So yes, you heard correctly. The Shanghaiist Halloween Party was shut down prematurely early this morning by the Shanghai po-po (or middle aged Chinese men with excellent costumes and very poor senses of humor). And yes, this really sucks. Shanghai's finest arrived shortly after midnight and around 1 a.m. "encouraged" the venue's management to the pull the plug, citing alleged neighborhood complaints about noise outside the entrance. Many people had to be turned away at......

Are you reeeeaaaaaddddy? With less than a day to go TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT, here are a few last-minute things we'd like you to know about the Shanghaiist Halloween Party:Come as John McCain and Sarah Palin and if our door bitches recognise you, you'll get an ADDITIONAL free drink from us! (Don't come as a hangin' Palin though!) If you still haven't gotten your costume yet, well shame on you! Get yourself some last-minute help......

Think you finally found the perfect Halloween costume this year? The outfit that will put all others to shame? Then come down to Shanghaiist's Halloween Party on Friday and prove it to us. Our generous friends at Sherpa's will be sending in a skeleton crew of judges from 9pm to midnight (the prime witching hours) to run our inaugural Halloween Costume Contest. The top male and female costumes will each win RMB 1,000 worth of......

UPDATE: The best costumes for the evening will be awarded great prizes from Sherpa's! 1,000 RMB will go to the top male and female costumes, and the runners-up will get a case of Brooklyn Lager! Start getting your costumes ready today! (More details here.) It's ba-aaaack! More than 700 scary monsters and super freaks crowded the dungeon last year — and Shanghai's most notorious Halloween party will be bigger and badder in '08. What:......

This is your final warning! Where: Shanghai Studio, No.4, Lane 1950 Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Xingguo Lu (淮海中路1950弄4号,近兴国路) When: Tonight, 9 pm until the last demon is exorcised! Drinks: RMB 25 beers, RMB 30 standard drinks and house wines Entrance: RMB 35 (includes a free beer or soft drink) For those of you who still haven't gotten your costumes (shame on you!), you still have a few hours left! See photos of last year's party......

A quick note to interrupt your last-minute Halloween costume shopping (we made our costume yesterday ... you'll definitely hear us coming) to let you know what films we plan to show at the big Shanghaiist Halloween Party on Saturday night. If you haven't been to Shanghai Studio, it's a spooky maze-like place that occupies an old bomb shelter. So if music and dancing are your things, we've got rooms for that. If chatting and drinking......

Well, at least Puxi appears to be safe. Thank god for the Huangpu! When we first saw this at our Kunming hotel, we figured it was just a complementary bootleg DVD of UltraViolet II. But we were excited to discover it was really an XHZLC 40 FIRE ESCAPE MASK! Just in time for the Shanghaiist Halloween Party ... where perhaps the theme should be "Pudong is burning"? If you would like your very own XHZLC......

World Car Free Day, September 22 Ever thought of what you're doing to offset your carbon footprint? This Saturday, instead of driving your car or taking a taxi, why don't you try taking public transport, cycling or walking instead? Residents will be asked to avoid driving private cars within the Inner Ring Road, and while compliance is not mandatory, driving will be banned outright in some areas. Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节), September 25 As the mercury......

Direct links to photos: Here, here and here. Enjoy! Also on Shanghaiist Shanghaiist Halloween Party: The freaks came out Sat. night!......

UPDATE: We just added more photos. Halloween is our favorite holiday in the whole wide world -- check out the photos from Saturday night's Shanghaiist Halloween Party at Shanghai Studio and maybe you'll get an idea why. Conservative estimates say 500 to 600 people most definitely were in violation of some kind of fire code packed the bomb shelter (which Shanghaiist staff and the amazingly great people from MANifesto and Shanghai Studio turned into a......

What a weekend—the Shanghaiist Halloween Party was a blast! We loved the diverse crowd and friendly vibe. (Local residents, who contacted the police about the noise, were rather less enthused.) We’ll start planning for the next event soon — when we nail down the details, we’ll be sure to let you know. Any suggestions on places to go? While Saturday ranks as the most exciting day of the weekend, it didn’t rank as the most......

Due to our strong personal convictions, we wish to stress that the Shanghaiist Halloween Party in no way endorses a belief in the occult (or Bollywood for that matter). -- Shanghaiist staff That quote makes a lot more sense if you have just watched the long version of Michael Jackson's Thriller video (or at least the very beginning of it) like we just did -- hard to believe it really scared us back in 1983.......

If you don't come to the Shanghaiist Halloween Party this Saturday, watch out. We're not saying a knife-wielding crazy man in a white mask will come after you ... but it's always a possibility. (Do not watch the above video if you don't want to know how the original Halloween movie from 1978 ends.) What: Shanghaiist Underground Halloween Party When: Saturday, October 28, 9 pm - late Where: Shanghai Studio -- A Bar in a......

While Shanghaiist’s mind is usually consumed with cocktails, food, and finding a costume for the AWESOME Shanghaiist Halloween Party, our mouth started watering immediately upon seeing this email from Ken Walker, the man behind Bubba’s Bar-B-Que & Saloon in Hongqiao: I am excited to announce that Bubba's Bar-B-Que will be hosting Shanghai's first ever full-blown chili cook-off and tailgate party this Fall. The cook-off will be held November 12 from Noon to 6 p.m. in......

We love Shanghai, too -- but not enough to get it tattooed on our arm (or anywhere else). We were sent these photos yesterday and thought we'd share. The guy getting inked doesn't even live here -- he lives in Guangzhou, but fell in love with Shanghai while on a visit here. Although the tattooing took place in a bar -- Shanghai Studio, which happens to be the site of the upcoming Shanghaiist Halloween Party......