The Olympic torch moves today to Qinghai Lake in the Northwestern province of Qinghai, after making a one-day cameo in Lhasa. The Saturday visit to the Tibetan capital was carefully monitored in light of March’s uprising, and tight security continues in the province that was another sight of spring unrest. As the torch makes its way through China’s heavily-minority sections, several pieces of interesting news and commentary have surfaced covering the situations of various ethnic......

As China rapidly climbs to world economic power, some enterprising individuals are emigrating here in the hopes of finding a new version of the American Dream. Blogging For China translates an article from the Southern Metropolis Daily on African traders who move to China (notably the city of Guangzhou, which currently holds an estimated 100,000 Africans) with the same burning desire of an earlier generation who emigrated to America: a better life. Many of them......

Photo taken from one of many now-endangered Filipino satellite dishes. Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos at shanghaiist.com.......

Xinhua has announced that from next month on, international passengers will no longer need to fill out quarantine forms when they enter China, and as Shanghai Scrap notes, the changes are just in time for the bird flu season!In yet another ridiculously redundant ranking, Forbes has named Shanghai as the 10th most densely populated city in the world. The data used by Forbes is highly questionable though. According to them, Shanghai has a population of......

Shanghai wants 50 top minds every year “Local authorities are offering lucrative packages to lure leading academics to the city under a new scheme to help boost its competitiveness.” Shanghai to launch int’l channel targeting foreigners “The ICS programs, covering news, information, fashion, entertainment, foreign TV shows and movies, will be aired in English and Japanese, with Chinese captions, for 19 hours a day.” Shanghai GM to launch Buick LaCrosse hybrid prior to Olympic......

The last time an anchor from our favourite TV channel made it to the news, he created such a brouhaha that culminated in the eviction of one coffee company from the Forbidden City. In the news this time is New Zealand-born anchor Edwin Maher who for many years before arriving in China was a weatherman with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Los Angeles Times published a profile of Maher that started it all off. It......

WINOPETE AT THE RACE TRACK: MELBOURNE CUP DAY PARTIES "There's only 50 metres to go and favourite Waikikamukau is two lengths in front of King Witchety Grub, but Son of Pharlap is charging down the outside and takes the race by a nose! What a boilover!" Where is the only place on the planet where a public holiday is declared because of a horse race? It's our hometown of Melbourne in the fair land of......

South Korea starts construction of space centre [Channel News Asia] Asia's space race is heating up with China's latest launch of its first lunar orbiter. And neighbouring South Korea is working hard to catch up.Malaysian police officer denies illegally amassing US$8m in assets [Channel News Asia] The head of Malaysia's Commercial Crimes Investigation Division has denied allegations that he illegally amassed more than US$8 million in assets. India rediscovers East Asia [Asia Times] The visit......

Excitement is palpable among the crowd as China launched its first lunar orbiter, the Chang'e One satellite (named after the goddess of the moon 嫦娥), half a century after the Russians became the first to set out to space. Related links LA Times: China launches its first lunar orbiter Sydney Morning Herald: China joins Asian race to the moon Euronews: China launches lunar ambitions with moon shot Herald Sun: China sends first rocket to moon......

... and the rumor-mill is running in overdrive. Recent reports suggest that Shanghai Party Chief Xi Jinping's (习近平) recent entry into the race - apparently at senior leader Zeng Qinghong's (曾庆红) insistence - has shaken things up; forcing Hu Jintao to make some last-minute maneuvering. The Jiang Zemin and the Hu Jintao camps both want their own guy to take over the top-job in 2012, and each are doing their best to make it happen.......

Left: 22 year-old Lewis Hamilton suffered the shame of his first DNF ("did not finish") last weekend at the Shanghai leg of the F1 Championship after he spun into a gravel trap at the start of the pit lane. Kimi Raikkonen won the race but Hamilton may still be the world champion if he wins or comes in second in the upcoming Brazil leg. Middle: The wet weather did not stop Korean megastar Rain......

The Shanghaiist Weather Center is 100 percent sure the answer will be yes (although is Shanghai Circuit really in Shanghai?). It's dry now in the French Concession, but the dark clouds above suggest it won't stay that way for long. Here's the latest weather update from the official Formula 1 website: Thus far Sunday has been dry with a little wind, but no sign of the edge of Typhoon Krosa, which is sweeping through the......

20 year old Cuban Dayron Robles stole the show yesterday at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix yesterday with an impressive 13.01 sec at the 110m hurdles event. Together with Anwar Moore of the United States, he trumped Liu Xiang who disappointed a highly expectant home crowd. Liu's poor performance was to be expected though. Just four weeks ago, he became the first man from China to win a gold at the world championships with a......

Shanghai is back in Beijing's good books. Or so an article published by the People's Daily two weeks ago indicates, claims the Associated Press. The article, titled "Glad to hear the new good tidings from Shanghai", lavished praise on Shanghai for it's recent successes. "A golden breeze refreshes Shanghai; one important, auspicious event after another" gushed the lead article. It is a sign, claims AP, that the fallout from last year's pension scandal has started......

Tonight 8pm NEXTSTEP @ Vintage Living 3F, 2068 Nanjing Xilu, by Yongyuan Lu, T: 6249-0469 Calling all Shanghai entrepreneurs! Come meet new faces and get to know other like-minded individuals at this week's NextStep event which features Tony Mustafa of Essential Finance. All are welcome, no membership required, and no cover charge. Wednesday 8pm Shanghai Skate Nights @ Shanghai Concert Hall 523 Yan'an Dong Lu (near Xizang Lu) The bi-weekly Shanghai SkateNights continues to gather......

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Student comes under fire for rap video of Malaysia's national anthem An ethnic Chinese Malaysian student has enraged ministers and the man in the street alike with his allegedly seditious rap video of the Malaysian anthem. In the video, he raps about racial discrimination against the Chinese, corrupt cops and indolent civil servants, most of whom are Malay. He does so against the Malaysian flag, with the Negaraku melody playing in......

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......

Gold, silver, bronze? Nah. According to Bloomberg.com athletes the world over have smog on their minds when it comes to the quadrennial Olympics competition next year in Beijing. Gunn-Rita Dhale, Norway’s reigning world champion for women’s mountain biking had this to say about her future host city, It's probably the most polluted place I've ever competed. Your mouth and throat dry up because of the dust. It's not good for the system. Clearly, Ms. Dhale......

They're looking for foreigners, and they want blood. Especially if it's RH-negative. In an attempt to diversify their blood bank, the Shanghai Blood Center is calling for foreigners to start rolling up their sleeves en masse (you'll want to click the link to SBC's webpage-- it involves anthropomorphized blood drops, dancing). Since blood type correlates with race, many types common in the West are all but nonexistent in China. In addition to collecting and providing......

Anhui Television has uncovered the story of Tao Xing (陶星), a 16-year-old student from Yueyang, Hunan Province, who has recently come under the spotlight for his loving care of his mother. It all started when the owner of the store next to Tao Xing's school told his teacher-in-charge that the boy was buying sanitary napkins on a monthly basis. She had thought that the boy was "up to no good" and told him that he......

We went to the last Pecha Kucha night in Shanghai. We had a good time. We recommend you attend the next one being held this upcoming Saturday. We would elaborate more but we are sleep deprived and cranky. So, without further ado, the old straight-from-the-source trick: Pecha Kucha is known worldwide as an open night for architects, designers, photographers or anyone who wants to share their ideas and dreams. This time we will go back......

Shanghaiist needs a massage. On Saturday we took part in the 2007 Great Wall Marathon, a race of 42.195km (26 miles), including two stretches of about 9km each on the Great Wall itself. The rest in the countryside. About 1,300 runners — a lot of Americans, some South Africans, Australians, Mexicans, Dutch, Danish, British, a few French ... and even four goats and an Olympic female mountain biker from New Zealand — took part......

Guangdong, China - 25 year old Chinese woman Yang Huiyan is now Asia's richest woman and China's richest person after her father transfers his shares to her and the company debuts on the Hong Kong stock exchange. At $9 billion, Yang is richer than George Soros, Steve Jobs of Apple and Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. But sorry guys, she is already married!Singapore - Founding father of modern Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, acknowledging the view......

For those expats out there who've ever wondered what it might be like to get behind the wheel of an automobile here in Shanghai, this is your lucky day. Thanks to the USA Today, that bastion of impartial journalism and cutting-edge video game development, you can now race the streets of Shanghai on 10 circuits in one of five super charged hot rods—all for the low price of only US$19.99. Think of how much money......

Shanghai in hot debate over pets "The anti-pet brigade, angered over noise and mess from domestic cats and dogs, is lobbying the authorities for tougher restrictions on pet ownership, as the number of people keeping them without a license increases." FedEx plans new domestic China service "FedEx's domestic China service will flow from its hub at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in east China's Zhejiang province. ... Domestic carrier Okay Airways will provide air transportation,......

Tech Flocks To Shanghai "According to a report from Russell Reynolds Associates based on Shanghai government statistics, 144 foreign companies now have their Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai, 48 of which established operations there only in the last year." City traffic police tougher on jaywalking "Besides receiving a verbal reminder of the violation, jaywalkers and cyclists will be fined between five yuan to 50 yuan, depending on their behavior and attitude." Shanghai Surprise "If you......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the......

At the risk of becoming Kunmingist for the day, we wanted to pass along info on a Kunming rapper who looks like he could be China's answer to Digable Planets (are we showing our age?). Here's a snippet from GoKunming's profile of Hu Xuan: Only a year ago, Kunming native Hu Xuan was in the thick of the rat race in the fast-paced coastal metropolis of Guangzhou, working as a journalist during the day and......

AsiaPundit » Blog Archive » iPhone Now Available in China "Even though the official Asian launch date for the Apple iPhone is not until 2008, users of the China’s Taobao auction site can already buy the ‘revolutionary’ phone. No wonder Taobao could beat eBay in the China market ..." (tags: china iphone gadgets tech taobao) Syphilis epidemic raging in China, says study - Yahoo! News "Syphilis, virtually eradicated in China under Mao Zedong, has......

Shanghai's largest shopping mall is linked to the pension fund scandal.The long awaited parity of the HK Dollar and the RMB was a typo?!Shanghai Wenguang Media group is helping release the film Men (《门》) simultaneously in the theaters and on the internet and mobile devices.Bored during the holidays? Grab one of the hot selling books on Chen Liangyu and the pension fund scandal.China's military white paper says: no arms race.Shanghai's energy white paper: 20% energy......