Warning! Warning! Algae bloom heading towards us that'll make the Huangpu even grosser than normal! "A large expanse of green algae is floating towards China's east coast, potentially threatening marine life and the region's tourism industry, an official and state media said Wednesday. The algae covers 130 square kilometres (50 square miles) off the eastern provinces of Shandong and Jiangsu... An official in the forecasting department of the agency told AFP the size of the algae was "likely to turn out to be larger than that" reported by the newspaper, but "should be similar to regular years". Algae blooms are typically caused by pollution in China and suck up huge amounts of oxygen needed by marine wildlife to survive, while leaving a foul stench when they wash up on beaches." [AFP more ›

Photos from powerprints, beatdrifter, and David Feng. more ›

Georgia Popplewell of Global Voices Online has offered a great summary of reactions from the international blogosphere to Friday's announcement that former US vice president Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. more ›

Netizen "fyliumin" has sent in the following vid to Youku.com with the following comment: more ›

Beijing's Olympic countdown extravaganza suggests China is likely to put on a spectacular show next August, but the run-up also illustrated that the next 382 days are unlikely to be trouble free for the hosts. more ›

While browsing Digg for no reason in particular, we discovered something that appeals to two of our great loves, namely the environment and dodgy drawing. Yes, combined they form a cartoon competition aimed to promote environmental issues in China. It is only open to university students, and entries close on the 20th of May 2007. The winners will be announced on June 5th, and will receive cash prizes and the always-prized 'certificates'. You can learn more about the event, aptly-titled the 2007 University Cartoon Contest on Environmental Protection, via the China Daily website. more ›

These days, Shanghaiist is rarely surprised about anything that happens in China. However, we did think that this news story did come from a little out of left-field. A Henan-based investor group is constructing a 21-kilometre (13 mile) long metal Chinese dragon as a tourist attraction. The dragon's body forms a nine-metre (27-foot) high wall running along a ridge-line, with the dragon's head rising 10-metres (30-feet) above the surrounding land. This project plans to cover the metal structure in 5.6 million pieces of white marble and gilded bronze to form the dragon's scales which Xinhua reports should be "symbolic of the country's 56 ethnic groups". The dragon construction is planned to finished by 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. The investor group states that advertising space on the giant serpent also will be sold and tourists can pay to have their names and other messages inscribed on the walls of galleries located inside. more ›

The Tokyo-imported concept is this: each presenter at a Pecha Kucha night narrates a slideshow of 20 images — each for 20 seconds — on any topic of their choosing. Last night saw 14 speakers each give a 6 minute 40 seconds presentation on topics from development around the Moganshan district to urban investigation through art. more ›

There's a few things in this life that start with the letter M that Shanghaiist doesn't like. Malingerers, marmite, and men with no moustache but full beards (OK, the last one is a bit of a stretch M-wise). Some would say that these are irrational and ill-conceived categorisations, but there is another one on the list that isn't — and that is mosquitoes. And it looks like Shanghaiist isn't going to enjoy our coming summer evenings. more ›

Just what exactly is the attitude of people in Shanghai towards luxury items? It seems, from some reports, that China is the third largest market for luxury items after the US and Japan, with the added benefit of less taxes to "curb barbaric luxury consumption." Once the province of super-rich (men), luxury goods consumption in China is now in part being driven by women. Another interesting phenomenon is that people in Shanghai are more cynical towards brand-names than are people in second-tier cities, who are now the hard-core true believers. more ›

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Photo by chinapix 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 ›

It is interesting how different countries around the world envision themselves in the year 2020: more ›

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. more ›

Although, Shanghai’s No. 1 fruit fly is usually up for a night of loud music and cheek-to-cheek dancing with a crowd of gay men, lately work has been grueling and we lack the energy required to compete for space on a podium at Club Deep (trust me … as one of the only women in the club we still have to elbow our way through a bunch of other shameless exhibitionists). These days, we have been in search of a quiet oasis where we can hear our friends talk and are not entertained distracted by the meat market going on around us. more ›

But taking a dip into a major, disgustingly-polluted body of water is exactly what the governor of Guangdong Province and the mayor of Guangzhou did ... along with 3,500 other loyal citizens. Why? To prove that the Pearl River is now "neither black nor stinky" -- in certain sections -- after 30 years of being completely offensive: more ›

Shanghaiist doesn’t eat much spicy food, but every time we pass a xiaolongxia (小龙虾 or "little dragon shrimp" or "little lobsters" or crayfish -- the most popular food in Shanghai now) restaurant, we always try really hard to keep ourselves from drooling. The idea of cracking the crayfish, sucking out the meat and licking the messy goodness off our fingers is way too enchanting. Mmmmmm. (We realize this is strange talk coming from the site's resident animal activist, but life would be boring without contradictions.) more ›

Photo by Mike Chen taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos 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 ›

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: more ›

China has lifted its ban on beef imported from the United States ... and that is perfect timing, because right now Shanghaiist doesn't feel like ever eating China-raised meat again. Why? We read this story, translated from the Chinese Broadcast News Network (Zhong Guang Xinwen Wang): more ›

• Rent a car in Shanghai, drop it off in Beijing a couple days later -- all for RMB 1,200. We have our doubts whether this deal is available to foreigners, but right now it is only open to Shouqi Car Leasing Co.'s 10,000 members. Why? They don't want people driving off with their cars: "The high proportion of people who rent cars but fail to return them has been a major hurdle in China. About 6 percent of the entire Beijing rental fleet of 20,000 were stolen last year." Ouch.
• The Masters Cup Tennis Tournament will stay in Shanghai until at least 2008.
• Maybe someday it won't be all about the Maojamens. Replacing Mao's image on Chinese banknotes with Sun Yatsen and Deng Xiaoping, and other CPPCC proposals of interest.

Without question, the major drawback of China's rapid economic growth has been the tremendous negative impact on the environment. Now officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Environmental Protection Administration say that the Bohai sea--China's largest internal sea--has reached a tipping point. If measures are not taken to curb the dumping of pollutants into the sea from its tributary rivers, officials warn, the Bohai sea will be "dead" in as little as 12 years. more ›

Photo of Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng from Shanghai Daily. more ›

If you are a non-smoker aged between 18 and 45, and it is determined that your nose is up to snuff, you could very well get a job with the Environment Inspection Center of Shanghai as a human sniffer. Once you're recruited, you will receive training that brings you to a level where you can identify the smells of five items: flowers, sweat, sweet crispy rice (a local snack), ripe fruit and excrement. Yep, we think we can smell all of those right now. Sign us up! more ›

Shanghai quarantine officials are reportedly "on the lookout for dangerous Barbie dolls" after German media reports said the plastic toys contained a cancer-causing chemical. The chemical in question -- Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate or DEHP -- is found in many plastics and is not considered toxic at the level at which it usually exists in the environment. That said, it could still give you cancer, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the U.S. government's Department of Health and Human Services: more ›

Japanese car maker Toyota will start manufacturing its hybrid gas/electric Prius cars in China next month. The cars will be made in Changchun, in northeast China's Jilin province, where lots and lots of cars are made. This marks the first time Priuses have been manufactured outside of Japan. We'd like to think that this move will encourage more Chinese to buy the more environmentally friendly hybrid, but we have our doubts. So does this expert quoted in a Reuters story from September 2004, when Toyota's China plans were originally announced: "Concerns about safety and the environment are the luxury of developed or wealthy countries," Tim Dunne, a managing director at Automotive Resources Asia, a consulting firm, said. "The government is very serious about protecting the environment, but getting the consumers to buy that is a different story. I don't think people will willingly open their wallets to spend extra money for the environment." Being environmentally friendly just isn't cool here yet. (Shanghaiist, for some reason is reminded of the scene(s) in Anchorman where Ron Burgundy and Co. litter in public parks like it's their job. Ah, the carefree '80s.) Maybe a couple decades from now, Shanghainese families will tool around in their hybrids harkening back to those "carefree '00s." Who knows. more ›

"What is best in life: Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!" more ›