NBC's US$1 billion deal to become America's official Olympic media for the Beijing 2008 Games was part of a record breaking $2.3 billion deal that included the the 2004 Summer Olympics ($793m) and the 2006 Winter Games ($613m). In what they've called the single most ambitious media project in history, NBC has sent the largest media contingent of about 3,000 to produce a whopping 3,600 hours of coverage. While we were in Beijing last week,......

From NBC. We were looking for one to put in our sidebar, but this will do for now. Find any other good ones out there? UPDATE: For those of you who prefer the country with the most gold medals (or the European Union) on top:......

Three weeks after Canada's CBC News announced that it had re-secured permission to broadcast live from Tiananmen Square during the Olympics, more announcements have come out indicating that BOCOG is moving toward giving games broadcasters more freedom to report in Beijing this August. This Wall Street Journal report says an agreement was reached Wednesday that will allow broadcasters to air coverage live from Tiananmen from 6 to 10 a.m. and from 9 to 11 p.m.......

Lots of very encouraging news today:John Bergen of Sichuan Tech and Business College in Dujiangyan, the first missing foreigner that we posted here, has been found alive and kicking by NBC. He gives his account of the earthquake in the video on the right. Some of his fellow-teachers and students were not so lucky and did not escape from the earthquake, but Bergen says he is determined to stay on and help them rebuild the......

We attended the Chicago Improv All-Stars show at Henry's last night ... and we enjoyed ourselves. It kind of had the feel of a theme party at a friend's house (assuming that friend was very popular, brewed their own beer, had a very large living room with poorly placed pillars, was bad at training their staff and charged guests RMB 280 at the door). If you have ever seen an episode of Whose Line......

Forgive us, but we enjoy watching a game of American football every now and then (yes, even after that ugly display in London). Last year, we got in the habit of watching the NFL's Sunday and Monday night games on Monday and Tuesday morning here in Shanghai while we answered emails, fed the dogs and did other important things (we watched on ESPN Asia via our Filipino satellite system). Right now, for example, we'd be......

Jakob Montrasio points us to a most unbelievable ranking of the world's top 25 cities with skyscrapers published by the German magazine Spiegel: 1: Hongkong, China. 7422 skyscrapers. 2: New York City, USA. 5445 skyscrapers. 3: Singapore 3503 skyscrapers. 4 million people. 4: São Paulo, Brazil. 3012 skyscrapers. 10 million people. 5: Seoul, Korea. 2831 skyscrapers. 6: Istanbul, Turkey. 2093 skyscrapers. Over 10 million people. 7: Tokyo, Japan. 2074 skyscrapers. 12 million people. 8: Rio......

Watch this video clip of the poor receptionist girl working at Google China getting harrassed by a guy, Zola Zhou, (once) billed as "China's first citizen reporter". Zola first gained widespread attention for his blog reports on the Chongqing nailhouse. Hungry for more success, he also went to Xiamen to report on demonstrations against Haicang PX. Hell, he even got interviewed by NBC. In his latest reincarnation, Zola pays Google China a visit to complain......

Beijing will play host to an NFL preseason game next year, the professional American football league announced today (it had been rumored for a while). The New England Patriots will take on the Seattle Seahawks at 8:30 pm on August 8, 2007 in Workers Stadium. The game will be televised live in both the United States (NBC) and China (CCTV). (The Associated Press story, linked to above, said the game "will be shown live on......

At approximately 4:22 pm Beijing time today, North Korea test launched yet another missile amidst a sea of international furor and condemnation after six fired earlier in the day. Shanghaiist doesn’t pretend to be CNN, BBC, NBC or even our local New Jersey News Channel 13. But given our regional bias, we are very curious how exactly China is going to handle this sudden bout of international crisis dropped in its lap. Of course, no......

... so here are some AIDS-related links for you: Check out Shanghai's only AIDS-themed restaurant, on Yuyuan Road near Jing'an Temple -- free condoms!Shanghai will nearly triple its number of condom vending machines, adding 1,200 to the existing 700.Watch out for China's "HIV Fraudsters."China's AIDS cover up in Henan. Not pretty.Health Minister Gao Qiang makes some obvious statements.China to distribute 90,000 free AIDS prevention guidebooks written in Mongol, Tibetan, Uygur, Kazak and Korean. Is 90,000......