As Jake Newby told you in our previous post:With backing from a live Icelandic brass section (the ingeniously named Wonderbrass), songs such as the horn heavy ‘Wanderlust’ demonstrated Björk’s gift for spectacle and her incredible delivery, before she closed out the set with the anthemic ‘Declare Independence’, chanting the name of a huge piece of real estate west of Sichuan and Yunnan amongst a hail of streamers. The Deutsche Presse Agentur confirms:[Bjork] shouted "Tibet, Tibet!"......

Having soft-opened since February 9th, Lawry's the Prime Rib is ready to put on its best face for Shanghai's beef lovers beginning with its grand opening tomorrow. Shanghaiist was able to do some preview dining and we were left with one distinct impression: this place takes its prime rib traditions very seriously. The Xintiandi restaurant is this famed Los Angeles chain's first foray into the mainland, but it is plenty experienced in Asia with successful......

Photo from Yansi Gordon Brown's China trip The Independent: Brown invites China's 'big red chequebook' to Britain Reuters: Brown hails environmental work with China Xinhua: British PM visits Shanghai The China Eastern saga Bloomberg: China Eastern `Doubts Sincerity' of Air China Bid Forbes: Air China parent formally proposes China Eastern tieup, to reveal details Jan 22 Trading Markets: China Eastern Airlines suspended from trading in Hong Kong China's land rush WSJ: Buying Into China's Land......

Photograph of the Trump Soho by Riccardo Sinti Gothamist went to the scene of the Trump Soho construction collapse, which left one construction worker dead and others injured (an indirect culprit - Manhattan's hot real estate market, causing rushed construction jobs).Shanghaiist is confused by media reports as to whether Playboy will be available in China during the year of the Olympics.LAist got fugged in an interview with the Go Fug Yourself girls.Torontoist set hearts......

DONGPING ROAD: DOOMED OR REDISCOVERED? As some readers may know, the strip of Dongping Road on the south side from Hengshan to Yueyang Roads is leased to the bars, restaurants, tailors etc by the music college behind them. Most of the leases are coming up for renewal over the next 2-12 months.There has been some concern that the music college may decide to reclaim their land for their own expansion purposes, rather than renew the......

The 3rd annual Shanghai International Creative Industry Week is going on through Wednesday the 21st. We went to opening night last Thursday and were able to get a sneak peek into the 1933 building mentioned a few posts back, where some of the exhibitions were still being touched up at the last minute. One of the purposes of the SICIW is to bring together art and design entities from all over the world into one......

On Friday, the People’s Bank of China raised mortgage interest rate and hiked minimum down payment needed for purchasing investment and commercial properties. In a joint announcement with China Banking Regulatory Commission, the PBoC said It is clear that the rapid rise in real estate prices is due to irrational factors and the market risks for commercial lenders are increasing. Just two weeks earlier, Wu Xiaoling, the vice governor of the PBoC was quoted by......

How should a government combat runaway inflation? Most sensible economists would suggest a series of tightening monetary and fiscal policies to realign the aggregate supply demand picture. Well, China has raised interest rate four times this year, twice last month, to no avail. Prices, at both the producer and retail levels continue to bubble up, as do asset prices, such as the real estate and the equity market. So we get this, from AP’s news......

The Aluminum Company of America, better known as ALCOA sold its entire 7 percent stake in its largest Chinese counterpart, Aluminum Company of China, or CHALCO for short (ALCOC just doesn’t quite have the same pizzazz, not to mention potentially misleading). ALCOA acquired the Chalco stake for roughly USD $200 million back in 2001 when the Chinese firm went public in Hong Kong. And six years later, the same stake just exchanged hands for 10......

Number 3 Baoqing Rd, at the corner of Huaihai Rd near the Changshu Rd metro station, is an old colonial-style house with almost 4000 square meters of attached private gardens. For 55 years, award-winning and state-honored Shanghai painter Xu Yuanzhang and his family have lived in this house, upkeeping the house and gardens that his grandfather Zhou Zongliang purchased from a German owner seven years after it was built in Shanghai's booming 1930's. But......

An increasing chorus of bloggers (including ourselves) have written extensively about the recent anti-competitive price-fixing moves by Chinese fast food chains, instant noodle manufacturers, milk producers and state-owned airlines. Now, even China Daily columnist Raymond Zhou has contributed his own tune to the cacaphony of voices in an article Thou shalt not collude on pricing. From the article: Thou shalt not collude on pricing, the regulatory god said unto the Moses of industries in most......

Shanghai Normal University's Geography vice-dean drowns after saving student's life [Shanghai Daily] He Baogen, 45-year-old vice dean of Shanghai Normal University's geography department, has been found dead in a tidal creek at Dongtan wetland on Chongming Island on Friday morning. He was swept away by the rising waters while trying to save a student's life. Olympics `like a spiritual event' for Beijing residents [Mercury News] "Perhaps the greatest attribute the Chinese are revealing to the......

China's west swelters under record high temperatures. Westernmost China's Xinjiang region was under a blistering heatwave Sunday, with the mercury hitting as high as 44.8 degrees Celsius (112.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Turpan city, a local official said. Analysts warn China vulnerable to a Japan-style debt meltdown. Today, China could be ripe for a crisis of its own that might resemble the collapse of Japan's "Bubble Economy" in the early 1990's and have enormous global impact,......

We’re sure everyone has forgotten due to a lack of media coverage, however, Shanghai will be hosting the 2010 World Expo. In order to prepare for Shanghai’s debut on the world stage, several construction projects are underway. After all, Shanghai has to upstage former World Expo hosts, such as Knoxville in the US, Hanover in Germany, Aichi Prefecture in Japan, and the main rival, the 2008 host Zaragoza, Spain. The newest construction project, announced......

Shanghai's bank lending soars in April "Most of the loans went to the manufacturing, water conservancy, real estate and retail and wholesale sectors," Mainland investors transfer RMB70 billion from savings to stocks until April this year. "The investment spree has aroused concern from the industry watchdog." Alleged HK insider-trading scandal draws criticism from the US "A light regulatory regime, lightning fast flows of information and gossip, plus a get-rich-quick-at-all-costs ethos make markets such as......

China's most lethal illness is.... cancer "Cancer topped the list of ten most lethal diseases for urban residents in China last year, followed by cerebrovascular disease and heart disease..." A first hand account of Suzhou Expat Paedophile Bill Dodson writes... "That Freeman could be so comfortable in Suzhou says as much about being an expat in China as it does about Suzhou." Harbin Tiger Park or Harbin Tiger Farm? "... over the past few......

China is biggest espionage threat to Canada "Almost half of counter-espionage efforts in Canada target Chinese spies, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service told a senate committee on Monday." Songs, kisses and sweat on Labor Day of migrant workers "In the prosperous metropolis of Shanghai, migrant workers even joined in performances, singing and dancing and taking part in games to show their talents." Hershey lures Asians with green tea Kisses "The century-old......

The western media just can't get enough of Thames Town. A few months ago, we headed out there hoping that we would get some fish and chips, but after walking about all we saw were couples getting married amid the backdrop of merry old England. There was a mention of a "grocery store" in Thames Town in the report—last time we went there, we indeed found a grocery store, you know, the one called Lawson's—but......

Property agents in Shanghai have come up with a novel way of giving house buyers important information about the home they intend to buy. Ask them about neighbourhood construction plans for malls, motorways and high rise appartments and they may take you to the third floor of the Urban Planning Museum in People's Square. There lies the model of the grand plan of the city centre for Expo 2010. Western countries have turned the house......

During this year's joint exhibition "Design Week" and "Sino-International Real Estate Summit" a seminar about New Public Space was held by FAR. This is a non-profit foundation to facilitate the communication and collaboration between architects in China and Shanghai. The eight speakers of this seminar covered a broad spectrum of topics. Starting with the presentation of architecture projects for public use and of projects covering bigger urban space, followed by a presentation of art in......

According to the Shanghai Youth Daily (via CRI), 10 women have been scammed selected to make a trip out to Silicon Valley to meet the potential loves of their lives. Apparently, an online dating website is organizing a tour in partnership with an agency in northern California for wealthy professional women who simply don't have the time to find a good man here in Shanghai. Scheduled for next month, the tour will match these women......

Shanghai's little slice of designer heaven just got a little fatter. Bridge 8, the creative compound that houses 4 Live and what some respected critics say is the best steak in town, has reached its artsy tentacles across the street in an expansion that will see some real estate open up for new and existing tenants. One of those is the new Point to Life bookstore, with a collection dedicated entirely to the rich category......

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......

China has moved a step closer to diversifying its US$1.07 trillion in foreign reserves, with the yet-unofficial appointment of two senior officials to head new vehicles that will seek to invest a portion of China's reserves, which are the largest in the world. According to The Standard:Guo Shuqing, chairman of the third- largest lender, China Construction Bank, is tipped to become head of a new state-owned investment company that will adopt Singapore's Temasek model, China......

RIP Wulihe Stadium of Shenyang. Built in 1989, this stadium is best known for being the place where China qualified for the World Cup Finals by beating Oman 1-0 in October 2001. It was razed to the ground in a little over six seconds on Feb. 12, 2007. When Beijing won the Olympics, Shenyang applied to host some of the soccer games and was granted approval. Everyone assumed that these games would be held......

We learned from the Shanghai Daily a few days ago that the hit US 90s sitcom Friends now has a Shanghai version. But you won't be seeing it on TV, but on an even smaller screen — your computer screen (unless you have a really fancy computer). The series is being shot, episode by episode, on digital video and then uploaded onto a video sharing site. Here's the premise: Six young people, three guys and......

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......

It's the beginning of December in China and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" keeps playing in the grocery store (damn you, Lotus ... or should we say Blotus?) so that can mean only one thing: Christmas is quickly approaching! So here you are preparing for the holiday season. You've already purchased your real tree. And, you've been preparing your killer rum apple cider recipe, that turned your last holiday party into a sleepover (good times!). But......

One of the art works you won't be seeing at the Beijing human rights exhibition is Andy Warhol's iconic portrait of an iconic guy, Chairman Mao. The painting found a new owner at a Christie's auction: Andy Warhol's sensational portrait of Mao Zedong, considered a landmark of 20th century art, was sold to Hong Kong collector and real estate developer Joseph Lau for US$16.4 million, plus a US$1 million commission, on Wednesday night in New......

The latest casualties in Shanghai's ongoing pension fund fraud scandal: New Huangpu Real Estate Co. chairman Wang Zheng and Chen Chaoxian, Changning district's head honcho. Wang, 44, who was detained on Nov. 2, took over for Wu Minglie, who -- you guessed it -- stepped down in April, when he was was suspected of "a severe breach of discipline and economic wrongdoing." Let's all buy stock in that company! Chen, on the other hand, was......