Earlier this week the heat in our bedroom pooped out. The weather on Friday hit a promising 18 degrees and we thought our prayers had been answered, but no such luck. Xinhua has put much of China back on a code red weather alert and it looks like we're head right back to highs in the single digits. Anhui and Jiangsu in east China, Hubei and Henan in central China and Shanxi and Shaanxi in......

By Mike Chen Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! 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.......

By 2 dogs: The new CCTV building in Beijing The winter chaos continues CNN: Chinese travelers gradually get back on track AP: Train Woes Ease in Snow-Wary China Bloomberg: China to Restore Power Cut by Snow Before New Year Forbes: Chinese PM urges people to be brave amid winter chaos Al-Jazeera: Stranded worker dies in China crush Reuters: China steeled for worse weather as holidays loom Yet another dumpling crisis AP: Insecticide Found on......

Long story short, the place is a zoo, but what'd you expect. Of course, things are made worse by the weather. Here are some pics from the last few days. From what we've been hearing both in the news and in our apartment elevator, the dastardly weather gods have caused big time cancellations and problems. Despite the crowds of cold people and the massive B.O. from the people waiting inside the subway station, things......

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).......

Nasty. Nasty. Nasty. If we didn't have to walk the dogs, we'd just stay inside our (semi) warm living room all day. We know the miserable sleet (or is it freezing rain?) and slippery conditions are forcing some offices to send workers home early today. But winter's icy grip on China is far more serious than some missed work or a slip on the sidewalk. Here's a rundown (and, please, feel free to add to......

A record power shortage hits China: Snow brings China to a standstill......

By Jos H.L. Kurstjens Around Shanghai New York Times: Plan to Extend Shanghai Rail Line Stirs Middle Class to Protest AFP: Shanghai metro apologises to kissing couple in Internet video Xinhua: Shanghai aims to become national trendsetter AFP: Beckham to play in Shanghai China Daily: Shanghai to base growth on service industry The New Year Chill AFP: Snow storms cause deaths in China ahead of Lunar New Year AP: Heavy snow in China strands......

By Mike Chen By Mike Chen Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! 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.......

What if Beijing is right? [IHT] What if the doubters have been wrong all along? What if big government and an all-powerful state are good, not bad? What if the business cycle, hitherto thought to be inevitable, if completely unpredictable, could be repealed? These are the questions that Howard French of the IHT asks in his latest Letter from China.China's 1st lunar probe to reach moon orbit Monday morning [Xinhua] China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1,......

Left: The gods must be crazy. Due to sudden cold winds descending upon Shaanxi (陕西), it's already started snowing in Yulin (榆林) and Yan'an (延安). In some parts of town, 3-5cm of snow has been recorded, and meteorologists are saying that snow will continue to fall over the next five days. Here's another clip uploaded by someone else. Snowboarding, anyone? Middle: Inspired by the blockbuster hit Transformers which has earned over US$650 million at......

We finally made it out to Tian Jia, the superlative Japanese restaurant famous for serving only one kind of fish: toro, meat from the fatty belly of the bluefin tuna. Our first trip was right before we left for vacation three weeks ago, and our second was the first night we got back. Yes, we craved it the whole time we were gone. For those of you who were like us and never made a......

If you thought mooncakes were only for the old-fashioned, think again. Hoteliers, restaurateurs and even tech companies (yes, you heard that right!) have all jumped onto the bandwagon, creating a bewildering array of mooncakes in the market with ever bolder and imaginative fillings, all in the hopes of capturing a bigger slice of the market. For the sweet-toothed, check out these multi-coloured ice-cream moon cakes from Häagen-Dazs, which you can get now at the Parkson......

Jackie Chan, China's most famous actor/singer/producer/cartoon character/matchmaker (whew!) finds himself one sino-franchise poorer this week, as government officials have blocked mainland distribution of his newest flick, Rush Hour 3. E! News reports: The official word on why the Brett Ratner-directed sequel won't be making it to the big screen is that the country has already imported too many American films this year for it to be a profitable acquisition, but some officials are attributing the......

The gods must be crazy or something. We're melting under the sweltering heat here and what do we read? While Liaoning in northeast China is suffering from its worst drought in 30 years causing 1.27 million people, 473,800 head of cattle and 1.4 million hectares of cropland to be short of water, many parts of Guangdong in the south remain submerged from floods caused by the tropical storm Bilis. The death toll has increased......

Because we know you had trouble sleeping last night wondering what the latest Survivor China news was, here's what Shanghaiist reader Louise emailed to tell us last week: Via Survivor Skills: "A reliable source has revealed to SurvivorSkills that the production for Survivor 15 will be based in the Jiangxi Province of Mainland China. The filming locales, and base camp should be around 40 km (24 miles) from the capital of Nanchang ...”They have unveiled......

Japan Probe's post entitled "Disneyland in China?" has already received a lot of linkage since it appeared May 2. We just saw it today, so we apologize if we are telling you something you already know. (You may also have seen a story on the topic in The Standard from April.) From The Standard we learn that Beijing's state-owned Shijingshan Amusement Park boasts the slogan "Disneyland is too far" and "features a replica of......

One of the nice features on Google Calendar is the ability to add the lunar calendar on top of the western one, which helped us verify that today, Thursday, is indeed the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar. For several years now, Shanghai Normal University has been holding a ceremony/celebration of this day, which is known as "Daughter's Day" (女儿节). We know this because we saw a TV report yesterday about......

Or more like who won't be performing. We've already told you about Live Earth, Al Gore's 24-hour, 7-continent series of concerts on 7/7/07. Well, lists of performers at different venues (cities participating are: East Rutherford, New Jersey [near New York]; London; Rio de Janeiro; Maropeng [near Johannesburg]; Tokyo; Shanghai; and Sydney) are starting to be announced. First up, the US and the UK. Here's who will be playing at Wembley Stadium in London: Beastie Boys,......

Zakaria: The Sky Isn't Falling in China "It might be time to admit that we really don't understand China. The country simply does not conform to our most basic beliefs about what makes nations grow." Curbs sought on violence in Chinese films "China needs a law to restrict a 'violent culture' in films and Internet to protect the youth from being corrupted, a Chinese lawmaker said Tuesday." China is source of bird flu virus,......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the......

As the world holds it's breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans for......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

AsiaPundit » Blog Archive » iPhone Now Available in China "Even though the official Asian launch date for the Apple iPhone is not until 2008, users of the China’s Taobao auction site can already buy the ‘revolutionary’ phone. No wonder Taobao could beat eBay in the China market ..." (tags: china iphone gadgets tech taobao) Syphilis epidemic raging in China, says study - Yahoo! News "Syphilis, virtually eradicated in China under Mao Zedong, has......

We posted earlier about the search for two missing American climbers in Western Sichuan province, where they were climbing. Unfortunately, it has been confirmed that search team found the body of Charlie Fowler, 52, nearly completely buried in the snow. It seems they caught in an avalanche. His companion, Christine Boskoff, has not yet been found. Picture from K2news.com......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is......

From Alpinist.com: Renowned American climber Charlie Fowler and high-altitude mountaineer Christine Boskoff have gone missing in central-western China. The pair had been on expedition since the autumn, and had managed the first ascent of the oft-attempted Yala Peak in early October. ... The pair traveled to Genyen, in China's Western Sichuan Province, November 9 and were due to return November 25. Several files discovered on Fowler's computer show that he had a clear intention to......

Lucky for Shanghaiist, we won't be. But we certainly feel for people who will be stuck in the city for the holidays. So we've compiled an incomplete list of a few things to keep you occupied while your friends are back home drinking eggnog and getting wasted with family around the Christmas tree. The first time Shanghaiist went to the Yinqixing Indoor Skiing Resort was back in the SARS era (2003). We went back this......

We at Shanghaiist like our vodka. We aren't, however, so fond of the cold. So when our invite for Binjiang One's Pre-Holiday Party arrived, we were torn. On the one hand, just the thought of being in a room with 100-plus varieties of vodka (the Binjiang Snow Bar claim to fame) made us giddy. On the other, the thought of hanging out in the freezing cold and having to shmooze with self-important hospitality types made......

If we had an office, we'd start an office pool: When will motorcycling philanthropist Christopher St. Cavish arrive in Qinghai? Or will he? Will he make it to his sister's wedding? Did he bring snow tires? We have to say, we are really enjoying these diary postings, even if half of them involve him waiting around for mechanics to fix the bike. Remember, you can donate to the trip here -- all proceeds go to......