Only shortly after a scandal involving the the Red Cross' financial management was uncovered, they have to deal with another scandal. This one involving a bratty rich 20-year-old mini-blogger called "Baby Guo Meimei" (郭美美Baby), openly flaunting all her riches (huge villa, designer handbags, luxury cars and high end cosmetics) on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter. And, she claims to be the general manager of Red Cross Commerce, allegedly a company that handles advertising for the Red Cross on vehicles. more ›

Last Friday, a microblogger posted a receipt from a lunch held for 17 people by the Luwan Shanghai Red Cross totaling 9,859RMB (about $1,500.) Now dubbed the "million dollar meal", the revelation has enraged the public and led to calls for a boycott and an audit of all expenditures made by the organization. Red Cross Shanghai has been quick to ineptly defend itself by clarifying that they are in fact a government body with a government-provided administrative budget that doesn't come from donations. In his almost comical defense (if it weren't so downright enraging), here's Global Times quoting Tian Yongbo, a former publicity officer for Red Cross Shanghai: more ›

Last week marked the passing of one of the most influential people in China's environmental protection circles. Liang Congjie, the founder of Friends of Nature, passed away on October 28 in Beijing after a long illness. His conservation work with FoN has helped save both the Tibetan antelope and the snub-nosed monkey, but what he and FoN are most proud of is "helping to foster a growing network of grassroots environmental NGOs throughout China." For more on Liang, read some touching obituaries from NGOs in China, Christina Larson at The Atlantic, and the New York Times. more ›

Earlier this year, we brought you the news that Shanghai’s youth values are turning a shade greener, with ever increasing awareness of and activism in China’s environmental movement. This is thanks in part to the expansion of NGOs in China. We went along to meet Tori Zwisler, the executive director of Shanghai Roots and Shoots, and recent recipient of Shanghai Volunteer Association's '2009 Volunteer of the Year' award, to see how her organisation is educating and empowering the city’s youth. more ›

Shanghaiist recently caught up with Philippe Tzou, the Shanghai Couch Surfing volunteer. Couch Surfing is a great non-profit organization that helps people travel around the world staying in the homes of like minded people and sharing their knowledge and experiences. Shanghai has developed a unique CS community. As Shanghai-resident Philippe Tzou’s current guest Sascha Wenzlick put it: In Germany loads of people have CS accounts so you don’t get requests to surf so often. But in Shanghai you get weekly requests and CSers even confer to share the guests around. more ›

During his discussion with Kerry Brown and Duncan Hewitt at the recently held Shanghai International Literary Festival, Paul French quoted British environmentalist Jonathon Porritt as saying that "the biggest problem with the environment in China is that nobody in China could care less about it". more ›