Amelia of ChinaTravel.net draws our attention to this Beijing Olympic keychain souvenir with a live fish in it:I found this picture up at the Beijing Olympics Fan blog and was shocked out of my wits!!! Who would ever buy this??? In 4 hours the fish would be dead, how do you explain that to your 6 year old daughter? I saw some guys selling these on the subway recently, they were claiming that the water......

“Asia is a market we have never really cracked. They don’t think they smell, but people everywhere smell” - Russell Taylor, Unilever - Whilst the UK currently leads the rest of the world in deodorant spending at around 125RMB per person annually, China's average is 0RMB with only 7 per cent of all of Asia reckoned to be using BO basher. It's no surprise then that Unilever (the people who make Axe / Lynx, Sure,......

It's that time of the year again — temperatures are creeping up, and we spotted our first shirtless market stall holder at the weekend; summer is just around the corner. For those of us still refusing to crank up the a/c just yet, here is a handy little device that might help you get a more restful night's sleep. It's a plastic pillow made from small tiles, laced together with strong elastic for comfort and......

Depending on where you read your news, the nation-wide boycott of, and protests against, French supermarket chain Carrefour in China were either a well-attended show of nationalistic pride or were over-shadowed by the bargains on offer inside the stores. Angered by events surrounding the Olympic torch relay in Paris last month and by President Sarkozy declining to rule out a boycott of the games in Beijing in August, the protests had been arranged through on-line......

In our ongoing quest to keep you updated on the sugar free food and beverage options in Shanghai (and to keep with our tradition of posting stories that are "SOOOO interesting"), we thought we'd mention that locally branded Coca-Cola Zero — a sugar free carbonated beverage that "unlike the sugar-free Diet Coke, is formulated to taste like Coca-Cola," according to Wikipedia — started being available in Shanghai grocery stores and convenience stores sometime last week......

Fans of tight-fitting non-branded clothing rejoice! Following the much-heralded invasion of H&M and (the slightly less heralded) C&A, dedicated followers of fashion have the arrival of another Western brand to look forward to, after American Apparel announced that they will be hitting the streets of Shanghai in the next month or so. Location details have not yet been released but the chain is currently negotiating a lease for a downtown store in Shanghai, as well......

Photos here and here A cross between Crest and Darlie, everyone's favorite racist toothpaste. Spotted in Qingpu District.......

A few weeks ago it came to our attention that what appeared to be a large price tag-shaped sign was affixed to the front of a building under construction across the street from Zhongshan Park. The sign was under wraps, but the shape alone was enough to conjure up images of Best Buy and many high school hours spent searching in vain for movies and music that they don't keep in stock. Now despite......

On February 11th, a Chinese couple from Zhejiang, while shopping at the famous high-end retail group Galeries Lafayettes on a Paris tour, was accused of using a counterfeit note, then brought to a police station, questioned and searched “insultingly” then accused a second time at the same cashier of using a fake banknote, although it had been proven genuine by a bank expert. The French company duly apologized and offered the couple another Paris tour,......

Got your Chairman Mao figurine? Inflatable Pearl Tower? Spinning top that plays Axel F? Then you'll be needing the next big thing in souvenir tackery. Available in either a Day or Night versions, this motorised marvel displays images of the Bund drifting by for a maximum of 8 hours. Leave the DVDs alone for a while and enjoy the music of your choice (the clip features "Carbon Dating" by the Super Furry Animals) as you......

We're often asked what things we miss most from home. Five years ago, we may have been ready with a long list of items in response. But now, it's a toughie. In many ways, Shanghai is home now, and a lot more Western comforts are readily available here in 2008 than there were just a few years ago. So when people ask the "what do you miss" question, we generally draw a blank on specifics......

Okay, it may be the case that we don't fly enough, but yesterday at the Hongqiao Airport, we were really surprised to see this Virgin bookstore at the departure hall (that Richard Branson has really acted fast, hasn't he?). Does anyone know how long the store has been there? Food and beverage options appear to have widened up quite a bit too. Element Fresh has been there since last summer, located just outside the exit......

Photo by Wee Ling Soh So it's that time of the year when you are heading home in two weeks and you realize you need to get a wedding gift for your good friend whose wedding you had missed last November. And you actually haven't bought her a wedding gift yet (whatever happened to wedding registries?), much less a decent funky Chinese style gift since you happen to be working in China. As we've......

Adding to the flux of design studios and boutique start-ups in the artsy enclave of Taikang Road, we stumble upon yet another new kid on the block. Projection 216 is a design studio/boutique started by fashion designer Jenny Ni who has also rounded up several of her friends including design duo Perk, T-shirt collective The Thing, artist/graphic designer Tyakasha, sneaker designer DK and even a manicurist, Mary to join her in this endeavor. We......

If you have friends and family from overseas who are planning to visit for the Olympics, you may for their own sake want to subject them to a friendly frisk before they board their homeward flight. According to reports picked up on by Shanghai Scrap, the World Customs Organization is going to leave no stuffed panda unturned in its fight against counterfeit Olympic goods. The head of the WCO, Christophe Zimmerman, seems to be out......

Translation of captions:OPPOSING THE SHANGHAI MAGLEV ONSTRUCTION PLAN: 10,000 RESIDENTS TAKE PART IN THE 'HARMONIOUS WALK' NEAR PEOPLE'S SQUARE On 12 Jan, Saturday, as agreed through signs that had been placed through the various affcted neighbourhoods, people gathered at 2pm at People's Square for the "harmonious walk". At 2pm, over 100 people had gathered by the Urban Planning Museum. There were about 30 policemen and 10 police cars. These were all normal policemen, there were......

By Wee Ling Soh With temperatures looking to dip again in a few days, we see no reason why winter should be spent in jeans and thermals when colored opaque tights are all the rage this season. What more can we ask of opaque tights? Comfy to wear, practical in this bone-biting chill and most people should be able to carry it off (try darker colors if you think your legs are not your best......

Above, dear reader, you will see an example par excellence of lazy journalism. The header to this post is about as hackneyed as they come, but then so is the approach of a new periodical we stumbled across this week, the rubbishly titled SLmagazine. Whereas Dickens spent 500 odd pages flitting between London and Paris, SL pompously sees its "visionary mission" as to provide a cultural link between Shanghai and London (SL - geddit?) in......

Since Net Nanny lifted her ban on YouTube, we have been catching up on the some of the vids that we missed during the year-long ban...okay, it wasn't that long. Looking for any excuse to waste time and avoid Christmas shopping, we watched every episode available of the first season of Project Runway Canada (the other PRC in our lives). It's the Canadian version of the very popular (especially among the LGBT crowd) American show,......

Since Thursday, mallrats visiting Citic Plaza on Nanjing road may have noticed the greeting card and painting exhibit on the ground floor, right across from McDonald's. We were struck by how atypically childlike the artwork was, and then we found out why: they were all produced by children. The event is called the "Share Your Love" Art Charity program and is organized and hosted by the SMIC Private School in Pudong. We'll let the website......

Have you ever wondered what life must be like for someone who is watched everywhere she goes, whether she's eating, drinking, sleeping, shopping? It's the reason why Shanghai photographer Don Yap has tagged her "jailbird" in one of his recent portraits of her. Watch Paris eat xiaolongbao at Nanxiang and sip tea at Yuyuan, and go shopping at Lu Kun's (the greatest PR coup scored yet by any Shanghai-based designer!). The Shanghai municipal government......

DONGPING ROAD: DOOMED OR REDISCOVERED? As some readers may know, the strip of Dongping Road on the south side from Hengshan to Yueyang Roads is leased to the bars, restaurants, tailors etc by the music college behind them. Most of the leases are coming up for renewal over the next 2-12 months.There has been some concern that the music college may decide to reclaim their land for their own expansion purposes, rather than renew the......

If you, like us, are already cursing the arrival of winter, watch this. There is a little 5 year old girl in Jiangxi who is still prancing around in her birthday suit, and revelling in the cold waters as if its still summer. Her parents say that since she turned one, the girl started showing her great dislike for clothes. She goes to bed nightly without even a blanket on, and if someone actually tried......

Photo from meckleychina. Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Simply post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos[at]shanghaiist.com.......

Overheard in the comment section of our earlier story on the Chongqing cooking oil stampede was the opinion that the pushing and shoving here in Shanghai is much worse than in Chongqing. Agreed. We see so many potential stampedes happening here everyday and wonder why more people are not getting tromped to death on a daily basis here. But this story by the Financial Times tells us a similar cooking oil stampede that occurred right......

Yen Falls as BOJ's Fukui Says No Preset Time for Rate Increase [Bloomberg] The yen fell against all 16 of the most-active currencies as Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui said there was no set time for raising interest rates.Survey shows Singapore is Asia's most desirable city to live in [Channel News Asia] According to the latest Country Brand Index, Singapore is the top Asian city to live in. It was also ranked third globally......

A stampede in a Chongqing Carrefour hypermart has left 3 dead, 24 injured and another 7 seriously injured. The culprit? Cooking oil. As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, a 5-litre bottle of cooking oil that was originally priced at RMB51.40 was to be sold at only RMB39.90. This news was enough to get Chongqingers to start queueing from as early as 4am in the morning. Sometime around 8.20am when the doors were finally open,......

Most of the time when we need liquor we head to Carrefour, City Supermarket, or any of those types of places; but we are now happy to report that we found one more option: 9519, a Chinese somewhat upscale liquor store that's stocked with baijiu, huangjiu, vodka, gin, vermouth, red and white wines, beers, and even some fancy old-fashioned wine sets (ceramic, similar to a sake/wine set). The name is meant to sound like 酒,我要酒......

Have you ever walked down Nanjing Dong Lu and wondered, "What idiots buy those plastic wind-up tops that shoot out laser lights and play annoying music?" Well, now you have your answer: Us. We have our reasons: We're suckers for toys.We wanted to see what our dogs thought of it.They are cheap (10-15 RMB).The song it plays is "Axel F."Yes, Axel F! Anyway, the embedded video shows you what the top looks and sounds like......

Left: Sabra, a Japanese FHM-style magazine that typically features sexy busty ladies (no nudity) recently conducted a photo shoot in Shanghai featuring Nonama Takizawa (滝沢乃南). Needless to say, it caused quite a stir — and we're not talking about the kind that happens between someone's crotch. Well some Chinese guy got hold of the video, and uploaded it with the most hateful and incendiary speech (too rude to translate here) — and Youku in......