A heretofore unknown Ningbo businessman has been catapulted into the media limelight for becoming the very first person in China to own an entire island. Huang Yimin (黄益民) coughed up 3.44 million yuan ($540,000) on Tuesday to own the property rights of the island for 50 years. more ›

Recently, a fishing boat from Zhoushan, Zhejiang, was deliberately rammed and sunk by a rival fishing boat from Fenghua, Ningbo due to overlapping sea operations and a long-lasting territorial feud. more ›

In order to make way for metro line expansion, two high-rise building were demolished in downtown Ningbo on Wednesday. An 11-story financial center and 21-story riverfront high-rise were reduced to rubble in the largest ever demolition undertaken in the city. After a complex network of explosives were placed, it took a total of exactly 7 second for these two buildings to be carefully and simultaneously blasted to smithereens. more ›

There's some excellent bands in town this weekend (and we'll talk about them later), but there's also a couple of great reasons to head out of the city and catch some top music. more ›

Last week, intrepid Shanghaiist intern Kate Ray traveled with a classmate to the nearby island of Putuoshan, most famous for its Buddhist temples and monasteries. After a week of eating seafood and being stared at by tourists everywhere for looking somewhat non-Chinese, she has safely returned to Shanghai to share her hard-earned knowledge about the island... more ›

If you ever find yourself in Ningbo (about a two hour distance from Shanghai), check out their zoo. The staff have reportedly trained a sea lion to write a word in Chinese. Peter, a six-year-old male, can now write 牛 (bull), and sign off on his work with a special "sea lion" stamp. Cute! No word on whether the trainers will teach him anything else, since 牛 took him a good three months to master. Source: Ananova more ›

On Wednesday night, a Virginia Tech (维吉尼亚理工大学) graduate student from Beijing was decapitated in a cafe on the campus of the university. Yang Xin, 22-years-old, was starting her first semester as an accounting graduate student. She had only been on the campus for 13 days. more ›

For lots of young folk going back to visit their families, the Spring Festival can be a bit of a pressure pot. Many times, Chinese parents like to follow up the customary greeting of "Have you eaten?" with "So when are you getting married?" One 31-year-old in Ningbo was so desperate not to disappoint mom and dad that he posted a notice asking to hire a pretend girlfriend. more ›

The world's longest sea-bridge from Shanghai to Ningbo opened on schedule (May 1st), cutting travel time to the port city from 4 hours to 150 minutes. However not everything is going according to plan. more ›

A summary of some of the Shanghai public-transportation-related stories making the news lately:
• The longest ocean-crossing bridge in the world is set to open near Shanghai on May 1. According to the Shanghai Daily, "the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, which starts in southern Shanghai and ends in Ningbo, will shorten the trip between the two cities by more than 120 kilometers". Construction on the bridge began in 2003.
• Nanjing will soon join Beijing in banning foldable bicycles from their subway system, leaving Shanghai and Guangzhou as the two major subway systems that don't explicitly forbid them.
• The 10 year-old Xujiahui subway station underground shopping street was closed for renovations on March 31st, and will reopen by the end of the year with a new set of tenants and new entertainment options. Exits 1-7 will be closed during renovations. Xujiahui is the site of the future Line 1/9/11 interchange.