Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent for The Guardian, spent the weekend at an auction in Beijing attended by well-heeled buyers ready to pay top dollar for spirits and tonics with tiger, rhino horn and pangolin ingredients. Watts watched silently at first, but eventually decided to reveal he was a journalist so he could ask staff about the illegality of the stuff on sale. Here's what happened: more ›

"My trip reminded me that we are all just animals, that stuff comes out of every hole we have, no matter where we live or how much money we've got. On some level we all know this and manage, quite pleasantly, to shove it towards the back of our minds. In China, it's brought to the front, and nailed there." more ›

"The only difference is English-speaking countries treat the internet as technology, while Chinese-speaking countries treat the internet as medicine." more ›

Around this time of year, the topic of social unrest in China is never far from the fore. The recent spate of strikes at the Honda plant in Foshan and slew of suicides at Foxconn's Shenzhen factory has provided recent evidence that not only disenfranchised sections of society are willing to show their defiant colours, but also the greater need for the government to address China's wealth distribution. more ›

We suppose this was inevitable, but it still irks us. The collaborative experiment between UK newspaper, The Guardian, and crowd-sourced translation website Yeeyan to publish selections of Guardian stories in Mandarin has been shut down by Chinese authorities. Yeeyan 's website - which also publishes other material, like translations of books and TV shows - also got the axe. The Guardian is seeking an explanation, said Editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, who called this "a very disconcerting development... We hope this move does not represent an attempt to suppress independent-minded journalism, and that the Chinese authorities can reassure us that Yeeyan and the Guardian will be allowed to resume publication." We won't be holding our breaths on that one, guys. more ›

U.K. newspaper The Guardian has got China fever! Not only are they doing a week-long portrait of China series (the first of which looks at migrant workers returning to village life), but it's also actually offering Chinese translations of some of their articles now. more ›

Dan Chung of The Guardian, who brought us that beautiful reel of the Longchang Apartments, has a new video documenting visitors on the banks of the Huangpu River. more ›

Jonathan Watts, the China correspondent for The Guardian, has recently put in his year so far article about the internet here. It covers a lot of familiar ground and quotes Zonaeuropa and Danwei.org, among others, as sources. One of the most quoted facts in these kinds of articles is the world’s most read blog being “Lao Xu”. Lao Xu is the Sina.com blog of actress/writer/director Xu Jing Lei 徐静雷. more ›

All ye lucky yuletide souls whose employer's lack of the Scrooge gene has enabled ye to escape Shanghai over the Xmas break, rejoice! Those of you flying back into China after January 1 no longer need to fill in that pesky health declaration form. Although Shanghaiist kind of enjoyed the pre-landing self-diagnosis ritual. Just how many avian flu carrying fowl had we fraternized with over the past month? And could the hail of sputum from the guy sitting next to us develop into full-blown SARS? These questions, along with which fellow passenger to scrounge a pen off, took our thoughts away from the strip of tarmac hurtling at horrific speed towards our plunging aircraft. According to the national quarantine watchdog and civil aviation regulator (quoted in The Guardian), "The move aims to simplify immigration procedures and improve efficiency." Dunno how this would have any affect on queues, seeing as people fill out the forms in-flight, though apparently from from February 1, people with no goods to declare won't have to fill in customs forms when leaving or arriving in China, which may speed things up slightly, judging from the confusion over said forms we've witnessed at Pudong International. more ›

During her speech at a conference on quality and safety issues held on Thursday, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi described a new four-month nationwide campaign to improve the quality of goods and food safety as a "special battle" to ensure the people's health and interests and maintain a good image of Chinese products. 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 ›

Ma Lik, the head of Hong Kong's leading pro-Beijing political party who questioned whether China's Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 should be called a massacre, died Wednesday, an official said. He was 55. more ›

Video of mudslide in Sichuan Province from Youku. more ›

Photo by Anton Berkovich. more ›

Briton Nick Young, founding editor and publisher of the China Development Brief (we're surprised this website is still up and running), has been ordered to shut down his politically-sensitive newsletter here and has been accused of 'conducting unauthorised surveys'. He also faces possible deportation and a 5-year ban from China. more ›

We ask because for our June 15 Happy Hour at Abbey Road we are piecing together a playlist made up of all Beatles songs sung by other people. Personally, we are partial to just about anything by Elliott Smith, but we know there are many, many options out there — the Beatles are the most covered band in music history (or so we read somewhere). more ›

You may remember (one of) 2006's big Chinese internet controversies regarding the alleged British male English teacher blogging about allegedly bonking Shanghai's finest, the enraged response from China's self-styled moral guardian Dr. Zhang Jiehai, and the subsequent online-witch hunt for the alleged perpetrators? more ›

Even though we've long put our public relations days behind us, we can't help but think what a day in the life of a PR executive at Starbucks must be like. They must all have been working overtime lately with the Seattle-based coffee company hitting the headlines like crazy lately. First it was the landmark victory against Shanghai Xingbake, then there was the trans fat issue. more ›

The two photos above are from Shanghai. The second, we think, is Shanghai Railway Station. Barbieri's work comes to our city as part of the Shanghai Biennale and the Year of Italy in China. More Biennale events are listed here. more ›

Judging from the comments on our first post on Chinabounder's now infamous Sex and Shanghai blog, there seems to be some who believe that the entire thing is a hoax. Everyone, it seems, wants to know who Chinabounder is -- even the BBC，which emailed Shanghaiist's editor asking for the scoop on Chinabounder. Bloggers often seem omniscient, but we're not, or at least not in the way that God is. more ›

Do you remember what you were doing on May 18? Let us help you: You were reading a Shanghaiist post about Sex and Shanghai, a blog started by one "Chinabounder", a British teacher living in Shanghai. In this blog Chinabounder wrote about his sexcapades, as well as scattered thoughts about sex and sexuality in China, Mao, the Cultural Revolution, and China in general. more ›

The rules state that all dogs which enter public areas without a proper reason such as medical treatment or a public performance can be killed by public security bureaus or other units entrusted with the task. more ›

A British newspaper called Mail on Sunday ran a critical report (not online) on Apple iPod factory conditions in China, including one in "Suzhou, Shanghai" (is that like Greenwich, London?). Wired picked up on this and had this to say: more ›

On the 40th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution, The Guardian spoke to Zhang Sizhi (you may or may not find most of those links are blocked): more ›

We have always heard the stories of ducks (ya zi -- 鸭子 -- slang for gigolos or male prostitutes) in the city, but have never met any. "Could women really pay young men to sleep with them?", the prudish male Shanghaiist has often wondered, curious and a touch excited that we could maybe use our God-given bed-time mediocrity to work ourselves out of poverty and get our necks above the rice-line. The Guardian seems to have recently done it's own research into the field, although the reporter, Tom Miller, fails to admit why he was talking to the ducks. more ›

From The Guardian: more ›

The Guardian today reports on another riot in rural China: more ›

A British Museum touring exhibit, dubbed "Treasures of the World Cultures" is touching off a small controversy at its Beijing stop. Of all the world cultures on display -- Egypt, Greece, Ancient Rome, Africa -- one was notably missing: China. The exhibit featured 272 artifacts, none of Chinese origin. Ironically, the British Museum has the largest collection of Chinese artifacts outside of China and Taiwan, totaling 20,000 plus items. more ›

Photo of Xiangyang Market from Shanghai Daily. more ›

From the February 27 issue of New York magazine, we learn that Shanghai is the No. 1 destination New Yorkers are "fleeing" to (Nos. 2 and 3 are Budapest and Pittsburgh, naturally). Here's what the magazine wrote about our city: more ›