The Shanghai Daily reports that a pungent smell spread through the city yesterday evening, causing nausea among its inhabitants. Two women were taken to hospital after breathing in the fumes. According to eyewitnesses the fumes smelled something like "pesticide or leeks". The source has not yet been discovered, and the Environmental Protection Bureau is still investigating. more ›

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. more ›

Though it sounds like a high school-student-and-soon-to-be-cocaine-addict's dream come true, in China, there is a real market for people with an acute sense of smell and masochistic tendencies! From the unlinkable without a proxy or psychic powers BBC:

China is about to unleash a new weapon in the battle against illegal polluters - humans trained to sniff out foul gases, according to Chinese media. more ›

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Our earlier post about "Shanghai's seven commandments" reminded Shanghaiist reader Ryan of a similar sign he saw when he was brave enough to enter a toilet stall at the Super Brand Mall's Lotus Supercenter. Hanging on the stall wall was another sign which we share with you below. Said Ryan: more ›

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing. more ›

Researcher Vic Callaghan of the University of Essex and Liping Shen of Shanghai Jiaotong University have developed a emotion tracking ring which can "analyze physical signs to keep track of a student's attention span, their level of understanding, and even the amount of stress a certain lesson produces." The point of this is to help with long-distance, online learning, where the teacher does not have the benefit of face to face interaction and feedback with the students. The ring uses Bluetooth technology to transmit information about the user/student to educational software which then may change the way it delivers information, for example by switching from text to video, or changing topics when the user feels bored. more ›

When you buy a transportation card in Shanghai (交通卡 or jiao tong ka), you have to make an RMB 30 "deposit". So for example, if you give a RMB 100 note when you buy your card, it will only be credited with RMB 70. more ›

Newlyweds generally don't need an excuse to jump into the sack, but if they do, Shanghaiist has got a great one … excuse, that is. From our favorite hometown paper, Shanghai Daily: more ›

It seems that smell alone would be enough to leave you turning up daisies, and the taste suggests something which, unless you are a lawnmower, positively should never be ingested. If ever you've imagined taste-testing insecticide or paint thinner, Chinese white wine, or baijiu (白酒), should be a fair approximation. And if by some divine intervention you do survive it and the inevitable hangover, you will forever be haunted by memories of your hosts plugging your nostrils with lit cigarettes and forcing the drink down your throat with ghoulish generosity. more ›

It being late Sunday night, Brad was the only person in the bar at the time. But still, with the fire and the fire trucks and all, he described the experience as "fucking scary" and is now thinking about getting some kind of fire insurance for the place. Brad said there were no injuries or deaths that he knew about, even though dozens of people "unofficially" live in the building. Brad spent the night in a nearby hotel and as of a few minutes ago, there was still no electricity at the bar. Live Bar needs electricity by Wednesday, because (you heard it here first) Australian instrumental rock trio Dirty Three are planning on playing a free show at Live Bar at around 10 that night, a warm-up for their scheduled gig at Yunfeng Theater on Thursday. So let's hope they get this figured out -- and be sure to check out Live Bar's bathrooms: "I went back in last night," Brad said, "and only the back part near the toilet smelled of smoke. It used to smell of urine, so this is actually an improvement." more ›

We have written about the Thames Town development in suburban Shanghai a couple times before. Our posts probably wouldn't qualify as "good PR", in fact the second link led to a bunch of international news stories about a pub owner in England who accused Thames Town developers of cloning her establishments. Admittedly, we have never been to Thames Town -- we just think the idea is kind of silly. more ›

Like many people, Shanghaiist ducked out of the country for a few days over the October 1 holiday. We didn’t go far: just across the water to Seoul. more ›

The hard working waiters of this city might not get tips, we but we do, from our tips page. One that caught our attention was about a new photographic equipment center at the corner of Lu Ban Lu and Xie Tu Lu. Named Xing Guang Photographic Equipment City (星光摄影器材城）this four story building is located right on the northwest corner of that intersection, next to a Citymart. more ›

GigShanghai: Sonnet (yay!) , film noir and Swiss goth more ›

We just learned that Quincy Jones was in Shanghai over the weekend. Here you can see some photos of him at JZ on Sunday night -- he hung out for a little while, didn't play. more ›

Just like local pork, mutton, and anything served in a takeaway box, seemingly humble and innocent tea is now part of the global effort to give us health problems: more ›

Good work, guys. more ›

We have had some really long layovers at the Narita Airport. On our way to Hawaii a couple weeks ago, we were there for eight hours. And yesterday, on our way back, it was around five hours. Luckily, Narita isn't a bad place to hang out. If you have a computer with you, a day's worth of internet access, wireless or wired, costs you just US$5. And the wireless works most places in the airport (Terminal 1, at least ... we've never been to Terminal 2). We usually head down to the lounge beneath gates 25 and 26, where a lot of the Northwest Airlines flights leave from. It is often empty down there, for some reason, but there are plenty of desks with internet hookups, as well as rows and rows of reclining chairs aimed at flat screen TVs. more ›

Xinmin Evening News tells us (article in Chinese) that although a bowl of wonton usually costs several yuan, Mr. Shao paid over 3000 -- in fact 3103.18 RMB. more ›

If you are a non-smoker aged between 18 and 45, and it is determined that your nose is up to snuff, you could very well get a job with the Environment Inspection Center of Shanghai as a human sniffer. Once you're recruited, you will receive training that brings you to a level where you can identify the smells of five items: flowers, sweat, sweet crispy rice (a local snack), ripe fruit and excrement. Yep, we think we can smell all of those right now. Sign us up! more ›

The July 30 overnight party at the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall held earlier this year was the last of its kind. Due to severe public criticism of the event, the company that once held the lease and the rights to this section of the wall has had its lease revoked. Reader, please observe a moment of silence to yourself. Thank you. more ›

A team of Scientists at Harbin Institute of Technology (yes, the same folks who play soccer with robots) have devised a way to put Shanghai's ample supply of raw sewage to use before it gets dumped into the Yangtze River -- they will use it to fuel our air conditioners: more ›

From the China Daily (via the People's Daily) we learn that the number of free parks in Shanghai now stands at 122 after 23 more were opened on April 1. But not everyone is celebrating: more ›

A Shanghai woman has apparently succeeded in her attempt to stop a factory from polluting her Pudong neighborhood, and she didn't need the help of a peasant revolt to do it. She just took the company to court. more ›