Results tagged “once”

As you’ve no doubt read about already here on Shanghaiist, this weekend could be one of the best for live music since we scuttled into the Year of the Rat. Therefore, you’ll forgive us if we don’t make it down to M on the Bund but instead spend our time over the next couple of days at slightly less refined venues checking out some great bands. Nevertheless, if books not beats are your thing, then M is the place to be as we enter round 3 of SILF (not to be confused with these SILFs incidentally).

Take a walk down Panyu (Fanyu) Lu from the Film Art Centre and you will soon pass by the SH508 restaurant. It occupies a slaughtered renovated colonial mansion adorned with a huge neon sign. Unknown to the proprietors, reviewers and most of the customers, this is actually the former family home of British writer J.G. Ballard.

A China Daily report dated 14 December 2007 suggesting that Beijing may make a temporary exception for banned foreign publications such as Playboy and The Sun has travelled around the world and created a mini-furore and lots of confusion back home here. Here are the offending paragraphs:

All pornographic material is prohibited on the mainland but a temporary exception could be made for the Games, according to the biggest importer of foreign publications in the country. "Our law forbids Playboy and we should obey this, but we can't rule out the possibility that it might make its debut. There might be a demand for it (from athletes or visitors) during the Games," said Liang Jianrui, vice-president of China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, which will manage the nine magazine-selling kiosks sanctioned by Olympic organizers BOCOG during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Continue reading "Will Playboy come to China?"

Troubling news has emerged over the last day regarding the tragic killing of a man in Tianmen, Hubei province.

If you've been browsing the DVD shops lately, you might have already come across Nanking, a documentary—of sorts—about the Nanjing massacre of 1937. The film consists of three elements: first-person accounts from survivors and eye witnesses, including Chinese civilians and soldiers as well as Japanese soldiers. These are all real people, telling their stories on film. Then there actors portraying some of the people, mostly Europeans and Americans, that played a role in setting up...

If tourism officials have their way, visitors to Beijing in 2009 will not only have to climb the Great Wall of China, but also the Great Wheel, says Ben Blanchard of Reuters. At 208 metres tall, the Great Wheel will be the world's largest ferris wheel — higher and bigger than both the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer which opens in March next year. Our eyes were drawn to these lines in the Reuters...

Shanghaiist's mailbox has been inundated by emails from all you naughty girls out there asking when the launch party to that Shanghai Hairy Crabs nude rugby calendar will be held. Well, gurls, mark your calendars and save the date! The action happens this Thursday at MAO from 8pm onwards! RMB200 gets you a Solid Vodka open bar, snacks, a goody bag, and yes a copy of that calendar (we know you've been waiting for it).

Eating with chopsticks can be tricky for those of us who first picked them up quite late in life. Even though we've been using them for a while, our frequent spillages suggest that we need to refine our chopstick wielding skills. Success in this endeavour will generate the same level of praise hitherto reserved for baby faced Channel V presenters and NBA basketball stars. We may exaggerate, but thanks to Gomestic (via Lifehacker) we have found the definitive seven step guide to becoming a chopstick maven.

If you've been still wondering how the woman who rammed her bike into the bus actually managed to do it, this one takes the cake! Today's Shanghai Daily tells us of a truck that got stuck under a bridge while trying to force its way through on Songxing Road in Baoshan District yesterday at 7pm. In fact:

Police said the driver knew the crane bases on his truck were taller than the bridge, but he still decided to "try his luck." Once the truck got stuck, the driver sped up to force his way out instead of backing out, police said.

OK, we all know about the Great Wall, the Great Firewall and the Great Green Wall. All that is old news now. Get this: China is now building a 6 million yuan, 40-kilometer (25-mile) long, 1 meter (3.3 feet) high wall around Dongting Lake in Hunan Province to guard against the 2 billion field mice that have been on the run from the flooded Yangtse River. Already, the mice have destroyed about 520,000 hectares (1.3 million acres) of crop land when rising water drove them from their burrows. And even the enterprising businessmen in Guangdong who sought to help by bringing the mice en masse to the dinner table did little to mitigate the situation.

Tuesday saw a new champion being crowned at the Shanghai Regional Finals of the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup at Bar Rouge. Although we were expecting to see a lot more fancy shmancy juggling and tossing, there was a wide variation in the style of cocktails, and plenty of showy tricks -- liquid nitrogen, torches, fancy garnishes and what have you. Cross from Vault Bar & Lounge, who used to be a chef, showed how the kitchen and the bar are coming much closer together, by completely reinventing the '90s nightmare with his 42 Rosemary Chocolate Martini which was topped with a Sichuan pepper foam. Alex of Volar, the second runner up will join Cross and Johnson Ren from Aria at the China World Hotel (the winner from the Beijing leg) in representing Team China in Queenstown, New Zealand for the grand final shakeoff. We didn't get to sample any of the winning creations (nobody knows we're a cocktail connoisseur), but before Cross heads down under, we might make our way to Vault and get him to make us his rosemary choctini (mmmm... death by chocolate). Once again, we hate to come across as taking yet another tired jibe at Bar Rouge, but service kinda left a lot to be desired (and we know we aren't the only ones complaining) on an otherwise splendid evening in a fabulous location. [Photos by Don Yap]

It's not been a good month for climbers in Sichuan Province. Ok, that's an understatement. It's been a damn awful month. At the beginning of July, the body of accomplished twice-climber-of-Everest Christine Feld-Boskoff was discovered on the remote mountain peak of Genyan Massif, half a year after the body of her partner in mountain-climbing was found (we told you how the two prominent mountain-climbers went missing here and here). Boskoff was believed to have died in an avalanche. Then, only days ago, government officials announced the discovery of Lonely Planet writer Andrew Clem Lindenmayer, found dead at Riwuqie Peak, 4,600 metres above sea level. And these are not Sichuan's only fatal findings – some simply only managed to make news footnotes, such as the uncovering of the body of a Japanese climber, who went missing 26 years ago.

The blog Lost Laowai has started a group writing project called "If I Knew Then What I Know Now." The general idea is for other bloggers to write about what they thought about China before actually moving out here and how different the reality actually is. Once the writer has finished the post, he/she can notify Lost Laowai and have it put up on the consolidated submission list for everyone's reading pleasure.

Still recovering from your May Holiday partying? Well, there's no respite. Here are a few things that Shanghaiist is keeping an eye on over the coming week.

You never know about reports issued on April 1, but we have good reason to believe that a recent Chinese report about the lack of sex that middle-aged Chinese couples have might be true. According to that report, issued by some population studies center, over 30% of middle-aged couples have, mostly due to stress and responsibility and busyness, given up their sex lives (放弃性生活), while 41% still maintain some kind of regular sex life. By contrast, only 25% of couples under 30 surveyed had given up on their sex lives. How the frequency of fucking is distributed for the remaining 75% was not included in the news article.

Avril Lavigne’s new single, “Girlfriend” from her new album The Best Damn Thing is already a hit, currently sitting at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the U.S. What makes Avril’s newest song unique is that she recorded an alternate version of the song partially sung in Chinese. In order to capitalize on her popularity in (East) Asia, she recorded the chorus of the song in Mandarin, as well as Japanese and five other European languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese. Hindi was attempted, but alas it proved too difficult for the Canadian singer. The chorus of the Chinese version is a direct translation from the English version of her song, which goes “I don’t like your girlfriend / You need a new one / I want to be your girlfriend / I know that you like me / It’s not a secret / I want to be your girlfriend”.

Last Saturday, Shanghaiist was invited to attend the unveiling of Shanghai's newest gallery space, m97. Once we negotiated the tricky shared building entrance, we made our way to the second floor and was immediately impressed by the physical space and airy nature of the gallery. The grand opening featured an exhibition of by emerging Beijing photographer and artist Jiang Zhi titled "Things Would Turn Simpler Once They Happened". Immediately we had diametrically opposing thoughts. "How were these photos taken?", and "I don't quite get it...". We wished that our interpretation of the photographic exhibition was as simple as the exhibition's title, but we assume this is the art part of the exhibition. Here's a little about Jiang Zhe (pictured below) and his exhibit from information posted by m97.

We have seen GPS units in Shanghai taxis before, but the one we saw yesterday (pictured) seemed a little cooler than most (if the word "cool" can in fact be used to describe a GPS unit in a taxi).

Just what exactly is the attitude of people in Shanghai towards luxury items? It seems, from some reports, that China is the third largest market for luxury items after the US and Japan, with the added benefit of less taxes to "curb barbaric luxury consumption." Once the province of super-rich (men), luxury goods consumption in China is now in part being driven by women. Another interesting phenomenon is that people in Shanghai are more cynical towards brand-names than are people in second-tier cities, who are now the hard-core true believers.

Director Nick Broomfield recently released Ghosts (鬼佬) on the film festival circuit. The movie tells the story of Chinese illegals eking out a living in England, and although we searched quite thoroughly on a recent trip to the states, evidently it is only showing in England at this time. Therefore, because we have yet to see Ghosts, we cannot comment much further, and instead, here is the synopsis from the movie's website.

Realtor accused of power theft

"Jones Lang LaSalle, a global real estate management firm, is under police investigation for alleged theft of a huge amount of electricity at a luxury residential property in Shanghai."

Police probe mass murder in Pudong fish pond

"More than 10,000 kilograms of fish, which were being raised for sale to restaurants and wet markets, were found dead in the pond on Tuesday."

Love/Perfect/Change Ends in Shanghai; Will Tour China

"With the critical and audience acclaim that it received in Shanghai, the production will kick off a national tour of China in Beijing in 2007. A complete list of dates and cities will be announced soon. "

Shanghai's first water bar

"FCC's Aqua Bar boasts more than 30 varieties of water, including bottles from England, Scotland, the United States, Italy, Norway, Serbia, France, Spain, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands and New Zealand." Ridiculous.

Shanghai issues yellow alert for fog

"Shanghai weather bureau issued this morning yellow alert for fog, which means the visibility in some area of the city is no more than 500 meters."

Chinese sense of humor? You've got to be joking

"I've studied the speech patterns of Chinese people of all walks of life. They are invariably dry and devoid of humor. Former Premier Zhu Rongji has it, but he is one of a kind."

Rush to modernize revives past sins

"But even these remarkable changes pale next to the astonishing transformation of the Communist Party. Around 1980, the party leadership admitted that three decades of orthodox Communism had produced little economic gain and constant political upheaval."

Senior Shanghai official involved in pension scandal dismissed from city legislature

"Ling, director of Shanghai's State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, was dismissed for 'seriously violating disciplines', said the committee in a report."

China blocks entry to Scorsese's Departed

"China's movie censor will not approve Golden Globe-honoured film The Departed for domestic cinematic release due to its mention of a Chinese plan to buy military equipment, government sources said."

Once again, Starbucks ain't the problem with the Forbidden City

"But in the years since Starbucks brewed its first mediocre latte in the famous, imperial redoubt, Beijingers have become used to seeing the shops in every available space. It's second only to coal smoke and yappy dogs in its ubiquity in Beiijing."

Row as Pompidou plans Shanghai branch

"The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris is to open a 'branch' museum in Shanghai, deepening a row in the French art world about the alleged commercialisation of national art treasures."

Beijing Olympic organizers vow to punish online spoof of Olympic symbols

"Internet users have transformed the emblem for the 2008 Beijing Olympic into signs for male and female public restrooms."

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Photo by jules_shanghai found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.

Last October, Shanghai Daily announced plans for a city-wide wireless broadband network:

Lucky for Shanghaiist, we won't be. But we certainly feel for people who will be stuck in the city for the holidays. So we've compiled an incomplete list of a few things to keep you occupied while your friends are back home drinking eggnog and getting wasted with family around the Christmas tree.

After almost half a year, Shanghai’s iconic “alternative lifestyle nightclub”, Home Bar, officially reopened last week under its new brand, Pinkhome. It has been transformed from its previous existence into what is China’s first gay multiplex including a dance club, restaurant/lounge, and hotel. As some readers may remember, there was a pre-soft (is that a word?) opening last October for the bar, after which the establishment was closed again until renovations were completed. For those of us privy to that event, the ground floor décor looked much the same as it did in October, though, vastly different from the old, gritty, but lovable Home.

More than you ever wanted to know about buying fruit from street vendors

We're sure there are other members only bars in Shanghai, but they would actually require memberships for you to enter. Not Southern Cross, at 1276 Huaihai Zhong Lu, not too far from Huating Lu and across the street from the No. 2 entrance for the Changshu Lu metro stop. The sign outside says "Member's Bar" and the door is locked. But all you need to do is knock on the door and pay 50 kuai to become a "member" for the evening. Here's what their photocopied "Membership Table" says:

Don’t panic yet, but seriously, it might be inappropriate to say "Bund 18" in the future. According to this Eastday report (in Chinese), one of the 2006 government projects -- cleaning up the city's street names -- is going to be finished by the end of this year. There are 838 roads involved in this project: 146 road names are going to be written off, 154 road names are going to be changed and 225 road names are going to be prefixed. (We've checked the street names that will be written off and fortunately they are all in suburbs, like Qingpu, Fengxian and Baoshan)

Christopher St. Cavish, motorcycling philanthropist

Hu Run unveiled his annual list of the richest folks in China (that Hu Run can find info on) yesterday in Shanghai. Once again, Shanghaiist contributors missed the cut by a few billion kuai. Bummer! In a list of names that we know very little about and care little for, there is one interesting twist: A new king has been crowned ... or queen rather. Huang Guangyu after sitting atop the exclusive list for two years running have been knocked off his regal perch by Zhang Yin (pictured), who rang in at an astounding 27 billion kuai, dwarfing Huang’s paltry 20 billion sum.

This morning, via Micah's blog, we learned of this posting on Rockself.com: