Scene of devastation at Juyuan Middle School (聚源中学) in Dujiangyan (都江堰) The government has announced the start of a massive probe to find out why close to 7,000 schools classrooms have been destroyed and promised that anyone found responsible for shoddy construction will be severely punished. A great many of the casualties we've seen so far are students and teachers who were still in class when the quake struck. From AFP:"If quality problems do......

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......

Al-Jazeera: The scenes of destruction and devastation, and the smell of death. Melissa Chan wins our thumbs-up once again with this report: AP catches up with the group of British tourists that have been rescued from the Wolong Panda Preserve: AP: "The focus of rescue workers is starting to shift to a recovery mission. The death toll is already approaching 15,000 and that number is expected to skyrocket. (May 15)" France24:"While the earthquake's death toll......

Right after the earthquake struck, Olympic officials maintained that the torch relay would go on as planned as "the epicenter is not along the route of the torch relay". In fact, one day after the earthquake, China Daily was still offering this really happy and harmonious image of the torch relay. That, unfortunately, did not go down well with people, and after a huge outcry on the Internet which saw Olympic organisers roundly lambasted for......

BBC reports that the group of British tourists on their way to Wolong when the quake struck has turned up unharmed. So far, the official word from Xinhua is that there have been zero foreigner deaths (Note: report is from Tuesday morning), but a more recent report from AFP cites Xinhua as saying two Chinese-Americans and one Thai tourist in Sichuan have yet to be located. This morning, we received an email from Shanghaiist reader......

The worrisome rise of pro-China youth [LA Times] " As human rights protesters dogged the Beijing Olympics torch relay, as supporters of Tibet condemned the violent crackdown in Lhasa, and as Darfur activists demanded change in China's Sudan policy, Chinese young people worked themselves into a different form of righteous anger."China’s Religious Character May Be Deeper Than Thought [Reuters] "Now a window has been opened on faith and religion in a country where six decades......

Photo from erussel1984Via email from Shanghaiist reader Ned: I just wanted to let you know there was a fire at approximately 3.45pm in the Shanghai Centre. I am not sure what floor it started on but was in the Portman Hotel. I work in the office tower and we had no warning until we saw smoke outside the windows. I got to the lobby with my camera but the staff made me delete the photos......

In a new interview with Radio Free Asia, Ching Cheong (程翔), chief China correspondent of the Singapore-based Straits Times, who was imprisoned for over 1,000 days on espionage charges and released earlier this year, gave his thoughts on the recent talks between Beijing and Dalai Lama envoys, Taiwan's relations with the mainland and nationalistic fervour among Hong Kongers. On the arrest of Hong Kong student Christina Chan during the Olympic torch relay there, Ching Cheong......

Just in case you missed it. Via CNN, everyone's favorite cable news network. Since we need to go walk the dogs before it starts raining again, we'll leave you with someone else's commentary (in 140 characters or less): it is a pretty amazing feat. not sure how the brits will top it for the london games..swim it across the channel? More from Google News. Direct link to video here, although you might have trouble accessing......

China nixes major academic conference ahead of Olympic Games [AP] "Without giving a specific explanation, Chinese organizers have pulled the plug on July's world congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, the latest in a slew of events to be canceled or postponed ahead of the games in August."Japan, China agree to regular summits on landmark visit [AFP] "The leaders of Japan and China agreed Wednesday to resolve a territorial row and......

Via Danwei: Media mogul, celebrity blogger and ICS host, Hong Huang (洪晃 or Huang Hung as she is known in the US) speaks to MSNBC on the recent outburst of Chinese nationalism. Her mother was Mao Zedong's English teacher. For a previous Danwei interview with Hong Huang, click here.......

Photo from Randy Meetings with Dalai Lama envoys Reuters: China, Dalai Lama aides agreed to talk again Washington Post: Envoys for Dalai Lama, China to meet again Monsters & Critics: China continues anti-Dalai Lama tirade after talks (Roundup) PTI: China accuses Tibetan group of Al-Qaida links AFP: Dalai Lama has committed 'monstrous crimes': China's state press The Yangpu bus blast Xinhua: Inflammable goods cause lethal Shanghai bus fire Wall Street Journal: Deadly Blast In......

This just in, from Xinhua: At least three people were killed in a bus explosion in Shanghai at about 9:00 a.m. Monday, according to fire fighters who rushed to the scene. The cause of the explosion is not yet known. Fire fighters estimated that there were about 50 passengers on board the No. 842 Bus, which suddenly exploded en route between the Guoxing Road and Shunguo Road in Yangpu District, to the northeast of Shanghai.......

Interesting piece by France24 on Shanghai student, Qiu Gonghao, who appears to be having the time of his life studying at the Ecole Polytechnic in Paris, one of the top engineering schools in France. Will this chap ever choose to come back to Shanghai, we wonder?......

From Al-Jazeera: "The Olympic flame has landed in Hong Kong, arriving back on Chinese soil, but it hasn't yet outrun the controversy that disrupted much of its journey around the world." From Al-Jazeera: "China has imposed a partial ban on smoking in public places in line with its aim to hold a smoke-free Olympic Games. Melissa Chan reports from Beijing." From AP: "Actress Mia Farrow was briefly questioned at Hong Kong's airport Thursday before officials......

Related links: AP: China blames speeding for train crash that kill 70 people Xinhua: French nationals hurt in China train crash to be treated in Beijing Xinhua: Military withdraw after completing train accident relief work Xinhua: Third rail official dismissed over east China train crash China Daily: Survivors recount pre-dawn nightmare......

President Kim Jong-Il may not have been there personally for yesterday's Olympic torch relay in Pyongyang, but that did not stop hundreds of thousands of ecstatic North Koreans from turning out in full force and waving the Kim Jong Ilia (flower named after the "Dear Leader") as the flame went across their city for the first time in the history of the Olympics. Earlier this week, DPRK officials promised the Chinese a smooth and trouble-free......

China's worst train crash in a decade happened yesterday somewhere between Qingdao and Beijing and killed at least 70 people. Fatalities did not include any foreigners, although a group of four French nationals travelling together were among the hundreds left injured. Terrorism was ruled out as a cause of the train collision and two railway officials (unnamed) have been sacked following the accident.Police in Guangdong province have busted a factory there for making Free Tibet......

From Associated Press: "A group of protesters planning to protest the Olympic torch relay in Hong Kong have been barred from entering the city, local media and activists say. They were questioned at the airport and put on a flight to London." (April 27) From France24: "The Olympic torch is travelling from its historic home in Olympia, Greece, to the Chinese capital Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games. Watch our special report on its relay......

Urban webzine SmartShanghai has closed down its online forum. After five odd years of heated discussions and raging debates, it was determined that the SmartShanghai Forum did indeed address and solve all the world’s problems, and it was decided that its purpose as a bastion of free speech and intelligent discourse was no longer required. So we’re taking a break from it for a bit, waiting for the world to get completely awful once again,......

News from the subway in the past couple weeks:"Can't the city give some street performers some space?" - Street performers in Shanghai are often lumped together with beggars as public nuisances, but often they are just free spirits chasing a musical dream. One cited example are Tuotuo and A-qing, a couple of guys who play the guitar and sing every evening at the City Plaza Mall in Jing'an, often attracting a crowd of mostly young......

Al Jazeera: "Transformed from being the land of bicycles into a land of cars, China's booming economy is driving up demand at a time when car sales are slow elsewhere in the world. Al Jazeera's Tony Cheng visited the Beijing motor show which showed much promise in making China the future of the automotive industry." Al Jazeera: "More than 80,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in China last year, making the country's roads the......

Danwei informs us that Carrefour.com.cn is currently "undergoing a website update and maintenance", but CarrefourS.com.cn is alive and hopping with nationalist messages and other "user-generated propaganda". Crazy times.......

Protests, protests everywhere — in Europe, within China, and all across the United States. Quite frankly, we can barely catch up with it all. Watch protestors shout "CNN liar! Cafferty fire!" in this video of the anti-CNN demonstration which took place outside CNN's studios in downtown LA that we told you about earlier. [h/t to Danwei] Related links Photos: Chinese students show their love for the motherland at Place de la République in Paris Anti-French,......

By Benjamin Cohen The major construction phase of the Shangzhong Road Tunnel is complete, finishing two years behind schedule.Police seized 10 kilograms of cocaine found attached under the hull of a foreign cargo ship.Some local ATM's will be outfitted with mirrors to prevent password theft and rear sneak attacks.Shanghai has seen a 10-fold increase in registered drug addicts since 2005 while police have seized increasing amounts of "new drugs" including ecstasy, ketamine and methamphetamine.An "Art......

By Benjamin Cohen "I Love Tibet, but I Hate the Dalai Lama," and "F*** CNN, Say No to Riots!" are two of the nine nationalist t-shirts for sale on Taobao.com (english version). The shirt's creators state, "Tibet was, is and always will be apart of China!" We're pretty sure they mean "a part" (h/t to Megan Shank). But semantics aside, these shirts show growing nationalist sentiment that first gained ground with MSN messenger displays of......

Since we broke the story on CNN's site outtage in China yesterday, the story was picked up by top US blogs such as Mashable and Gawker, although mainstream media continue to be strangely silent blissfully unaware of what happened. CNN's PR machine has since leapt into action as it seeks to explain what happened. This morning we received an email from CNN Worldwide's Director of Public Relations, Jennifer L. Martin, directing our attention to their......

Since we told you about the MSN (L) China campaign yesterday, the mainstream media in China has lapped it all up. Shanghai's Dragon TV today claimed a whopping 5 million MSN users. And just as you're wondering where the hell they plucked that figure from, Xinhua today quoted a paltry 2.3 million MSN Messenger users, and even has a very authoritative source to back that up:MSN China spokesman Feng Guangshun released the figure on Thursday.......

function fbs_click() {u=location.href;t=document.title;window.open('http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(u)+'&t='+encodeURIComponent(t),'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436');return false;} html .fb_share_link { padding:2px 0 0 20px; height:16px; background:url(http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/images/share/facebook_share_icon.gif?0:26981) no-repeat top left; }Share on Facebook Richard Brubaker of All Roads Lead to China talks to Magic of VisaInChina and throws in a few comments on the impact the new visa regulations will have on Hong Kong-China business:Just spoke to Magic, a well known consultant in Shanghai, about the current mess and it seems that the door opened again on the 16th…......

function fbs_click() {u=location.href;t=document.title;window.open('http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(u)+'&t='+encodeURIComponent(t),'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436');return false;} html .fb_share_link { padding:2px 0 0 20px; height:16px; background:url(http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/images/share/facebook_share_icon.gif?0:26981) no-repeat top left; }Share on Facebook Today we received the following two tips on our Contribute page:Dutch news sources say that tens of thousands of foreign students in China are being told to go home. Supposedly, instructions have been handed down to Universities that they are not allowed in China during August and September - even if a student continues their studies......