It's easy to get excited about Dunkin' Donuts and the arrival of another Best Buy will at least offer us a more customer-friendly electronics shopping experience, but can Shanghai really handle the full frontal in-your-face Americana that is Dippin' Dots? For the uninitiated, Dippin Dots are little balls of liquid nitrogen-enhanced ice cream that look like smallpox, feel like Styrofoam, and taste like redneck. Fine, maybe they don't taste like a redneck (they taste like......

The iPhone will be available in Asia sometime in the earlier half of this year (although nobody seems to know exactly when yet), and while Apple's been dragging its feet over bringing the phone here, some enterprising Chinese company has already come up with another clone, the HiPhone (not to be confused with the Meizu Minione), and from what we hear so far, it's not too bad for a clone! In fact, this German......

If you like your basslines rinsin' and your selektas rewindin', you'll be in broken-beat heaven this weekend. On Friday the 15th, Hospitality Shanghai sends Logistics and Cyantific to disinfect Club Bonbon. The duo will storm the emergency care ward to celebrate Bonbon's new status as a resident stop on the Hospitality tours. Cyantific is bringing an extra turntable just for us and will showcase his own brand of three-deck trickery. Still not satisfied? Then head......

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

In our past life as a public relations executive, we were always surprised at how China's media world appears to be in sort of a pre-Cambrian age with as many publications going out of business as there are coming in. Call up all the journalists you've invited after a press conference and there always be bound to be one or two publications that have folded up. Well it appears we haven't quite come out of......

RIP: 4Live (November 2006-January 2008) We don't envy publishers of Shanghai guide books — shit never stays the same here for very long. Yesterday we told you about the closure of 4Live, arguably the best venue for live music in downtown Shanghai. Now we have some insight on the news from two guys who worked at 4Live during its 14-month existence: Michael Ohlsson, marketing manager at 4Live from December 2006 to May 2007, and Brad......

Well, 2007 is pretty much over. This Shanghaiist has never really been a big New Year's person, maybe because we always end up the odd one out at midnight or the one that has to break up the drunken fights that erupt. But, in the spirit of the season we have decided to do that traditional (way over done) recap of the past year. 2007 was a big year for music in Shanghai and below......

A recent article in Bokee about human guinea pigs that test out new and experimental drugs for a living or sometimes just for a kick. The article says that there are three different types of people that do this: 1. university students who might be studying medicine and could use the cash, 2. people who want to further the cause of medicine (and who might be sick themselves, and thus have a stake in it),......

UPDATE: As stated in this comment, Shanghaiist was contacted via email by the Director of Sales & Marketing of Shanghai Golden Sands F&B Management Ltd., the company running the two establishments mentioned in this report. He requested that we take the story down and issue a retraction. He also threatened legal action. The author of the post stands by his story, and says his sources included current employees of Trader Vic's. In his comment below,......

We want some of whatever this guy is smoking: "Haibao is a jolly, confident and cute kid," said Shao Longtu, 62, CEO of the Jiumuchuansheng advertising company and head of the mascot design team. "Using a human being as a mascot reflects the spirit of human-orientation, while the color blue stands for water, sea, the Earth, life, dreams, the future and technology," Shao said. ... "The mascot is a perfect match for the emblem. It......

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......

Yet. For those who like to keep up to date on Shanghai-English-language-website news — yes, all three of you — head on over to Urbanatomy.com. That's the future home of a new website from the folks at That's Shanghai. And if Urbanatomy.com is as half as good as thatssh.com ... someone seriously needs to be fired over there, because thatssh.com is really quite awful. But they know that — hence the new site. But why......

Have you ever wondered what life must be like for someone who is watched everywhere she goes, whether she's eating, drinking, sleeping, shopping? It's the reason why Shanghai photographer Don Yap has tagged her "jailbird" in one of his recent portraits of her. Watch Paris eat xiaolongbao at Nanxiang and sip tea at Yuyuan, and go shopping at Lu Kun's (the greatest PR coup scored yet by any Shanghai-based designer!). The Shanghai municipal government......

DONGPING ROAD: DOOMED OR REDISCOVERED? As some readers may know, the strip of Dongping Road on the south side from Hengshan to Yueyang Roads is leased to the bars, restaurants, tailors etc by the music college behind them. Most of the leases are coming up for renewal over the next 2-12 months.There has been some concern that the music college may decide to reclaim their land for their own expansion purposes, rather than renew the......

So, as some of our commenters in a previous post brought up, Youtube is indeed back! So what was behind the temporary block — was it the 17th Party Congress or was it Youtube's Hong Kong/Taiwan versions? I guess we will never know. But enjoy it while it lasts people. You never know when the block will come back up, but when it does, you know you have VPN to fall back on ;-) There's......

Asia's papers keep newspaper flags flying [Asia Times] With a little help from the Internet, the future of newspapers looks bright in Asia where seven of 10 of the world's best selling dailies are published, with China, India and Japan accounting for more than half. Advertisers, the lifeblood for newspapers, are also smiling.Asian mega-cities to be swallowed up by sea [Asian Offbeat] They include Dhaka, Bangladesh; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai (gosh!)......

The People's Square station signage will soon get a makeover to get up-to-date with Line 8's signs. The new Line 8 platform will open by year's end. Metro Line 13, which has 4 planned stops servicing the future World Expo site, will be branded as a World Expo line. This is part of a move to add culture to the Shanghai subway system. The mother of the young man who was trapped and killed......

Building off of the success of last year’s 1st ever Chili Cook-off, Bubba’s is once again hosting the event this weekend (October 20, 12pm-5pm), which they alliteratively proclaim will be “bigger, better, and with more room to roam.” For starters, we have moved the cook-off to the street that runs alongside Bubba's Bar-B-Que (between us and Marriott Hong Qiao). It is a nice, tree-lined street and we're gonna close that sucker down to traffic......

Hello again, people! We told you it was going to happen, and as of NOW, commenting on Shanghaiist (and the rest of the Gothamist network) is limited to registered users. Registration is easy — either click the Create an Account link at the top of this or any other page on Shanghaiist or, easier yet, create an account right at the bottom of the entry page that you want to comment on. So easy! All......

Oops..we have been sitting on this a few days, all the beers and amazing shows made Shanghaiist a little loopy and unable to sit down and type. The entry below comes via Emily Moy who had a chance to sit down with Talib Kweli and Ozomatli at the Yue Festival press conference last Thursday........ Its 3:30p.m., I’m running up and down The Bund and, I’m LATE. My interviews with Talib Kweli and Ozomatli are to......

Many moons ago, we had a conversation with a Chinese colleague that went something along the lines of the following:同事：你是基督徒吗？ 我：不是很好的基督徒，不是很虔诚的基督徒，不过应该还算基督徒吧。 同事：哈哈，明白了。我不是很好的共产党员，也不是很坏，但是也许已经不能算共产党员了。我有三年没有交党费了，而且一直不去参加会议，应该已经被除名了。 Colleague: Are you a Christian? Me: Uhhhhmmmm.... Not a very good one, not a very devout one, but yes I guess you could still say I'm one? Colleague: Haha, I understand. I'm not a very good CCP member, and not a very bad one either, but you probably can't say I'm a member......

Are there any Living Buddhas among the enlightened readership of this blog? You have been informed: With immediate effect, all your reincarnations must receive government approval, and if not, they will be deemed "illegal or invalid" by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA). Thank Buddha for SARA because the latest regulations are all for the convenience of all the future Living Buddhas yet to come. As it tells us: It is an important move......

Gil Kim is a professional baseball player from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, which we are sure you all know is the home of Yuengling Lager (and is not too far from Bloomsburg, which we are sure you know is home to the Bloomsburg Fair). After graduating from Vanderbilt University, where he was "primarily a role player," Kim spent 2006 playing with the Omron Pioniers, a minor league team in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2007, he was signed by......

Back in January, we told you how much we loved the food at Southern Barbarian, the great Yunnan restaurant that some people complained was too far away because it was north of Beijing Lu. Well, we are happy to report Southern Barbarian has moved farther south, and now resides amongst a cluster of art galleries and shops near the intersection of Maoming Lu and Jinxian Lu (just one subway stop from Shanghaiist headquarters). The......

If we’re a day late picking up the buzz on Xu Haojia—the 16-year-old girl auctioning her breasts for charity—it's because the story was so baffling, it took us 24 hours to sort it out. At first Xu seemed like just another Chinese chick playing the tittie-lation card for 15 minutes of fame. At best, a two-bit Rosie Reid knock-off (you know, the British chick who tried to sell her virginity on eBay?). But it turns......

In a very unusual letter (English translation here) addressed to the "bishops, priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful" in mainland China, Pope Benedict XVI (and he's got a cool Chinese name too - 教宗本笃十六世) has openly hoped for a renewal of relations between China and the Vatican. In the letter, the Pope noted that "there are signs, in China too, of the tendency towards materialism and hedonism, which are spreading from the big cities to......

We were tipped off by Shanghaiist contributor Micah in the Contribute page that Flickr is possibly no longer working in China. We've done numerous checks with various people and it appears that while Flickr has definitely not been GFW'ed, one can no longer access it with Firefox even with this add-on. The only thing we see is a blank screen, although the Flickr favicon does actually show up. Both Internet Explorer and Safari are loading......

With another London Graduate Fashion Week at an end as of Wednesday, June 6th, its time to look back at how some of China’s overseas hopefuls faired against their fellow students from around the world. Whether or not they will make an impact on the world of fashion in the future, only time will tell. Zheng Yang Liu (University of Northumbria) (far left) - The first mainland contestant showing on day one drew inspiration......

Continuing the fine Shanghaiist tradition of plagiarizing and plundering regurgitating Shanghai Daily stories, we bring you this article:SHANGHAI named 83 folk arts as its first batch of city-level intangible culture heritage today as part of the city's efforts to protect and promote these "traditional treasures." The popular "Huju Opera, Lion Dancing, Dough Modeling and the Longhua Temple Fair" can be found on the list, which has 10 categories -- folk music, dances, operas, folk art,......

This Shanghainese native, unlike many other Chinese, actually prefers not to use many of the cartoon icons when chatting with others via MSN Messenger. The use of cartoon icons could be considered an internet phenomenon younger generations of Chinese. At first it started with Yoyo&Cici Monkeys (悠嘻猴), a launch by Chinajoy at the beginning of 2006 driven by commercial purposes. Later in 2006, the cartoon Onion replaced the Yoyo&Cici Monkeys to be the most popular......