The time isn't ripe for Shanghai's financial hub to allow foreign companies into its equity market, according to Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng. The statement marks a delay of two months in China's aspirations to become a global financial powerhouse by 2020. more ›

Get rich quick scheme of the day: Travel back in time to 2005 with sacks full of Benjamins, exchange them for renminbi, and presto-money-changeo, you're rich! "The renminbi (RMB), China's official currency, set a new high for the second day to a ratio of 6.4536 yuan per US dollar on Thursday. It indicates a 22-percent increase after the country launched exchange reforms on July 21, 2005. The ratio was 8.11 yuan per US dollar when the reforms were launched six years ago. China abandoned a decade-old peg to the US dollar by allowing its currency to fluctuate against a basket of currencies on July 21, 2005. The reforms were suspended in a bid to fight the global downturn in 2008. The yuan exchange rate again was pegged to the dollar at a ratio around 6.83 from September 2008. The peg was lifted on June 19, 2010, when the central bank announced further yuan exchange rate formation mechanisms." [China Daily] more ›

It sure isn't a great time for Chinese internet IPOs! Stocks for Renren (RENN.N) have been in decline for several days after their debut on the New York Stock Exchange and now things don't seem to be too rosy for Jiayuan.com (DATE.O) either. more ›

The general manager and Communist Party secretary of China National Nuclear Corp. is currently being investigated for "grave violations of discipline," according to the New York Times. The official, 56-year-old Kang Rixin is also a member of the Communist Party Central Committee and was responsible for increasing the nation's capacity for generating nuclear power at least sixfold in the next decade. While the announcement didn't say what accusations were being thrown at Kang, business journal Caijing said that unidentified sources suspected teh inquiry centered around roughly $263 million in company funds that disappeared in the stock market. They were also possibly looking into suspected bidding irregularities in nuclear power plant contracts. more ›

• Chinese Army opens (small) window on operations [CSMonitor] "Foreign reporters this week got a rare peek inside an infantry base of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). At the same time, officials were reportedly putting the final touches to a bilingual PLA website that is due to go live on Aug. 1, the 82nd anniversary of its foundation. Taken together, these efforts are designed to signal greater transparency by a 2.3 million-strong military whose rapid expansion has stirred unease among other foreign powers, including Japan and the United States. But these baby steps seem unlikely to silence the debate over China's military capacity and how it intends to use it in future."
• Hidden Gobi Desert relics found [BBC] "Rare Buddhist treasures, not seen for more than 70 years, have been unearthed in the Gobi Desert. The historic artefacts were buried in the 1930s during Mongolia's Communist purge, when hundreds of monasteries were looted and destroyed."
• The last tattooed women of the Dulong people [China News Wrap] "The Xinhua News Agency website has a headline photo story about the the last women of the Dulong people in China’s Yunnan province - one of China’s smallest and remote ethnic groups - to have traditional facial tattoos. According to the news story, the custom of facial-tattooing amongst China’s Dulong ethnic group is first described in historical records from the Tang Dynasty (7th to 10th centuries C.E.)."

• Lest we have those twin luxury towers (which were to hold the Conrad Hilton) rot in the middle of the city, the Shanghai government is now trying to orchestrate a buyout of the stalled project. [WSJ]
• Thanks to the Expo, wait times are going to be slashed to 4 minutes or less on the No. 7 subway line. We just have to wait til next year before it goes into effect. [Shanghai Daily]
• Foreign firms are allowed to list on the Shanghai stock exchange for the first time ever in an attempt to turn the city into a financial center like New York or London. [Telegraph]

• Time to Board China's Infrastructure Train [Barrons.com] "Around 250 Chinese cities are planning to build new subway lines by 2015; the city of Changshang in central China alone is investing 22.4 billion yuan in two new subway lines." Changshang?
• China says U.S. provoked naval confrontation [LA Times] "China blamed the United States on Tuesday for a naval confrontation in the South China Sea over the weekend, contending that an American surveillance vessel was illegally conducting activities in China's special economic zone."
• Hoops in the Far East: A primer on China's basketball development [Sporting News] "Indeed, Yao has been away from the CBA long enough to have lost some perspective on it. But, in the coming years, the league figures to grow in importance. As crises in older economies around the world deepen, belt-tightening already has seeped into the basketball universe, with some players having trouble getting paid in Europe and with the NBA taking out a loan to prop up half of its struggling teams. China, though, is on the uptick, which figures to give its league more sway in the future."

• Despite earlier protests, there will be a new maglev line between Shanghai and Hangzhou. This week, the local government announced that the construction of this line will start in 2010, three years later than planned. It is supposed to be finished in 2015, when we will be able to go to Hangzhou in just 30 minutes.
• Things are looking dark on the Shanghai stock market: This Monday the Shanghai Composite Index ended down 5.34 percent, at 2, 319.868 points. Over the last seven days, it dropped a whopping 14.95 percent.
• Safe sex is on the agenda, this week we read about free condoms in the office district of Jingan, now Shanghai's university and college campuses will get condom vending machines. According to Shanghai Daily, 85 percent of the students in a recent survey found it most convenient to buy condoms from machines, rather than in stores. We just think it's a little unfair that the students have to buy their condoms while office workers get them for free.

In an attempt to prevent any kind of market fluctuations and “sell offs” leading up to the Beijing Olympics, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), China’s securities watchdog, distributed a notice to fund managers, including Sino-foreign joint ventures, warning fund employees not to say anything publicly that could harm the stability of the market. more ›

Recently, Tudou's Marc van der Chijs commented on how he knew the bubble in the Chinese stockmarket had to burst soon when he found out that his driver, too, had jumped headlong onto the stock bandwagon although he had zero understanding of how stockmarkets work. You will find an echo of that sentiment in Al-Jazeera's latest report on China's current stockmarket frenzy. Meanwhile, David Barboza of the New York Times says China wonders if its stock market boom is over. And as China Digital Times reports, the recent stock market crash caused a Beijing investor to attempt suicide in the Wangfujing shopping district. Video after the jump: more ›

Shanghai Awaiting Approval on Disneyland [AP] Shanghai is awaiting approval of mainland China's first Disneyland, and the theme park could be built on an island in the Yangtze River, according to reports in the mainland and Hong Kong media.Shanghai sets up $1bn fund [FT] Shanghai's city government is setting up a financial investment company with about $1bn to spend on investments in China and overseas.New mechanisms required for China's climate change efforts - Greenpeace [Forbes]... more ›

The Hong Kong chief executive, Donald Tsang, says that the Chinese government is committed to a plan for letting the country's mainland investors trade shares on the city's stock exchange. more ›

This a rough translation of Fan Gui's response to Sun Liping's essay (which we wrote about here): 1. Regarding Sun's first point, I believe that he has ignored a very crucial fact—the growing gap between rich and poor. 20% of the population controls 80% of the wealth, how can you say that such a status quo has "flexibility"? While Professor Sun divides the population into urban and rural, does he mean that the urban poor... more ›

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,... more ›

Yup, that’s the guy, the face representing millions of Chinese retail investors chasing a red hot market. more ›

• China to be world's third largest economy
  China's sizzling economy grew even faster in 2006 than previously reported, the government said Wednesday, moving it closer to overtaking Germany as the world's third-largest and possibly adding to fears of overheating.


• China falling short on energy-saving goals
  China is falling short of its goals in a campaign to boost energy efficiency in its fuel-guzzling economy - the world's No. 2 oil consumer - but is starting to make progress, the government said Thursday.


• China "Liantong" condom makes the right connection
  A condom trademark named after telecommunications giant China Unicom has been approved by the Chinese government's trademark office.

See anything newsworthy? Leave us a tip on the Shanghaiist Contribute Page! more ›

to embroil a listed company this year. more ›

We're sure that you're all sick and tired of hearing about the Chinese stock market, but since we're struggling bloggers, we get vicarious thrills by talking about things that people with money do. Stocks in China took a slight tumble on Friday, amid more concerns that stock capital gains taxes were in the works. Everyone is still debating whether or not the stock market is a bubble or not, but some analysts say that whatever market corrections come won't have a hugely deleterious effect on the economy either in China or abroad. more ›

The lyrics were written by a Shanghai man named Gong Kaijie (龚凯杰), who's been playing the stock market for ten years and knows of what he writes. And although he was the one that provided the initial spark of creativity that made this happen, it is the singer of the song, 24 year-old Shanghai native Wang Bei (王蓓) that lent her voice to the words. Wang once wanted to be a star, but was weeded out of the pop-star manufacturing assembly line TV shows such as Super Voice Girls (超级女声). It looks like she might still have her chance. more ›

Photo by Jakob.Montrasio.net taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. more ›

and you can also see what it looks like in the picture above. The stock mania and the get-rich euphoria seems to be the topic on everyone's lips these days, and Chinese university students are no exception, which is why the Ministry of Education recently issued a statement saying that university students ought to be concentrating on their studies, rather than playing the stock market. more ›

Photo by staffh was found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page. more ›

Back in late February, a 10 percent swoon in China’s equity market touched off a global sell off. Had you NOT listened to us and bought in on the dip, you’d be sitting pretty and swimming in coins like Scrooge McDuck. Yesterday, the Shanghai Composite Index crossed 4000 for the first time ever, a whopping 50 percent higher than where it stood at the end of that dreadful day just two months ago, and on the heels of a 160 percent gain last year. Sorry, we were dead wrong. Now we hear stories of people pawning their homes, cars, children to raise capital for the stock market. Very sensible indeed. more ›

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... more ›

Are you in the Chinese stock market? No, this isn’t a reprint of the post from last month. We ask because yesterday, both the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges dropped about nine percent, registering their biggest decline in a decade, surpassed only by the sell off the day after late reformist leader Deng Xiaoping died in 1997. more ›

Are you in the Chinese stock market? We're guessing the answer is no for most of you — by law, only Chinese nationals are allowed to purchase A Shares traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. Well, sucks to be you (and us). We're missing out on a get-rich-quick opportunity of a lifetime, as millions of Chinese are swept up in stock trading mania. The International Herald Tribune reports: more ›

From the story in the Jiefang Daily: more ›