Remember that cabby who died on Nanjing Road after two passengers hit him, then ran away? Apparently those two passengers have been found:
POLICE have found two cab passengers who disappeared after their driver dropped dead on Nanjing West Road during a dispute over the fare yesterday.more ›
A taxi driver died yesterday on Nanjing Road West but not from a traffic accident.
At the closing ceremony at Jiangwan Stadium last night, Kenny G played a rendition of “Butterfly Lovers” (梁祝) as women in butterfly costumes descended from cables strung to the stadium lights. When they reached the stage, they claimed a Special Olympian and escorted her back to the lights as the announcer declared in a monotone voice, “Now she has made it.” And that was just the beginning.
This happened early yesterday morning on Tianshan Xi Lu. near Suining Lu in Changning District, according to this report:
A stunt man seriously injured during a performance in Shanghai's Zhabei District on Saturday has come out of his coma. Oldrich Svarousky*, 48, "can open his mouth following directions from doctors in English." He is not paralyzed, but suffered a concussion, a fractured rib, a broken nose and four broken teeth. A member of the Filmka Stunts Team, Svarousky was attempting to jump through rings of fire from atop a moving car during a Hollywood stunts show when he tripped and fell and landed head first. The bloodiest of the photos we saw can be found here. You can see a video clip of the accident here.
Meanwhile, we at Shanghaiist are thinking of setting up another fund ... for Christopher. Looks like his trip to Qinghai may take a little longer than originally planned -- that is if his bike survives. Christopher has already befriended a few mechanics along his route. And pieces of his sidecar motorcycle litter the route to Hubei. Read all about it below and view his photos here.
Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you ask, are indie film makers, screenwriters, R-Rated movies, and indie rockers.
Photo by 2 dogs 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.
Every gay man Shanghaiist knows has a taxi driver story. It’s not the typical long-way-around-the-block taxi tale either. The details vary by person, but they all start at the end of a long night at a popular gay bar.
Blame it on the World Cup, but it’s a testament to the steady improvement of the Shanghai music scene that we now consider a weekend with four live shows “slow.” We unfortunately missed the Beijing rockers, Camel, at Live Bar on Friday night, but heard from reliable sources that they put on a fun, up-beat, pop-punk set. On Saturday, Hackbuteer played a wild show worthy of a crowd of 400 people at Yuyintang, except that there were only 40 people there. The highly underrated six-man band from Xi'an experimented with everything from straight-up rock-and-roll to an Incubus-esque combination of guitars and turntables. Best secret of the weekend, they were. And what’s better than drinking warm beer from a can in a dirty warehouse in the middle of nowhere?
Back in September we told you about the new eco-city of Dongtan out on Chongming Island. It seems that it's made the news again though it seems that this new Reuters report doesn't tell much of anything new. A couple of trivial new facts: all the cars will be electric, and the precarious wetlands, which are what the environmentalists are mostly concerned with, will be protected and separated from the eco-city by a 5 km buffer zone. The reporter (we saw no byline) then does what every reporter does when they want to seem like they've canvassed local opinion -- talk to a cabbie. See for yourself:
If you enjoyed last week's post about Shanghai's most successful taxi driver, you might want to check out this latest ESWN translation -- a Chinese blogger's spoof of the taxi story. Instead of a Shanghai taxi driver, the main character in this story is a calculating Beijing prostitute. Funny stuff. A sample:
ESWN has a fascinating translation of a recent posting by Shanghai blogger Run Liu. It gives us a peek into the mind of one of Shanghai's most calculating and successful taxi drivers. As ESWN points out, it's a good thing most taxi drivers don't think like this guy -- we'd never get picked up outside of subway stations. Here is a taste:
Image of old Tang ad from The Museum of Beverage Containers and Advertising.
Shanghaiist knows that most of you are thanking your lucky stars that you got over the New Year's hangover and are not yet ready to think about the emotional hangover that awaits you on Valentine's Day IF you put together anything less than a perfect Valentine's Day for that special someone. Well, we pride ourselves on being your eyes and ears here in the city, and we've just gotten wind of a Valentine Day's package that is sure to sweep that sig other off their feet and into your
This doesn't explain why Shanghaiist's taxi driver the other night had never heard of "Xintiandi" -- "I'm from Pudong" was his excuse -- but it might explain why so many behind the wheel in Shanghai drive like assholes. They're just angry, is all ... because their car's GPS navigation system uses a fake city map that is just plain wrong:
Earlier this week we learned that Shanghai will start subsidizing its taxi drivers due to "soaring" fuel prices locally. Each taxi driver will receive an extra 412 yuan ($51) a month from the Shanghai government and the taxi companies. Drivers who share a car and work in shifts will receive 275 yuan ($34) per month. Shanghai has 43,000 taxis shared between 100,000 drivers that carry about 3 million passengers each day. (Shanghai also has about 42 functioning seat belts.) According to Xinhua, fuel prices increased 6 percent on July. Of course, they didn't mention what the prices actually are. And Shanghaiist can't remember the last time we actually saw a gas station.
Rising up from the soulless Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and McDonald's doldrums of "Thumb Plaza" in Pudong is the Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art's international new media exhibition, ElectroScape. Only in operation for six weeks, it has created one of the first avant-art footprints in Shanghai with its premier. Don't know about you, but creating a discourse between the digital and organic usually makes Shanghaiist's stomach go to tizzies. While this exhibition falls well short of inducing a state of tizziness, it is well worth checking out if you enjoy such exercises in mental masturbation. And if you want to support the Shanghai art scene, it's the place to be before August 25.
