Results tagged “recreation”

We know you already look forward to our Pencil This Ins and Live Music Previews, but now we're making having fun in this city even easier for you. From now on, all worthwhile events in Shanghai can be easily viewed on our constantly updated Shanghaiist calendar. It's curated by real humans, only includes events we'd actually consider going to, and it's powered by Google - which means you can add events you like to your own Google calendars. Have an event you think should be included? Email us at cal@shanghaiist.com.

If you are tired of spending your Saturday and Sunday mornings lying around with a hangover — what better way to kick it then by running around outdoors and shooting people with paintballs while wearing a Darth Vader mask and army fatigues.

Saw this Saturday night at Yinghua Bowl, our Shanghai bowling alley of choice (yes, we went bowling on a Saturday night). Here is what the text of the sign says: 请妥善保管好您的物品 遗失本馆概不负责 Please take care of your belongs. We are not responsible for any of your losses. Does the image — some kind of bowling barbarian hoarding his pelts, "ancient" bowling pins and balls and, of course, one human skull — make any sense to...

Normally the water itself here in China is enough to make your skin start to blister and peel and fall off, but in a shallow pool at Dianchi Chuntian, a wonderfully relaxing (and affordable) hot springs spa in Kunming, Yunnan Province, it's swarms of hungry fish that seek out your skin — the dead stuff, we were assured — and ingest it. It's meant to be healthy, for you and the fish.

It's not been a good month for climbers in Sichuan Province. Ok, that's an understatement. It's been a damn awful month. At the beginning of July, the body of accomplished twice-climber-of-Everest Christine Feld-Boskoff was discovered on the remote mountain peak of Genyan Massif, half a year after the body of her partner in mountain-climbing was found (we told you how the two prominent mountain-climbers went missing here and here). Boskoff was believed to have died in an avalanche. Then, only days ago, government officials announced the discovery of Lonely Planet writer Andrew Clem Lindenmayer, found dead at Riwuqie Peak, 4,600 metres above sea level. And these are not Sichuan's only fatal findings – some simply only managed to make news footnotes, such as the uncovering of the body of a Japanese climber, who went missing 26 years ago.

We have spent months upon months intrigued by pampering chain about town Chlitina and with humidity rising, we decided it was about time to savor their services and give our visage a little TLC.

Wonderful as living in an egalitarian utopia may be, it’s sometimes nice to get away from it all and enjoy a little taste of luxury.

If you’re like us and already feel slightly guilty at how much you will be drinking at this Friday’s Shanghaiist Happy Hour, maybe it’s time to start thinking about how to have an active summer? Whether you’re a cycling veteran or you’re just looking for something to do to these coming months, there are a number of bike trips available to see more of the beautiful countryside (or Suzhou Creek).

Entropia Inc., makers of the popular virtual reality game Entropia Universe, has won the right to do the same in China:

China will soon have its first cash-based virtual world, where millions of people can work, socialize, learn and fall in love, Sweden-based Entropia Universe announced Wednesday.

Continue reading "Entropia to build a Chinese virtual world"

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 in the marathon. We all started at 7.30 am ... and seven hours later, Shanghaiist completed the race, with sore legs and sunburned shoulder. But how proud we were!

Don't you feel cooler already? At least that’s how we felt when we saw the advertisement for the "Ice World" in Longhua Tourism City. Yes, we know we are very late on this — apparently Longhua's Ice World has been open since last May, but it’s in Longhua Toursim City, so forgive us (we don’t really go to tourist spots much in our hometown). Oh, and if you want to check this ice world out, you have about five days — it's some kind of traveling thing and its year in Shanghai is almost up. By chance, we saw an ad for it in the subway today.

Shanghai Daily predicts an "early summer" for Shanghai, with temperatures hitting 30 degrees Celsius today. The Shanghaiist Weather Center, however, says today's high will only reach 27 (our current temperature) and that temperatures will remain in the 20s throughout the week, maxing out at 29 on Wednesday. Not that 29 is exactly chilly — for all you Americans out there, that means 84 degrees Fahrenheit.

With all the excitement of the GP and the success of Chinese women at the Jinshan Olympic beach volleyball qualifiers, you might be forgiven for missing out on a world-record breaking event happening right under our noses, also in the Jinshan district: the world's longest kite. OK, it's not officially the world's longest kite, but its maker will apply for that title from the folks over at Guinness.

Shanghaiist is in a panic. Our Enjoy card expires on Saturday and we have a million (OK, not really, but it seems like it) coupons left in our book and they are all useless by tomorrow midnight. After swapping vouchers like baseball cards with other coupon clippers, the plan for today is to maximize our discounts to the fullest extent for 12 hours or more…

Around a week ago, Shanghai Daily ran a story entitled "Top tourism sites named":

From Alpinist.com:

Lucky for Shanghaiist, we won't be. But we certainly feel for people who will be stuck in the city for the holidays. So we've compiled an incomplete list of a few things to keep you occupied while your friends are back home drinking eggnog and getting wasted with family around the Christmas tree.

Living for one and a half years in the Zhongshan Park area, we've observed constant and significant improvements. New shopping malls, many good fashion shops, and the Starbucks-factor went from zero to five.

Actually, we’ve been eyeing the portable game console/music and video player ever since it came out a year ago. Our buying decision this holiday season has every bit to do with the PSP being a nifty gadget as it does some of the extra "resources" available to us as residents of Shanghai, or China for that matter. As far as we know, other than maybe the original NES, no video game console has ever been released here in China, and for a very good reason: rampant piracy of games. The PSP is no different. Machines for sale here are from either Europe or Japan, but with firmware downgraded/modified so that they can handle “backup” (read “pirated”) games. ISO images of PSP games are readily available at most BT sites — ISO Hunt and Torrentspy just to name a couple — as are music and videos.

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 wait, it seems that you forgot something ... the gifts! Look no further than to a recent addition to Shanghai — Toys 'R' Us!

It seems that charming Shanghai has become the creative and commercial object of affection for yet another famous Tom (after Cruise and Friedman, of course) and is now featured as one of the backdrops for Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent. The fourth title in the Splinter Cell series is newly available on the Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, and the PC, and bears the name and coveted approval of noted author, bass fisherman and Sith Lord Tom Clancy.

Sunday morning, while most people will be sleeping/ clubbing/ trying to get sober, about 15,000 runners will gather for the Shanghai marathon and half marathon, starting at 7:30 am, on Nanjing Dong Lu and Sichuan Lu.

That's the way it was back in the 1930s and 40s. They even had a board game to that effect -- it was called "Shanghai Millionaire" (pictured). We learned about this Monopoly clone via the weekly newsletter of market intelligence firm Access Asia. You can read the current newsletter here, but be warned that it will switch to the next newsletter at the end of the week (how about an archive, guys?).

Ah, the weekend is here again, and Shanghaiist has some big plans for the two day respite. Pier One? So spring 2006. Elite Bar? Been there, and what a disaster (more on that in another post, perhaps). Tang Hui? Well, now that live acts are gone …

Qian Yun, walker

Despite our admiration for the career of this fellow Aussie (who has won a swag of majors), Shanghaiist couldn’t help feeling a bit better about our own very ordinary golf game upon hearing the news of her bunker blues. After all, we might be bad at golf, but we’re not that bad.

Is it strange that we had bowling during gym class in high school? The end-of-class bell would ring, we'd all head down to the parking lot and pile into our respective cars and drive on over to the P-Nut Bowl. After bowling two games, we'd drive back and get to school in time for Calculus. We always thought it was normal, but based on the funny looks we get when we tell that story, maybe it's not. Hmmmm ... maybe rural Pennsylvania is different from the rest of the world after all.

As a kid, Shanghaiist was a video arcade fiend. Looking fondly back on that Golden Age of video game entertainment, plenty of hard earned allowance and Chinese New Year money would have been better off being saved in a bank account rather than being flushed down a coin slot. The Mortal Kombat bloodlust was just too strong to resist! Remember that ego-inflating boost of self-esteem that came with whupping someone's ass for only 25 cents? If you are in need of a reminder, then it would be wise to make your way to the newly opened Sega Player's Arena in People's Square (as previously mentioned).

We were at The Melting Pot Monday night to see Brian Seymour play (great set ... but too short!) and a black board at the bar (pictured) made us do a double take as we looked over our pint of Carlsberg. Arm wrestling? Every Saturday? It all just seems ... we don't know ... strange. Are there any other bars in town that organize arm wrestling tournaments? On perhaps the busiest bar night of the week? Gotta give them credit for being creative.