A group of Shanghai residents who had applied to the government for the right to hold an anti-maglev protest were rejected by the government. Despite this, small numbers of them intended to go on another "walk" in order to publicly air their grievances. This time, they were stopped by some other residents. According to this AP article, this is what happened: Residents in armbands used a megaphone to warn people not to "linger here too......

Shanghai is back in Beijing's good books. Or so an article published by the People's Daily two weeks ago indicates, claims the Associated Press. The article, titled "Glad to hear the new good tidings from Shanghai", lavished praise on Shanghai for it's recent successes. "A golden breeze refreshes Shanghai; one important, auspicious event after another" gushed the lead article. It is a sign, claims AP, that the fallout from last year's pension scandal has started......

Notorious NBA bad boy Yao Ming has done it again. He's late for national team training — and China's official sports association has made it clear they are sick and tired of his Rodmanesque antics: The Houston Rockets' star was faulted for taking too much time off to recover from his last NBA season. The government's All-China Sports Federation also said he spent too much time planning his wedding and making appearances for the Special......

Great news. Wang Yan, the 15-year old Chinese gymnast who was widely tipped to be paralyzed for the rest of her life from her fall at the National Gymnastics Championship two weeks ago in Shanghai, is said to be making remarkable progress, improving beyond her doctors' expectations and surprising even the surgeons that made the initial diagnosis. According to China Daily, the gymnast is "able to relieve herself on her own, and as her muscular......

We don't want to say we're starved for good live rock music in Shanghai ... but we are starved for good live rock music in Shanghai. Live here long enough and you gradually forget exactly how good it feels to stand up near the stage and get lost in a rock band that knows exactly what they are doing, a band you would pay to see even if you weren't living in China, a......

Gunman kills 32 in Virginia Tech rampage "She said the gunman 'was just a normal-looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout-type outfit. He wore a tan button-up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something.'" Gunman may have been in U.S. on visa "The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai, the source said. Investigators have......

Has the destruction of Wujiang Lu got you down? Need a quick picker-upper? If so, you might think about heading down to Henry's Brewery & Grill for a nice dose of comedy to turn that frown upside down. Does Henry's sound familiar to you, oh dearest reader? That's because it will also be the host of Shanghaiist next Happy Hour. Okay, that's enough self-promoting. This isn't the first time there's been some stand-up comedy on......

Shanghaiist may be accused of going with the flow on occasions, and one of those areas might be to do with our narrow mindset on the lovely, cute and adorable panda. We've applied our finest available powers of research to bring you the following snippets on the flipside of China's panda tail, and yes, it is mucky in there. So let us be accused of panda-ring no more. Yes, this is reporting with bite. The......

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Londonist wants you to know where to......

After almost half a year, Shanghai’s iconic “alternative lifestyle nightclub”, Home Bar, officially reopened last week under its new brand, Pinkhome. It has been transformed from its previous existence into what is China’s first gay multiplex including a dance club, restaurant/lounge, and hotel. As some readers may remember, there was a pre-soft (is that a word?) opening last October for the bar, after which the establishment was closed again until renovations were completed. For those......

We apologize for letting mainland China's Journalists' Day (yesterday) pass with nary a mention on this site. Reuters (via Xinhua) celebrated by reminding us that being a reporter is the "third most dangerous job in China." Xinhua said: "An increasing number of reporters are obstructed, scolded, even beaten during interviews." ESWN posts about one such experience. But reporters are still better off than miners or policemen. China Media Project has a nice piece on Journalists'......

We know we are a bit late on this, but the Shanghai Biennale will be going on until November 4, so you still have time. The following are our observations from one day spent at the Shanghai Art Museum last week. We accompanied a friend who is into design to the opening of this Biennale, themed HyperDesign. It features more than 100 artworks by 93 groups of artists from 23 countries and regions. There are......

Shanghaiist decided to have a look at the Annual Adult Care Expo (or "Sexpo" as many call it). Located at the International Exposition center on Xingyi Lu, with a 30 RMB admission fee, the Expo features just about everything related to sex. Much of this was toys -- fancy dildoes and vibrators. As it was last year, there were several exotic toys that take the brain and physical work out of thrusting a piece......

Brits will all be well aware of Baddiel and Skinner, and Frank Skinner (not the musician) is one of this Shanghaiist's favourite stand up comedians (here's an interview he did with the Backstreet Boys and here's what he thinks is his finest moment). They will be doing a voice of the World Cup podcast each day from Germany, and while we haven't listened to it just yet as we are busy slapping mosquitos away from......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It's possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid "kinda crappy" or "explosively crappy" or does he just like marking territory? SFist wonders. Technology comes in the form of new Mac goodness......

After Wired ran a story documenting the GoogleCenter of the United States a bunch of ists jumped on the opportunity to figure out their own middle. Gothamist, Chicagoist, Bostonist and Seattlest all zoomed in on their creamy GoogleCenters. A crack cartography team is hard at work determining the GoogleCenter of the Ist-a-verse as you read this... Austinist read a book about Olympian Bode Miller and liked it. They also took a few pictures of the......