Paul French is the author of Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand and Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium War to Mao. He is currently re-investigating the unsolved case of Pamela Werner, a young English girl horrifically murdered in Peking in 1937, to be published as Murder in Peking by Penguin Books. Today, he writes about some historic buildings we lost in 2009 thanks to thoughtless Shanghai development. more ›

• Curious about who else came out winners in the Shanghai International Film Festival? They have the results up on their website now. [SIFF]
• The dudes who brought us the screening of Building 173 are now asking for Shanghainese people to participate in a “soundwalk project.” [biv0uac]
• The city has banned "free tour packages" in order to protect tourists from forced shopping trips and substandard service. But what if you WANT forced shopping trips and substandard service? [Eastday]