Taco Bell, we hardly knew ya. An article in this morning's Metro Express commuter paper reported that a Yum Enterprises spokesperson has confirmed the closing of Shanghai's two Taco Bell Grandes, at People's Square and in Gubei, as well as the chain's single Shenzhen location. Instead of pushing Americanized Mexican food in a tough market, the owners of KFC and Pizza Hut have chosen to concentrate on expanding their new Chinese "quick service" venture East Dawning (东方既白), which according to Dianping.com already has 10 locations sprinkled throughout greater Shanghai. The People's Square former Taco Bell Grande will become East Dawning's flagship location. According to TIME magazine: more ›

Leading Chinese search engine Baidu is mourning the loss of its CFO, Shawn Wang (王湛生) who died in an accident during his Christmas vacation in China on Thursday (no more details were given). The man was credited with leading the company through a successful initial public offering on NASDAQ. Meanwhile, a group of seven leading global record companies, including EMI, SONY BMG, Warner Music and Universal Music have lost their lawsuit against Baidu for aiding in the illegal downloading and sharing of their music. The People's High Court of Beijing ruled that Baidu's services do not constitute an infringement. more ›

PLUS LEE KUAN YEW AND HIS ROLE IN SINO-SINGAPORE RELATIONS The last week has seen top leaders zipping between China and Singapore to cement ties and sign new deals. Let's take you through the high-profile visits one by one before diving deeper into more detail (Warning: Long article!): Goh Chok Tong visits new Shanghai party chief and the Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park Last week, Singapore's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong swung by Shanghai to visit her... more ›

Metro news from the local press: more ›

It was too much to watch something like this, kept me vomiting for a long time more ›

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Yesterday evening, China’s central bank hiked deposit reserve requirement another 50 basis points (1 basis point=0.01%) to 12.5 percent, the seventh such maneuver this year, and ten dating back to June 2006. “Deposit reserve” is a balance all retail banking institutions must maintain at the nation’s central bank, often expressed as a percentage of its total deposit. A higher reserve requirement means banks have less funds for lending or other investment projects. This latest move is a part of Beijing’s continuing effort to rein in excess liquidity (and the attending inflation) and slow down what appears to be an overheating economy. The People’s Bank of China has also raised interest rates four times this year for a total of 108 basis points. Currently, a one year savings account will net you somewhere around 3.6 percent. So far, China has favored a gradual approach in tightening its monetary policy, with frequent but modest tinkering along the way. But with inflation still soaring at 4 percent (or more, have you been to Carrefour lately), one has to wonder if the PBoC dropped the ball somewhere. Was there ever a time (or perhaps even now), a more drastic measure would have been more appropriate? There doesn’t appear to be any sense of urgency in fighting inflation coming out of the PBoC and a general lack of concern/appreciation for risk in China, very troubling indeed. more ›

The People's Congress is expected to pass an Anti-Trust legislation today, the first of its kind in China, and one, 13 years in the making. For those that are law buffs, Fortune has a nice article here, with some in-depth analysis. We, not exactly students of jurisprudence, have only one question in mind. Will the powers that be stop China Mobile from charging us extortionist rates? Where are our free "night and weekend" minutes? Where are our free "in network calling"? Ok, that's more like three questions. more ›

We're not sure Bai Ling's latest lady parts on display counts as news, given the fact that her private parts are more well-publicized than she is. But, combine the Bai-sexual actress' escapades with Zhang Ziyi's body double's web-search for love; add the biggest dick in China; and throw in a PRC plug for "sexy famous models... touching each other," and we'll take the bait. more ›

Image from Shanghai Scrap. more ›

If you’re like us, you probably have a habit of collecting crap and hoping that one day it might be worth something. If so, June 20th will be your lucky day. The People’s Bank of China is issuing a commemorative 300 RMB Olympic Coin. Even more exciting is the fact that they are only issuing the very Olympic number of 20008 (c’mon it’s only one zero off) of these 10cm in diameter coins. That is approximately 1 coin per 75,000 people in China. According to our college economics class, a small supply and a high demand should equal a very high price. more ›

China's hospitals and in particular, Chinese hospital food, do not necessarily have the highest of reputations. Now the whole scare factor of heading off to a Sino hospital has just raised that little bit more with the recent story that a poisoner is at large in a Harbin hospital restaurant. more ›

We missed this when it was released last year, but we thought 人 ("Ren"), also known as the Peoples Building (but perhaps it should be called the Person Building), deserved a mention — if only for its audaciousness. This is just a proposal for a new building in Shanghai. It has not been approved yet, and we have no idea if it will be approved, or how long it would take to build if it does get approval. We're also not quite sure on the location, although if it is meant to coincide with the World Expo, perhaps somewhere near the World Expo venue? Regardless, it's good to know we will have blue skies, green grass and clear water in 2010 — and people will be all colors of the rainbow! more ›

Shanghaiist loves lists. We've embraced the love of lists ever since we picked up Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity. So when browsing the morning news yesterday, our honed powers of list detection and surveillance led us to discover that Shanghai has been included in yet another list. Not just any pokey little list might we add, but The Economist magazine's 2007 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey (WCOL) for expatriate workers. 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 ›