Yikes! A hairy situation occurred at a Shanghai salon when a man surnamed Zhao refused to pay after receiving a haircut, with Zhao subsequently being locked in a dark room by salon employees. more ›

Today's video of the day is about pyramid schemes: of course, pyramid schemes are creepy all around the world, but in China they've got a je ne sais quoi that makes them creepy in a Waco sort of way. Scarier is the fact that an estimated ten million people are involved in get-rich-quick schemes around the country: judging from the poor conditions and confinement of the "members", we think it would be more advantageous if the pyramid scheme just switched to treating internet addiction. Or better yet, a pyramid scheme treatment camp that was itself a pyramid scheme. more ›

We just read an article about a woman who sued a boob job clinic after they tried over fifty fruitless times in the last year to enlarge her breasts. On the basis of this deplorable record, Ms. Zhao decide to sue the clinic, and she won. The general rule in Chinese law is 1+1 compensation — meaning that if you spend 4800RMB, as Ms. Zhao did, that you get 9600 RMB as compensation. For Ms. Zhao, all's well that ends well, but the more we searched for similar stories, the more we got the feeling that this was just the very sensitive tip of a dark and sinister iceberg of fraudulence. more ›

From Jonathan Cruysberghs of the Facebook group "Daft fcked - hidden concert SCAM! info and update in here":

Hi All, more ›

Because it looks like it may have been a hoax after all. more ›

Photo from Brian's Tree more ›

... and going with strange girls who want to practise their English to coffee shops is STILL a bad idea, folks. Yet another chump — this time a Swedish guy on a business trip — has fallen for the time-honoured scam by following a pair of temptresses who were "dressed like university students" (so wearing mortar boards, presumably) to the Manabe coffee shop on the 3rd floor of the Brilliance Shimao Plaza, Shanghai Daily reported... more ›

With the amount of shame emanating from the pictured women's body language, you'd think the cop was busting a Shenzhen whorehouse. But no-- this is Nanjing Lu East, and the scam is overpriced tea. more ›

Photo by Jakob.Montrasio.net taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. more ›

Shanghaiist has a lot of guys on the staff (for a reason we just can't fathom — we really want more female contributors). So, naturally, a tip posted in our Shanghaiist Forums about Shanghai playing host to an International "Miss Bikini" Competition caught our attention. more ›

OK, so it's a bit difficult to type like Elmer Fudd, but you can always find inspiration by trying Google in Elmer Fudd language. more ›

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? more ›

Phillyist keeps it fresh by getting a new motto, learning to prioritize, and taking in an experimental indie rock show. more ›

Shanghaiist was scanning the Shanghai Morning Post and decided, after reading just the main headlines, that we could indeed spare the seven jiao needed to purchase this paper. On the top left hand corner we noticed an ad for 嗨！ 上海 (最 HIGH 的 上海生活门户） which translates to "Hi! Shanghai (the most HIGH Shanghai lifestyle portal)". What we found there was a cookie-cutter portal which tries to be everything for everyone. more ›

This Xinmin Evening News story (in Chinese) tells of Mr. Zhang, a labourer from outside of Shanghai, who arrived in our blurry city to find work. He correctly thought it was pretty cool to be a security guard, even if there is an element of risk involved. The recruitment methods of one company caught his eye, which effectively rents out guard dogs to other security companies and guards. If you are an employee of this company, you can earn an extra 200 RMB by simply recommending other people to fill positions as security guards. (Our pal Mr. Zhang earned 600 RMB this way.) more ›

So fellas, here's the deal: She pays you RMB 300,000 before you start living together, and then, if through your industriousness you get her pregnant, you get the remaining RMB 500,000. This ain't a movie -- not even a bad one. This is the ad that Miss Zhu LiLi puts out in some Guangzhou newspapers. There may indeed be a sucker born every minute, and we think that a good proportion of these suckers will grow up to be men who believe that they need not work, and instead make a bundle living with a woman whose only desire is that you get her pregnant. And don't forget her promise that if the relationship goes well, there's more in it for you. more ›