A young Japanese globetrotter attempting to cycle around the world recently became famous online, after he had his bike stolen in the Hubei capital of Wuhan. After making an appeal on Sina Weibo, Keiichiro's bike was returned to him Monday night, after a man surnamed Wang bought the bike for over 1000 RMB from a black market reseller, and recognized it as belonging to the bicycling traveler. more ›

The three laowai thieves who were caught on closed circuit television stealing Da Marco's reservation book may have returned the book to the restaurant, but one of them appears to be at it again! This time an Italian restaurant has fallen prey to the kleptomaniac, and they say 4,000 customer contact details have gone just like that. more ›

Apparently there are entire chopsticks gangs running around busy Chinese streets, preying on pedestrians ripe for the plucking! Who knows the necessary extent of kuaizi dexterity one must weld to pull metal and plastic from unsuspecting pockets, but these guys are clearly cashing out on their insane skills. more ›

The government was thrown into urgent face-saving mode recently when an amateur robber made away with 9 pieces from the Forbidden City's Palace Museum. The obvious question was how could a crude smash-and-grab job could've gotten past the "heavily-guarded" Palace museum? However the police at least have a suspect into custody now. A man called Shi Bokui who authorities said they found at an internet cafe on Wednesday has reportedly confessed to the robbery. more ›

Ever see the call girl on Maoming road and Huaihai road? No, we're not talking about prostitutes (though that's probably the place to find them, too): we're talking about the sculpture by Shanghai artist He Yong of a girl on the phone. You've probably passed by it a hundred times, like the rest of the quotidian copper statues around town, but as of yesterday, she's no more: someone ripped her arm off, cut her in two, and left her to lie in the street under a misty rain. more ›

Uh oh, it looks like us pedestrians aren't the only ones getting stolen from recently, thanks to the current dastardly economic situation. City police have now issued a warning reminding companies that keeping large amounts of cash on their premises may not be a good idea. Shanghai has seen a 35% rise in thefts of local areas since February, compared to the same period last year. The most robbed districts: Qingpu, Pudong, Fengxian, Songjiang and Jiading. Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

Minhang commuters and residents have been enjoying free bike rides for the last two weeks. No its not a rash of bike stealers - in fact, it's actually a new government sponsored program partially intended to curb theft. more ›

News from the subway in the past couple weeks:
• "Can't the city give some street performers some space?" - Street performers in Shanghai are often lumped together with beggars as public nuisances, but often they are just free spirits chasing a musical dream. One cited example are Tuotuo and A-qing, a couple of guys who play the guitar and sing every evening at the City Plaza Mall in Jing'an, often attracting a crowd of mostly young women and foreigners before being "politely" cut short by the city beat patrol. Street performers are often cited under Article 25 of the "Regulations for the Management of City Appearance & Environmental Sanitation", which assigns fines to and confiscation of the equipment of businesses and individuals obstructing public walkways to set up stalls, sell merchandise, or otherwise affect city's public image. The author of the piece consults sociology Professor Gu at the University of Shanghai, who suggests that the city set aside certain allowed areas for use by street performers.
• "World Expo mascot makes an appearance on escalator handrails" - OK, so we lie. The actual headline names the mascot by his real name, Haibao, but who actually remembers that? (As opposed to the much more clever, literal Sea Baby, or ) Anyhow, he's showing up on escalator handrail covers at Zhongshan Park, which will eventually spread to other stations in the Shanghai Metro.
• "Metro pickpocket team scooped up by police dragnet on a dark and stormy night" - Last week a team of 80 special police agents arrested a team of 20 pickpockets living in homes and hotels near the Zhenping Rd subway station on Line 3. The group targeted mainly young women wearing backpacks on Lines 2 and 3. The police also seized nearly RMB 160 thousand in stolen property, including cash, gold jewelry, digital cameras and MP3 players.