We already know that absolutely everything is already banned in China, including: foreign cat videos, networks of people having more fun than you, Western religious music, indoor smoking, console videogames, time travel, siblings, blue tree-worshipping cat people, Miley Cyrus, English usage in the media, pajamas in public, U.S. pork (since lifted), Bjork, and the employment of strippers at funerals. more ›

China is far from being the ideal model of "reduce, reuse, and recycle" but we did good in one area: cutting down plastic bags. more ›

Unlike so many of those elderly Chinese men we see on the street walking their miniature dogs (or birds) in their pajamas, Han Fushan, a 71-year-old retired engineer living in Beijing has found a way to give his community something nice to look at. Han spends much of his time transforming discarded plastic bags (fun fact: about 300 tonnes of plastic is thrown away a day here) into high-flying kites. In the process, Han has gained the attention of many fellow park-goers, garnering what Reuters calls a “solid fan base” through his now 600-strong collection of uniquely imaginative kites, some of which feature local sports stars and opera singers. Photo from Xinhua more ›

China's new ban on plastic bags came into force on Saturday, June 1, but as Gerald Tan of Al-Jazeera finds out, the ban is not without its social cost. The Huaqing Plastic Factory, what used to be China's largest plastic bag manufacturer has closed its doors weeks after the ban was announced in January, and with that, 20,000 people lost their jobs. more ›

Recently we've had the pleasure of dining in two local restaurants in Qingpu Town, technically part of Shanghai but very close to Jiangsu Province, and both times our plates, bowls, cups and spoon came vacuum packed in plastic, supposedly "sanitized" for our pleasure. We had never seen this before, despite having dined at our fair share of greasy spoons throughout the country. But the folks we ate with last night said plastic wrapped tableware is actually quite common, not only in Qingpu, but in Chongqing and other cities throughout China. Is this true? Have we totally missed the trend toward the restaurant equivalent of the plastic covered couch? It just looks so classy. If it is a trend, can it survive the upcoming plastics ban? more ›

This is Al-Jazeera's take on the new nationwide ban on plastic bags that begins June 1 this year. Apparently, Australia now also follows China's lead to ban plastic bags. Time to take your own bags when you go grocery shopping guys! Remember, you're helping China to save 37 million barrels of oil each year. more ›

In a surprise move that if enforced will lead to an undoubtedly cleaner Shanghai and China in general. The powers that be have decided that as of June 1st those ultra thin plastic bags (.025mm) that accompany virtually every purchase in China will be banned. The regular thickness plastic bags will still be allowed, but grocery stores and other vendors will be forced to charge for those bags and prices will need to be clearly marked. more ›

Someone on vacation two days ago at Baiyangdian (two hours away from Beijing) saw this most peculiar helicopter-like road sweeper machine, which looks like something the driver invented himself. This wonderful invention sweeps everything -- pebbles, rocks, plastic bags, rubbish -- down to the side of the road. Whatever you don't see is not there, right? We think the inventor deserves top marks for innovativeness, but something tells us it is not going to get patented anytime soon. more ›

Foreigners gobsmacked by Shanghai cab spittoons reads the headline of a Reuters report. The report refers to the reactions of "foreigners" to the spit bag idea, but only seems to cite a letter written by a foreigner into the Shanghai Daily. If we had known journalism could be this easy, we could have saved ourselves a lot of tuition money. But one thing's for sure. We need to spend more time reading British, because we had not idea what it meant to be "gobsmacked." more ›

The Shanghai Daily reports that cabbies are going to get plastic bags in their cars so that they don't have to spit outside. more ›

And here's the kicker: The tops of their skulls were sawed off. Forensics experts are now trying to determine whether they are human or monkey skulls, but the unlinkable South China Morning Post story makes it seem like there is little doubt that these skulls are human, and that these humans died not too long ago. more ›

Shanghaiist greeted the news that Zhang Yimou had gone back to making touching humanistic films set in the backwaters of China with some trepidation. We hope, after the disappointment of Hero and the even more atrocious House of Flying Daggers that Zhang has gotten this whole slick martial arts fantasia thing out of his system, like Michael Jordan and his minor league baseball lark. Zhang even managed to get veteran Japanese actor Takakura Ken for the lead role. Like Not One Less and The Road Home, the film is shot in a fairly realistic, almost documentary style and the plot is fairly lean, more a short story than a novel. more ›

If every single person in China’s population of over 1.3 billion people tossed 34 yuan in, let’s say, Shanghaiist's pocket, that would equal around 5.5 billion US dollars. That is the amount on money being wasted on disposable hotel supplies including toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, slippers and combs. China is becoming wary of this situation as well as its strain on the country’s finances. more ›