"THE head of the city's transport watchdog, Sun Jianping, yesterday denied a rumor taxi fares would rise. Sun stressed a public hearing would always be held before any decision to raise taxi fares. According to the rumor, the taxi fare for the first 3 kilometers would be raised from 12 yuan (US$1.84) to 15 yuan. Sun did say the government is mulling a plan to lower the monthly dues taxi companies are allowed to collect from cabbies. The concern is to ease soaring work pressure on cabbies due to fuel price hikes." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

We don't know how long our city's mascot has been on the subway etiquette beat, but we were absolutely delighted to catch him at the People's Square station this afternoon, waving to people as two Expo volunteers reminded everyone that, on the escalator, the right side is for standing and the left side is for walking. more ›

Shanghai Daily is shouting that taxi cabs are now going to be more expensive. Starting from October 11th, the floor price will be raised from the 11RMB/3KM we've been used to all these years to a wallet-busting 12RMB/3KM. The stretch cabbies drive after that 3KM floor will be increased to 2.40RMB, from its original 2.10RMB per km. There was never a better time to learn how to ride the bus. more ›

How convenient! China Unicom customers can now have a payment card attached to their cellphone SIM cards, allowing them to swipe their mobile phones to pay for subway and bus fares. The transport bills will be tacked directly onto phone bills, and will receive the same discounts that regular transport cards currently get. All you have to do to get this fuction is go to a Shanghai Unicom outlet and ask for it to be added on. Unicom says these cards will soon be able to pay for shopping as well. Other carriers said they were developing similar systems. Japan and South Korea have had a system like this in place for a while now, and we're glad it's catching on in Shanghai too! Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

Apropos of nothing, the previously scrapped maglev train line that would have linked the Pudong and Hongqiao airports together is suddenly being dusted off again. Construction on the proposed 31.8-km train line was shelved in 2007, after everybody realized that it was a terrible idea. Well, at least we thought everybody realized it was a terrible idea. more ›

Following on from the story of a straight couple's clinch on the metro in January, the latest video doing the Chinese internet rounds is an all-girl couple getting frisky on line 2. more ›

That's right, lots of road closures, stronger than average nationalistic fervour, and even more tat being sold on the streets than normal can only mean one thing: the moment we've all been waiting for is here! The international leg of the relay might have been less than harmonious, and it might be three days later than originally expected (following an understandable postponement for this week's official mourning period), but tomorrow [Friday] will see the Olympic torch hit the streets of Shanghai. more ›