All the things you'd want to do this Monday through Thursday. On the schedule this week: The Album Leaf China tour, wine tastings, Haiku turns five, and China's first sex shop comedy! Read on for details, or check out our calendar for even more. more ›

If you're trying to impress friends with a fine appreciation for alcohol (and let's be honest, wine tasting and even whiskey tasting is a tad bourgeousie now) Haiku ifc is offering round three of their interesting Sake Sensei 101 dinners on Monday, March 21 at 7pm. For 300RMB, you'll be introduced to 4 different sakes --the brewing process, what junmai and ginjo mean, the proper temperature it should be served at and so on. The esoteric spirit will be paired with a 7-course dinner of dishes not found on their regular menu and keep in mind there is limited seating, so your RSVP is required. For that, please contact Sarah Mayra 13122278752 or email haiku.pr@gmail.com. For more cool events, take a look at our calendar. If you have an event you'd like to submit, please send us an email at calendar@shanghaiist.com. more ›

• Remember all those kids who were supposedly growing breasts after drinking milk?! Well it turns out that it was all an elaborate hoax with the rumours started by a rival milk company.
• Whilst we all may have been lulled in to thinking that all was quiet on the Sino-Japanese front after the Diaoyu Island incident, more nationalistic protests took place that the government plainly ignored.
• Here’s an idea to try to soothe the relationship between Beijing and Tokyo; why don’t we make use of 120 kilos of rice? It seems where diplomacy has failed with Norway following the Nobel prize fall out, 8734 pieces of sushi has done the trick!

The selection of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for this year's Noble Peace Prize has led to increasing strains on China-Norway diplomatic relations in the weeks following the award's announcement. Regardless of Norway's insistence on the independent nature of the Nobel committee, China's string of rebuffs have been dramatic. But there is hope still, and it comes fresh from the fjords of Norway. Turns out where diplomacy fails, 8,734 pieces of sushi does the trick. more ›

“You’d think Mister Tsuri would’ve tasted the food before he opened his stadium,” slurred a jovial member of our dinner party, as we spilled sake down our throats in a red-shag-carpeted cube. more ›

Where to go, where to go: Shanghaiist is still trying to figure out where to carb up for our big dodgeball game tonight (that's right, patches, dodgeball). Pure, the fancy new Japanese restaurant that is part of The Collection at Xintiandi, has been offering their new sushi menu for 50% off since last Thursday. The special ends tomorrow night, however, so if we enjoy ourselves tonight we may find ourselves there tomorrow as well. On... more ›

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 trip but heard all the accolades, now you can add Shanghaiist to the mix: this place is damn tasty. more ›

The last time we heard from Air China, it was hit by an embarrassing spate of accidents. Not so long afterwards, it announced an order for 15 units of the new Boeing 767 Dreamliner. This time, Air China has proclaimed its ambitions to grow its market share in Beijing from the existing 44% up to 50%. more ›

We want some right now. more ›

On the same day that the "Dear Leader" of our friendly northeastern neighbour decided to press ahead with nuclear tests, a brave Singaporean entrepreneur announced his decision to invade the reclusive commie state with his brand of -- guess what -- sushi! more ›

Photo by spiky247 taken from 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. more ›

We were curious how long it would take for our story about Shanghai in the July/August issue of Budget Travel magazine to become outdated. The answer? Early August. In the story, we mentioned Number Five (also known as No. 5) as a nice place to chill and enjoy some good jazz. We said we liked its "sexy laid-back feel." Well, the bar hasn't had jazz for a while now (performance license issues) and now the bar is closing altogether as a result of it. JQ Whitcomb, whose band used to be the regular entertainment at the venue on the Bund, has the scoop on his blog about Shanghai's jazz scene. Evidently, they are turning the space into a sushi restaurant. Great. more ›

• Shanghai cuisine is set to be "improved", so that a menu can be created for Expo visitors, and they're hoping that "Shanghai snacks in the 2010 Expo will enjoy such worldwide fame as sushi, hotdog, and ice cream." The competition to create new snacks is open to the public, and they say that people can participate via Sohu.
• You can also contribute your thoughts about the layout and other details of the Expo by taking part in the poll on the Expo site, according to Shanghai Daily. However we had a quick look around and couldn't find much about it.
• People's Daily reported an article (from China Daily) several days ago, which bemoaned the sacrifice of old land to make way for futuristic buildings, complaining that vintage Shanghai homes were being destroyed. The article pleads for this not to be the case with the Expo site. Good luck.

Aficionados of the "widdly widdly" school of guitaring, bend your whammy bars with joy. Paul Gilbert is coming to Shanghai next month! more ›