By Benjamin Cohen In Shanghai, everyday is great. Here are five reasons why: Tuesday April 15th: Clouds of Crowds If you haven't been out to Island6 yet for "Clouds of Crowds," stop in before it drifts away (last day is April 29th). This interactive multimedia installations seeks to draw the viewer into blurry realm of chaos and order. Island6 Arts Center 2F, Bldg 6, 120 Moganshan Rd. Thursday April 17th: City Sound Sessions Take a......

Photos by Alexandre J. Gruss (emailed to photos@shanghaiist.com) More Shanghai Snow photos available from the following Flickr users: Jake in Shanghai Clivez Slow Boat to China larocat Photos found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).......

For all displaced Americans and tryptophan lovers, consider these lovely Thanksgiving dinner options for tomorrow night in our cozy little Chinese metropolis: Casa 13 is tossing in some international flare to go along with the turkey centerpiece. 380 RMB will get you free flow beer and wine (until 10:30pm) and lots of wholesome, organic goodness. Menu includes New England style codfish, sticky rice and bread stuffing, and sweet potato gnocchi. (tel: 5238-2782)Kabb and Blue Frog......

Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: Imagethief is glad to hear via the China Daily that CCP members are taking public-relations courses to better equip them in their relations with the media. He imagines what one of these PR training tools, a role-played interview, might look like with senior party officials. Looks like he doesn't have much faith that things will change overnight. Beijing Newspeak writes on the difficulties......

Shanghaiist's busy backroom techies have been wrangling with all manner of nerdy stuff to ensure the delivery our photo slideshow to the eager, burger slider-enthralled masses. We had a great time yesterday, and from the above photos we are fairly sure that you did as well. One difference that you will notice about this slideshow is our use of Google's Picasa photo album system. Flickr's photoservers (and hence our nice Slideshow app) is still......

Chinese Communist Party turns 86 China's ruling Communist Party turned 86 on Sunday vowing to make itself stronger, cleaner and more responsive in order to take on fresh challenges and meet the people's new expectations. The party, which boasts 73 million members, needs to enhance "self-construction" in the face of "unprecedented opportunities and challenges" facing China's development, said an editorial in a Chinese newspaper, the People's Daily. China adopts new drinking-water standard China's new national......

Kaiping Diaolou inscribed on World Heritage List The Diaolou (watchtower house) of Kaiping, China, was inscribed Thursday World Heritage status by the 31st World Heritage Committee meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Diaolou of Kaiping thus became the 35th World heritage site, also the first of economically prominent South China's Guangdong province. City life expectancy rises to 80.97 The average life span of local residents last year hit 80.97 years, up from 80.13 in......

200 RMB fines have gone a long way in making our streets quieter, but it looks like years of blasting the pipes have left drivers with itchy palms. Shanghai Daily is reporting that in an effort to circumvent the recent ban on horn-honking, some drivers have turned to customizing their horns to make different sounds when pressed. An inventive cabby who drives for the Qiangsheng taxi fleet showed off his new honk to a Shanghai......

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,......

My time as a hostage, and I’m a business reporter As an American journalist based in China, David Barboza knew there was a good chance that at some point he’d be detained for pursuing a story. He just never thought he’d be held hostage by a toy factory. China province head apologizes in slave labor storm Yu Youjun the governor of Shanxi province shaken by the slave labor scandal publicly apologized on Friday, as officials......

Chinese portal penalised for mocking mentally ill A Chinese website has been ordered to pay $2,631 in compensation for publishing photographs of a mentally challenged 63-year-old man dressed up like a teenage girl. China plans highway on Mount Everest China plans to build a highway on the side of Mount Everest to ease the Olympic torch's journey to the peak of the world's tallest mountain before the 2008 Beijing Games, state media reported Tuesday. Shanghaiist......

New York Yankees sign on first Chinese players. The New York Yankees announced today that they have signed left-handed pitcher Kai Liu and catcher Zhenwang Zhang to minor league contracts, becoming the first Major League team to sign a player from the People's Republic of China with approval from the country's baseball association. China Fines Six Banks for Lending to Stock Purchases China's banking regulator fined six banks for making loans that were illegally......

What does $205.6 million in cash look like? Here are pictures of the cash and guns seized from the Mexico City residence of Zhenli Ye Gon, who is one among six Chinese suspects from a gang, which prosecutors say illegally imported n-acetyl pseudoephedrine. Now, just imagine 205.6 Demi Moores rolling around in it.Low-key vibe to Shanghai festival. Despite Sharon Stone's presence, the opening frames of the Shanghai Film Festival were unashamedly local and curiously low......

Farrow to kick off torch relay to protest China's Darfur stanceActress Mia Farrow unveiled plans for an Olympic-style torch relay beginning this summer as part of a campaign aimed at shaming China into cutting support for Sudan over its role in the Darfur conflict. Analysis: At what cost the Olympics?With only a year to go until the Summer Olympics, advocacy groups worldwide are ratcheting up efforts to expose the dark side of China, from......

Killer bashes, knifes victim. Local prosecutors yesterday charged a 71-year-old man with killing a 76-year-old woman by bashing her with a spade, trying to suffocate her with a quilt, and then attempting to strangle her. Finally he knifed her in the face and neck, prosecutors allege. Messy, messy!U.S. avoids labeling China 'manipulator'. China is not intentionally manipulating its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage but its massive buildup of foreign reserves raises risks......

Woman strangled and stabbed. A native of Hubei Province was charged with murder yesterday after Minhang District prosecutors allege Tian Qi, 27, strangled a woman with wire and then stabbed her with scissors because she refused to lend him money.Publicity toilet paper set to wipe out theft in Taipei. In a bid to deter roll bandits, the toilet paper would be sponsored by advertisers who will allow their names to be smeared for the public......

Maybe these were the culprits? From Reuters: “It is our understanding that Flickr users in China are not able to see images on Flickr, and we have confirmed that this is not a technical issue on our end,” a spokeswoman for Yahoo Hong Kong said in an e-mail in response to a Reuters inquiry. “It appears that the Chinese government is restricting access to Flickr, although we have not received confirmation from them,” the spokeswoman......

This may not be the kind of hiphop that China is looking for, but it's good for a few minutes of head-bobbing amusement. The video seems unrelated but similar to the work of a favorite Guangzhou-born artist, Cao Fei, and her "Hip-hop" video series. Shanghaiist left a message with the poster on YouTube inquiring if there are more like it on the way. Thanks to Martin for the tip! Remember, you can always leave us......

You aren't the only one. Go here to vent. Flickr left this message there not too long ago: It seems that access to our image servers is being blocked for users in much of China. Our technical staff has looked into this at depth and determined this is not a technical issue from our end. We will keep an eye on the situation and update if we get any developments. This explains why none of......

Almost as fun as playing Counter-Strike was watching this video of how China is gearing up for the thorny security problem that is the 2008 Olympics. These are the guys that can do 50 one-armed push-ups without breaking a sweat; they know whether to snip the red wire or the blue wire first; they will make sure that the possibility of being held hostage and then beheaded by an obscure group of Islamic insurgents won't......

FDA: Throw away toothpaste made in China This is in the US. In China, remember not to drink Evian. Two Die, 70 Hurt In Chinese Earthquake At least two, including a five-year-old boy, were dead and about 70 injured when an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale hit Yunnan, a south-western Chinese province, late Saturday. Report: Chinese vice premier dies at 68 - CNN.com Vice Premier Huang Ju, a key......

Friday was the first day that Shanghai's ban on honking withing the Inner Ring Road came into effect. Fines range from RMB 200 for prolonged honking, RMB 100 for average offenses, and simple friendly reminders at the officer's discretion for unavoidable toots. The Shanghai Morning Post reports that traffic noise was down on 11 decibels on average at 70 sites being monitored around the city. Photo of Shanghai coppers by 2 dogs was found via......

Shanghai. It is all happening. Here's the proof: Friday, June 1st The Millionaire Fair Tired of your staid millionaire lifestyle? Shanghaiist is. Well, you better join us as we swing by the Shanghai Exhibition Center this weekend to get some new ideas. No. 1000 Yanan Road, Shanghai. Big Beer Bonanza at Kommune American Beer Craft Partners have iced thirty different beers from ten different breweries. The rest is self explanatory. A beer-filled night wouldn't be......

12 Chinese Dating Sites Under Fire? These sites have been accused of promoting prostitution. Beijing claims Tibetan relics All religious artifacts in places of worship in Tibet belong to the Chinese state, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday, in Beijing's latest attempt to exert control over religion in the restive Himalayan region. Hill arrives in Beijing to discuss nuclear issue Top U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill arrived Wednesday morning in Beijing, saying it is......

Summer is here and everything is heating up. Leading up to this weekend, this is what Shanghaiist thinks is going to be hot today and tomorrow. Today, Wednesday May 30th Texans In Exile Monthly meeting at Bubbas Texan or a friend of Texas? You can meet up with fellow lovers of the Lone Star State during their monthly T.I.E. meeting at Bubbas tonight from 7pm. Call Ken to let him know you're coming. 7pm......

Designer Tang Pushes Fashion in China David Tang is famous for founding the Shanghai Tang label that put Mandarin-collared shirts, cheongsam dresses and other Chinese-style fashion on boutique shelves from New York to Paris. Booming stock market cures man's paraplegia Not only can the man walk to the nearest brokerage in 20 minutes, he made 60% profits on his returns from the market. Entrance at Nanjing Road E. Station to be closed Not the......

Chinese Benchmark, CSI 300 Closes Above 4000 To New Record; Analysts Concerned Over Market "Bubble" The Shanghai benchmark index has surged over the 4000 mark for a new record. Rising Chinese shares at a breakneck pace adds to concern over market overheating. Shanghai's benchmark index CSI 300 ended up 2.6 percent to 4,090.57. Since 2006, the index has increased four fold, and has doubled since the beginning of the year. China's outrageous claim The......

Even while Shanghaiist is waiting with bated breath for direct flights to the east coast, China Eastern Airlines is set to sell a 25 percent stake to Singapore Airlines, the world's largest carrier by market capitalisation, for HK$7.9 billion (US$1 billion) worth of new shares. In the meanwhile, Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore's state-owned investment arm with $85 billion of assets, may join Singapore Airlines in its bid for a stake. China Eastern suffered a net......

Face-lift after 'health check' on Xupu Bridge "Xupu Bridge's 240 suspension cables are to have a large-scale renovation to make the bridge safer and more beautiful prior to the opening of World Expo 2010, the Shanghai Engineering Administrative Bureau has said." If no Expo, safety not an issue. Frozen fish from China recalled as two in Chicago fall illfpr "The list of potentially deadly products reaching the United States from China continued to grow......

How to write a China article "If you can’t find a taxi driver whose political views match those of your readers, then just make one up. Call him Mr. Wang, inform your public that he only earns a hundred dollars a month, and they’ll believe any old crap you write." When Jerry Yang Talks China, Run for the Doors "Focus instead on the fact that every time Jay Yang has taken charge of Yahoo!'s......