Uh oh! Is Shanghai Studio in trouble? According to Shanghai Daily, the "rowdy bar... has been warned it will be shut down if its customers continue to disturb residents. Apparently, not only is it noisy, "a surveillance camera captured two men having sex outdoors." Yeesh, and we thought our Halloween party there was crazy. The report said they're being given one more chance to keep things quiet before they get kicked out - which usually means, it's already been decided that they WILL be kicked out, but the local landlord is waiting for an excuse to look benevolent. Shanghai Studio has yet to comment. more ›

This short film was a winner in the recent Meiwenti Film Festival held last month. Produced by the (their name is a reference to the theme of the fest, "Assholes and Assholettes"), it takes on the constant renovations that seem to be taking part in EVERY COMPLEX IN SHANGHAI. more ›

I jumped for joy when taxi ads finally gave us the ability to first mute them, and then turn them off entirely. And now it looks like the Shanghai government will be taking greater steps to make sure ads are muted on subways and buses as well. Loud ads in public transport had already been banned by a regulation last year, but committee members complained that rules needed to be revised since nobody was following them. more ›

• Recession be damned! Shanghai shoppers spent more than 1.2 billion yuan over the past 3 days of the holiday weekend. This represents a 23.6% increase over last year. It seems none of us were able to resist the lure of deals, promotions, and other bargains that chased us around over the holiday. [Shanghai Daily]
• Although it might be a mess at the moment, some of that construction on the Bund is finally panning out - the new Pennisula Shanghai hotel is scheduled to open by mid-October. The hotel with combine Art Deco architecture characteristic of the area with modern luxuries. [Urbanatomy]
• Walking down the street with all of the traffic noise from the cars, buses, mopeds, old women yelling, and bicycles always manages to give us a headache. Shanghai is trying to clamp down on its bus drivers who are honking excessively by installing "horn-monitoring" devices that fine drivers if they are honking in a non-emergency situation. Although part of us is relieved to hear there will less noise, the other part now worries about getting hit by a bus even more. [Shanghai Daily]