Cue the sound of a needle being taken off a record: Putuo district planning officials just announced yesterday that the graffiti wall running along Suzhou creek on Moganshan Lu (莫干山路) next to the M50 Creative Garden will see the wrecking ball before year's end, as the area will be redeveloped for commercial purposes. more ›

Yikes! A hairy situation occurred at a Shanghai salon when a man surnamed Zhao refused to pay after receiving a haircut, with Zhao subsequently being locked in a dark room by salon employees. more ›

Sounds frighteningly mafia-ish, doesn't it? From Shanghai Daily: "Police from Putuo and Jiading districts said DNA tests will be carried out to see if the body parts belong to the same person. At this point, officers said they believe the parts belonged to the same woman. Part of a human torso was found in Xinchapu Creek in Jiading on Saturday and a left leg was found in the same creek in Putuo the next day. Police are searching for the other body parts. The cause of death was unclear. "We found cuts on the torso that look like they could be from a boat's propeller, but we still don't know whether it was a murder or an accident," said a Jiading officer surnamed Chen." more ›

Here's Part II of my attempt to take a closer look at all of Shanghai's 155 "important heritage sites" that are currently unprotected. Here are the houses and locations in Huangpu, Zhabei and Putuo districts which include amongst them the first homes of Shanghai's most notorious gangsters, a gorgeous villa of the founder of China's largest pre-revolution English-language newspaper and the mill where a protest leader was killed, sparking China's May 30th anti-foreign movement! more ›

Shanghai Daily has published some interesting figures on city corruption. Apparently 822 government officials in Shanghai were punished last year, including 10 sub-ministry level officials and 62 division chiefs. Amongst them was Zhang Kepeng, former vice director of the city's Putuo District, and former VP of Shanghai Huayi Co., both for taking bribes. more ›

It's four days to the opening of the Olympics and it looks like everyone's nerves are getting super-jittery. A mysterious black roller suitcase found at Tesco's outlet on Guangxin Lu in Putuo District caused a minor bomb scare yesterday evening around 8.30pm. All customers were evacuated and the police soon arrived, only to find that the suitcase contained absolutely nothing. [China Daily] more ›

A month after the tragedy in Sichuan you’d be forgiven for feeling a little compassion fatigue. Whilst the focus of the recovery process has changed from the desperate speed of the first few days, there is still a lot of work to be done repairing damage both physical and emotional. more ›