Valleywag points us to an interesting article in the Financial Times which highlights five markets in which Google plays second fiddle to local rivals — Russia, the Czech Republic, Japan, Korea and, you guessed it, China. In Russia and the Czech Republic, Mohammad Gawdat, a Google executive who oversees 112 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, admits rather squarely that Google was late to the game there and performs poorer than its rivals,......

The Peoples Daily reports the Ministry of Education has added new rules for primary school teachers to "take care of their students' safety" and "teachers should pay more attention to the health of students", spurred on by the public condemnation of secondary school teacher Fan Meizhong who ran for his life, leaving behind his students during the May 12 Sichuan quake. No word on what they'll do with errant teachers next. Will all teachers be......

We just got off the phone with a very upset American Steak & Eggs employee who confirmed the diner's forced closure until August 6. They said it was because the teams playing in the USA Basketball International Challenge are training in Jing'an Stadium, which houses the restaurant. "There's lots of security outside right now," she said. "It's really bad." She said Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, also in the building, was also forced to close.......

In fact, all cities hosting Olympic events will do the same. The Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission said it will postpone approval of notification letters needed for business visas until mid-September for all but essential travel, ruling out visits for market research, training or to carry out inspections. Some, albeit limited leeway exists. Foreigners can apply for business visas for "urgent" matters but the Chinese counterpart inviting them will need to give detailed......

From the New York Times: Foreign entertainers who have taken part in activities that China deems a threat to its sovereignty will not be allowed to perform in the country, according to a new list of rules posted Thursday on the Web site of the Ministry of Culture. The rules say that the background credentials of performers from foreign countries, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan will be scrutinized carefully. “Those who used to take part......

A friend of ours went to the Huashi Pharmacy, at the Portman, to purchase the inhaler she uses due to asthma. She didn't have a prescription, but she never needed one before. As long as she had lived in Shanghai, such meds were always over-the-counter, perhaps because of the excellent air quality found in the city. But on Saturday, the workers at the pharmacy told her she could no longer buy the inhaler she needed......

The Sichuan earthquake caused such a large number of Chinese people to step out and donate blood that mobile blood donation buses around the nation had to stop accepting donations because more has been given than needed. Several lesbians were unhappy though when told their blood would not be accepted because of a blanket ban on blood donation by homosexuals by the Ministry of Health under the Blood Donor Health Check Requirements 《供血者健康检查标准》. Para 6.16......

We've all seen over the last week how the cruel earthquake has left parents without children and children without parents. As the focus now turns to healing and restoration for survivors and giving them tools with which to pick up the broken pieces of their lives, the government has now begun to disseminate information on active steps that concerned individuals considering adoption of children and babies orphaned by the disaster can take. Here is some......

All ye lucky yuletide souls whose employer's lack of the Scrooge gene has enabled ye to escape Shanghai over the Xmas break, rejoice! Those of you flying back into China after January 1 no longer need to fill in that pesky health declaration form. Although Shanghaiist kind of enjoyed the pre-landing self-diagnosis ritual. Just how many avian flu carrying fowl had we fraternized with over the past month? And could the hail of sputum from......

Following up on yesterday's post about China's new holiday lineup for 2008, we now have the official official list of dates, so now everyone knows what Saturdays and Sundays they might be asked to work (and that nonsense starts soon). Here we go: New Year's Day: Sunday, December 30-Tuesday, January 1 (workers will be asked to work on Saturday, December 29, 2007)Spring Festival: Wednesday, February 6-Tuesday, February 12 (workers will be asked to work Saturday,......

Well, then: Oops. What last month we said was going to happen, this month was made official. China has scrapped May holiday, one of its three Golden Weeks, and turned three traditional festivals into national holidays. Here's how your official 2008 Chinese holiday schedule now looks: New Year's Day: January 1Spring Festival: February 6,7 and 8 (Wednesday-Friday)Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Jie, 清明节): April 4 (Friday)Labor Day: May 1 (Thursday)Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Jie, 端午節): June......

Remember the little 8 year old girl Zhang Huimin whose father made her run from Sanya, Hainan all the way to Beijing, wearing out 20 pairs of shoes and covering a staggering 3,560 km in 55 days? This time, another girl, Huang Li (黄澧), 10 years old, had her hands and feet bound by her father before being thrown to swim in the chilly waters of the Xiangjiang River (湘江) for 3 hours. Apparently, her......

The word is out. Shanghai's first nature reserve in Nanhui District's Dongtan area has officially been established. The 40.3 km long beach area will be a haven for birds such as white cranes and little stints. Many migratory birds also nest there each year. People's Daily assures us that "anyone hunting in the area will be faced with punishment, according to established regulations for wildlife sanctuaries". But it doesn't elucidate what punishment await for those......

Recently while out of town, our landlord called us on our cell phone to inform us that he wanted his apartment back ASAP. Why, we asked? He wanted to renovate it, he said, but we were not convinced. You see, the few of us have been living in this apartment for coming to 3 years now, and there was this implicit agreement that we could stay on for as long as we liked, so some......

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......

Are there any Living Buddhas among the enlightened readership of this blog? You have been informed: With immediate effect, all your reincarnations must receive government approval, and if not, they will be deemed "illegal or invalid" by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA). Thank Buddha for SARA because the latest regulations are all for the convenience of all the future Living Buddhas yet to come. As it tells us: It is an important move......

OK, we've never heard of East Star Airlines before, but it has just become the first private airline in China to be authorized to operate international flights. A Xinhua report tells us that under Civil Aviation Administration of China regulations, new airlines may apply to operate international flights only after three years of operations. East Star has been in business less than two years, but it beat rivals Okair, Ueair, Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines......

Harshing the mellows of college kids all over China, the Ministry of Education has announced a ban on off-campus student housing:In a notice issued on Friday, the ministry instructed all universities to make the dormitories "another front for political and ideological education" to create "a good climate for the students' growth." The ministry told the universities to strengthen the administration of dormitories, in what it says will ensure the safety of students and heighten communication......

The recent hoopla over poisonous, tainted, and otherwise malignant Chinese exports — toothpaste, toys, and pet food, oh my! — has left us with an unpleasant taste in our mouths (and not just the minty-fresh kind). Industrial malfeasance has become the bane of Chinese commerce, and we have no intention of downplaying the unique brand of terror experienced by a parent who realizes he just gave his kid a lead-addled plaything. But it is difficult......

Thanks to a tip from vadaga, Shanghaiist learned that now you only have one option to login to your existing MySpace 麦斯贝 account page in mainland China - use of an anonymising proxy. At the time of writing, any attempts Shanghaiist has made to access its existing myspace account using myspace.com are met with time-out errors and the classic connection error response caused by the Great Firewall of China. Users can still view their myspace......

Just when you think that everything is starting to turn rosy for Shanghai's live music scene, something comes along that hits you like a kick in the teeth. We just heard that Shanghai's Yu Yin Tang has been shut down. So what you say? They will be back just like last year. However, this time, it really is serious. We visited the venue's official website to be met by this ominous notice... 【2007-05-08】 刊登网站公告,今起网站暂停服务 育音堂公告......

Chinese news portal CHINA.ORG.CN reported today that the controversial construction of a giant dragon inside Shizhu Mountain National Forest Park was halted by local government. The local authorities of Xinzheng delivered a written statement to Xinhua which simply said, "We attached great importance to the project after the media reports. The departments of land, environmental protection, and other bureaus have ordered Zulong Company to halt the project because it does not have official approval." On......

An unlinkable story from the South China Morning Post relays the chilling tale of Chongqing municipality's Wanzhou district, where the local government has ordered that all pet dogs be put to death because a resident died of rabies. Just when you think being a dog owner in China can't get any scarier ... The Wanzhou district government has issued a directive asking residents in the central city area to have their dogs put down before......

So, we're trying to get a license for our new dog. They don't make this process easy, of course. But why would they? It's not like our dog's life depends on it. Oh wait ... Red stamps. You have to get three of them, we think, before they will even consider your license application: from some kind of neighborhood committee, your local police station and then the main district police station. Then you get to......

Google has been in the news recently after co-founder Sergey Brin said at the World Economic Forum in Davos said, speaking of Google's decision to comply with censorship regulations in China, that "on a business level, the decision to censor ... was a net negative." Now Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google are employing another strategy—asking the US State Dept. to use some of its clout in the battle for free speech on the internet. Well, that......

It seems that Beijing isn't the only city trying to become more "civilized" in a jiffy. Shanghai lawmakers have been working on regulations governing public behavior, most notably, the use of foul language, in Shanghai. The report, in Chinese gives us a brief glimpse of a bunch of new regulations called, in Chinese, 《上海市民公共行为条例》, or something like "Shanghai citizens' public behavior regulations." The million dollar question is whether or not this thing has any teeth,......

A Xinhua report dated Jan 11 tells us of a problem we all knew was bound to happen — that there will be MANY lonely Chinese men in the years to come. The report issued by the State Population and Family Planning Commission had some startling numbers to divulge: There will be 30 million more males of marriageable age in China than females by the year 2020 China's sex ratio for newborn babies in 2005......

Even though we've long put our public relations days behind us, we can't help but think what a day in the life of a PR executive at Starbucks must be like. They must all have been working overtime lately with the Seattle-based coffee company hitting the headlines like crazy lately. First it was the landmark victory against Shanghai Xingbake, then there was the trans fat issue. This week, little known CCTV-9 news anchor Rui Chenggang......

Beijing retailers told to mind their manners with customers or be found violation of the law.Beijing has opened what we believe to be China's first pitch-black restaurant—where diners eat in complete darkness and the staff use night vision goggles.300 new bao mu's are being trained for deployment during the Chinese New Year, when many of the city's bao mu's are heading home.Was it climage change that brought down the Tang dynasty?A Shanghai production of the......

Shanghaiist prefers sugar-free bevarages. We're not getting any younger. And we'd prefer our waistline not get any bigger. (And if it does, we'd prefer it be the result of consuming good beer.) We've been known to have friends who happen to be flight attendants bring us packs of Crystal Light from back home so we can satisfy our cravings for sweetish beverages that aren't full of sugar. In China, there are few sugar-free soft drink......