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. We went paintballing a couple weeks ago and, aside from the aftermath of welts and bruises, we enjoyed it immensely. Weichang Paintball Shooting Sports Centre is a bit out of town, so share......

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. Wikipedia tells us......

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......

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. Upon entering our local Chlitina (Dagu Road near Chengdu Road), we were greeted by a very enthusiastic lady, who thrust a menu into our hands and eagerly awaited our response. A quick peruse through and we decided to opt for the......

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. Now, we’re not talking about the plebeian pleasures of foot massages or fine dining here; such extravagances will do in a pinch, but fail to deliver in moments of truly-deserved immoderation. No, we’re talking about the pinnacle of class and sophistication, the very essence of luxury itself: a swim-up bar.......

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). The first option is from......

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. Entropia said it was chosen to create an online universe of planets populated by avatars, the animated stand-ins for human users. It took nearly a year to negotiate the......

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......

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......

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. Why are we talking about the weather? Well, while shopping......

With all the excitement of the Moto 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. For those of you that missed......

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… 9:00am Buy one get one free breakfast at Kabb 10:30am......

Send your close friend who doesn't have a sweetheart a box of chocolates and sign it anonymous. Really, Valentine's isn't just for boy- and girlfriends. Send a heartfelt Valentine's Day card to someone you haven't seen in a long while or someone who has inspired you in a special way. Spend time with kids at an orphanage with him/her. Who says candlelight dinners are the only way to celebrate Valentine's? Make it a special one......

Around a week ago, Shanghai Daily ran a story entitled "Top tourism sites named": Tourism authorities have named the top 10 "countryside tourism" sites in the city, based on an online vote by local residents. The vote, hosted by the Shanghai Tourism Administrative Commission's Website, received about 8,000 eligible ballots choosing from 18 nominated sites. Did they list all 10 sites? No. Of course not. But we found them here (in Chinese). So, here is......

From Alpinist.com: Renowned American climber Charlie Fowler and high-altitude mountaineer Christine Boskoff have gone missing in central-western China. The pair had been on expedition since the autumn, and had managed the first ascent of the oft-attempted Yala Peak in early October. ... The pair traveled to Genyen, in China's Western Sichuan Province, November 9 and were due to return November 25. Several files discovered on Fowler's computer show that he had a clear intention to......

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. The first time Shanghaiist went to the Yinqixing Indoor Skiing Resort was back in the SARS era (2003). We went back this......

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. The latest novelty in the area is called Leisure Time Club. With a nice design on the outside, on the first floor the visitor is welcomed by a coffee shop and a bakery called Careme (which has not yet opened). The coffee......

So the holiday season is upon us. We at Shanghaiist have always believed that after a year of toiling, we, more than anyone else, deserve the best gift of the season. Now that line of thinking has been established, the next step is, of course, narrowing down our shopping list. This year, we have our eyes on a Sony PSP. Actually, we’ve been eyeing the portable game console/music and video player ever since it came......

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......

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......

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. For those who feel sympathetic (check the weather forecast) and want to cheer the participants up, they start from the Peace Hotel, run on Nanjing Dong Lu, Jiujiang Lu, Nanjing Xi Lu, Yan'an Xi Lu, Zhongshan Lu, etc. etc.......

Honk (the horn in your Ferrari) if you attended last weekend's Top Marques Shanghai event! You didn't go? Yeah, neither did we. But, according to this Bloomberg report, some 12,000 bon vivants showed up and "lavished 500 million yuan ($63 million) on Hennessy X.O spirits, Porsche sedans, South African diamonds and other luxury goods." We are very happy for them! And we hope that Shanghai is home to more and more similar Millionaire Fairs every......

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 … Nope, this weekend, we aren’t going anywhere: No lychee martini, no run ins with stuck-up waitresses, and definitely no waiting around for 40 minutes so we can pay......

Qian Yun, walker...

Australian golfing great Karrie Webb took four shots to get out of a bunker during the British Open over the weekend, carding 5-over on the par three ninth at Royal Lytham & St Annes. 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,......

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......

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?......

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......

What’s going on with Shanghai’s white collar workers these days? What are some of the things they do to alleviate the boredom of the 9-to-5 life and add some spice into their lives? What are the trendmakers among this silent majority saying and doing? Here are the results of a Shanghaiist (i.e. totally arbitrary ) internet search: Become a fisherman for a day. One Shanghai white-collar worker said that his trip to a park located......