmin Evening News featured the photograph to the right accompanied by an article centered on Mr Ding, a worker who has been employed at Shanghai historic Jiangnan Shipyard for 42 years. The reason that the photographer wrote the article is because he finally got the chance, through a photography contest, to tour the limited-access factory that was founded in 1856. And the reason that the newspaper published the article is that the factory is set to be moved to a new location; the buildings are being repurposed to serve as logistics, administration and public service bases, and supermarkets for the 2010 World Expo Park. more ›

This is a little old, but we have a feeling many of you haven't seen it yet. From what we have read and seen (front row last month at Yunfeng Theater) of ?uestlove, drummer for The Roots, we always thought the man also known as Ahmir-Khalib Thompson would be a pretty cool guy to hang out with. And then someone told us to check out his blog on MySpace and now our new goal in life is get invited to one of ?uestlove's cookouts should we ever leave Shanghai and move back to rockin' Conshohocken. His blog is an entertaining and honest glimpse into the life of a celebrity, although it seems as though he's not really sure if he feels like a celebrity yet. more ›