There's a pretty sweet interactive feature on the NY Times website right now that let's the reader have a virtual experience atop the 10M diving platform at the National Aquatic Center (aka "Water Cube"). It includes a minute long audio description from American Olympic diver Thomas Finchum, but the real highlight is playing around with the panorama. We wish we could be there ourselves except we're afraid of heights. And water. And mobs of people. And oh yeah, we're not Olympics athletes, so this will be a nice alternative. more ›

"China's giant centre Yao Ming will undergo surgery Monday to fix a stress fracture in his left foot, the Houston Rockets announced on Saturday." more ›

Southeast Asian pact exposes rifts [NY Times] Southeast Asian leaders signed a charter here today that was drafted as a watershed document to bind the region together as a European-style economic community but has instead exposed the sharp divisions over Myanmar and other issues among the signatories.Malaysia busts DVD lab in its biggest raid in 2007 [Reuters] Malaysia has raided a laboratory capable of churning out $52 million worth of pirated DVDs a year in... more ›

European efforts to encourage a speedier appreciation of the Chinese renminbi will step up a gear this month amid concerns the euro is bearing the brunt of global macroeconomic adjustments. more ›

Two Italian soldiers kidnapped in Afghanistan were freed on Monday during a raid by NATO-led troops. more ›

This Youku video shows some women offering old men massage hanky-panky, all out in the open in an unnamed city, for as low as RMB5! The world's oldest profession is alive and well in China, and it is everywhere. more ›

Crossing the Line - a documentary by VeryMuchSo Productions with Koryo Tours more ›

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. more ›

A few weeks ago, Shanghaiist spoke out against a nitwit AP writer who penned a story about absolutely nothing (and not in the Seinfeld "good nothing" kind of way). Well, our friend at the AP seems to have resurfaced, this time in Shanghai, writing for our city’s finest English language newspaper, Shanghai Daily, under the assumed name “Yuan Qi”. Alright, we admit, this sounds a bit far-fetched. But, we did spot a story that reeked of his style. more ›