Editor's Note: This is an update to that flash mob we told you about earlier. The writer was the organiser of the event. Following the example of NYC-based drama group “Improv Everywhere,” an assembly of people gathered on Nanjing Road last Saturday at 3pm to "freeze in place at the same time." Although it was raining a little and many couldn’t make it on time, the event was a great success in terms of......

From Matt Seigal of catshanghai.com:There was a message floating around to meet on Nanjing Dong Lu outside the Sofitel at 3pm in order to stand still for five minutes. Passers by look amused and the police appeared rather baffled. I was going to join in, but I didn’t want to pass a chance to film the event on my cellphone. The event was great fun. Hilarious! When's the next flash mob, people?......

Ex-Playboy covergirl, epileptic dancer, and Shanghai Baby Bai Ling, was, as we told you earlier, arrested for shoplifting, but apparently, her shoplifting charges have been dropped and she was fined a grand total of US$200 for disturbing the peace. Here is her account of the incident:"I went across the [hall] with the toy in my hand, and asked which battery would fit. They told me [they knew which would fit], but they had really long......

A group of Shanghai residents who had applied to the government for the right to hold an anti-maglev protest were rejected by the government. Despite this, small numbers of them intended to go on another "walk" in order to publicly air their grievances. This time, they were stopped by some other residents. According to this AP article, this is what happened: Residents in armbands used a megaphone to warn people not to "linger here too......

For Part 1 of this story, click HERE. Shanghaiist is hyperventilating. Just when we thought the worst was over, a new set of pics have surfaced. After looking through the pictures, we had to take a while to recover from the massive nasal haemorrhage we suffered before we could calm down ourselves enough to put this story together (oh how very self-sacrificial!). The surfacing of the new pictures are an embarrassment to the Hong Kong......

People who made the news this week Kim Jong-Il, the President of North Korea, has met up with Wang Jiarui, the head of the international department at the Central Committee of China’s Communist Party, in Pyongyang on Wednesday. According to South Korea's Chosun Ilbo, when Wang voiced his explicit dissatisfaction with the DPRK's failure to meet its nuclear disarmament deadline, Kim said, “The present difficulties are temporary and can be conquered.” Kim also made a......

Long story short, the place is a zoo, but what'd you expect. Of course, things are made worse by the weather. Here are some pics from the last few days. From what we've been hearing both in the news and in our apartment elevator, the dastardly weather gods have caused big time cancellations and problems. Despite the crowds of cold people and the massive B.O. from the people waiting inside the subway station, things......

Translation of captions:OPPOSING THE SHANGHAI MAGLEV ONSTRUCTION PLAN: 10,000 RESIDENTS TAKE PART IN THE 'HARMONIOUS WALK' NEAR PEOPLE'S SQUARE On 12 Jan, Saturday, as agreed through signs that had been placed through the various affcted neighbourhoods, people gathered at 2pm at People's Square for the "harmonious walk". At 2pm, over 100 people had gathered by the Urban Planning Museum. There were about 30 policemen and 10 police cars. These were all normal policemen, there were......

Yesterday, we were tipped off on our Contribute page that an anti-maglev protest was going to take place today 2pm at People's Square. Apparently that has been derailed by the police. From Reuters:Police in China's financial hub of Shanghai detained scores of people on Saturday after hundreds showed up to protest a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation train, or "maglev", worried it would emit radiation. Police bundled demonstrators who had gathered in front......

This is just a rumor at this point. But it is a strong rumor. Not a weak rumor, or a flat out lie (like these). Basically, we think you can mark your calendars ... and use pen. Here are the details as we have heard them: March 2: Björk March 9: Harry Connick, Jr. March 22: Maroon 5 All shows will be at the Shanghai International Gymnastic Center, 777 Wuyi Lu near Zunyi Lu (not......

From the RFA Unplugged blog:Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan have dispatched several hundred riot police to Baima village, where a land dispute has flared into clashes with local residents. A Baima resident surnamed Li said on Dec. 27 the riot police were armed with truncheons and were beating villagers. His account has now been backed up by video shot at the scene of a middle-aged woman being beaten by riot police and......

... and going with strange girls who want to practise their English to coffee shops is STILL a bad idea, folks. Yet another chump — this time a Swedish guy on a business trip — has fallen for the time-honoured scam by following a pair of temptresses who were "dressed like university students" (so wearing mortar boards, presumably) to the Manabe coffee shop on the 3rd floor of the Brilliance Shimao Plaza, Shanghai Daily reported......

Shanghaiist has often wondered what China would look like if it had complete religious freedom, as in the freedom to organise and set up religious denominations and associations outside of the five "official religions", and to have all these religious groups enter the free-wheeling marketplace with their books, CDs, video programmes and what not. This weekend, we caught a glimpse of that when a woman claiming to be "Jesus' sister" was arrested in the Guangdong......

We've been somewhat faithful readers of Foreign Policy for awhile and noticed that they had a couple of articles that either mention or focus on China in their recent issue. Jeff Chang has written an article called It's a Hip-Hop World where he talks about how globalized hip hop has become, and, in this context, mentions Shanghai. More worrisome than a bunch of seventeen-year-olds in baggy pants is information we found in the article on......

It is back — Shanghai's biggest, baddest, scariest, spookiest Halloween party! If you came to our kickass party last year, you'll know what we're talking about. If you didn't, ask your friends who did, or see what you missed out on here and here. We created such a ruckus the police came to join in the fun! This year, expect more spooky hallways, more scary music and more freaky movies! AND... make sure you come......

We told you about some Chinese journalists probing the Fenghuang (凤凰) bridge collapse getting harassed and beaten by local thugs, and EastSouthWestNorth has followed up with a translation of a fascinating first-hand account of the assault on People's Daily《人民日报》reporter Wang Kefei (王克非). He was accompanied by journalists from China Youth Daily《中国青年报》, the Southern Metropolis Daily《南方都市报》, the Economic Observer《经济观察报》 and Oriental Outlook 《瞭望东方周刊》, some of whom were also attacked. The attackers are allegedly men working for......

Remember the pre-op transsexual who was detained in Shenzhen early last month for going on her one-(wo)man demonstration on the streets, holding a placard that says, "I want a sex change, even if it means death!" (我要变性！死了都要变!), and attracting a huge crowd before the police led her away? Well she has gained quite a lot of media exposure in the last two months or so. And just yesterday, Phoenix Princess (凤凰格格) announced through a Youku......

Hu in new bid to tighten screws on rival faction, by Chua Chin Hon of the Straits Times:One has died from an undisclosed illness while another is already behind bars on corruption charges. But there appears to be no let-up in Chinese President Hu Jintao's attempts to put the squeeze on members of the rival Shanghai faction, a group of senior leaders and officials allied with his predecessor Jiang Zemin. News emerged in recent days......

Despite some pretty damning arguments regarding the plausibility of blending cardboard and caustic soda into baozi, steamed pork buns, the internets are chattering again: Government conspiracy and cover-up! The fake buns being fake is itself fake! It's a bit like unpicking the speech of an 8-year-old who has just discovered double-negatives-- It's not not Opposite Day, not!-- but we'll do our best. Officials searched Beijing high and low for cardboard buns, and concluded that overzealous......

We told you about the fake water, we told you about the fake buns, and if you've been reading this blog a while now, you'd have realised by now we told you about a gazillion other fake products as well. Just when we thought we'd reached the frontier, China Daily comes along to tell us that the Beijing Television report we showed you was - well you guessed it - fake! A temporary employee......

Last Friday, over 800 cats were rescued in Shanghai's Xinzhuang area, where they were about to be shipped to Guangzhou to meet their maker. However, local cat lovers here in Shanghai informed the police, resulting in a stand-off between the cat-lovers and the cat meat shippers that lasted several hours. The cat meat shippers claimed that the cats were from a legit cat farm in Anhui province, and had documents to prove it; the cat-lovers......

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China. If this AP report is anything to go by though, not everyone has found reason for celebration as minor scuffles between democracy protestors and the police have erupted. Also from the report: Since British rulers left on July 1, 1997, China has tried to encourage people here to have a deeper feeling for the motherland and consider themselves Chinese citizens - not 'Hong......

A 17year old girl in Xi'an was robbed on her way home. Her three assailants were stopped by a courageous passer-by who then subsequently stabbed him to death before fleeing away. Well, it turns out that the dead hero is a Jiangsu entrepreneur and millionaire who used to give frequently to charity. You can see in the video how the understandably distraught girl was asking to see the man one last time after the police......

The hostage crisis at the Putuo KFC two nights ago was a shining triumph for the Shanghai police, who managed to kill the bad guy and save the migrant worker's little four-year-old girl. Now, you can relive the glory with this account of the proceedings (in Chinese). Although we would have preferred to see Samuel L. Jackson or Kevin Spacey handle something of this danger, there was some local talent on hand. One of the......

When we read that a man had taken a 4 year-old girl hostage at a Putuo district KFC yesterday afternoon, we wrongly assumed that it would was just some loony, maybe an institution escapee that would be quickly overpowered by bystanders or the police—problem solved. Not quite so. The incident started around 2:50pm and lasted about seven hours, with police cordoning off the area while they attempted to negotiate with the hostage taker. The latter......

Or more like who won't be performing. We've already told you about Live Earth, Al Gore's 24-hour, 7-continent series of concerts on 7/7/07. Well, lists of performers at different venues (cities participating are: East Rutherford, New Jersey [near New York]; London; Rio de Janeiro; Maropeng [near Johannesburg]; Tokyo; Shanghai; and Sydney) are starting to be announced. First up, the US and the UK. Here's who will be playing at Wembley Stadium in London: Beastie Boys,......

Shanghaiist contributor Micah has posted some information about the present and future of Wujiang Lu in the comments section of our post from yesterday. We thought they were worth highlighting. Comment No. 1: I've been reading some Chinese articles on this from Google News: Looks like, concretely, they're shutting down and "remodelling" the section between Taixing Rd, where the WB store is, and Shimen No 1 Rd, where the "real" Wujiang Rd starts. The rest......

Officer dismissed for blogging "In China, there’s more precedent for blogging getting people in trouble with the police than there is for blogging in itself getting one getting fired. So what happens to cops who blog?" China bans firm from selling land on the moon "The company, Lunar Embassy to China, had sold a total of 49 acres (20 hectares) to 34 customers before authorities acted, Xinhua news agency said." Chinese Auditors Uncover 'Massive'......

Chinese man dies during gaming session "The 26-year-old man, surnamed Zhang from the city of Jinzhou, died Saturday after a marathon gaming session from what a doctor said was overwork and obesity." Tom Online apologizes to The Beijing News for copyright violation "Tom Online apologized to The Beijing News for republishing articles from the paper without authorization between 2003 and 2006 and will provide compensation, Tom Online said in a statement." China Confirms Human......

Sure, your wife/husband/partner might slap you, but assure them that this is not a fanciful excuse, because it could really happen to you. If you were at Long Hua Temple on the 5th day of the new year, which was Thursday, you would encountered huge crowds of people and a miasma of incense. People go to temples and set off firecrackers that day in order to entice the god of wealth (财神) to work some......