Bo po mo fo! Shanghai's universities will be offering preparatory courses for incoming foreign students soon, with 'one or two' universities taking part in a pilot program this September. Currently only offered at Tongji University, the prep courses mostly focus on acclimating students to Chinese language and 'culture' (which most likely means making dumplings, fumbling through calligraphy and the odd chengyu here and there). Special 'academic shortfall' makeup courses in math, physics and chemistry will also be available for quantitatively disinclined Western humanistic education products. Not that we could quantify it or anything, but we'd argue that the square root of certain countries' national debt problems might be a widespread cultural aversion to mathematic thinking. But then again, there's something to be said for de-emphasizing cold numbers in favor of artsy-fartsiness, no? Any sensitive poet would be within their rights to poo-poo the People's Square metro for not 'singing' enough. more ›

Have you ever wanted to become internet famous in China? Turns out, all you have to do is set up a food stand outside your local Chinese university and have the cops run you out. Oh also, be French. more ›

While we've already heard many times over how much carbon dioxide emissions China produces, but we were still shocked by how much comes just from Shanghai. Apparently, our city throws out 5,400 tons of CO2 equivalent a year - as much carbon as two Sydneys and three Tokyos. Granted, we've also got five times the amount of people as Sydney (and twice the amount of Tokyo), but geez louise. Experts from Tongji University's College of Environmental Science and Engineering said that restructuring industry would help lower our footprint, since over 60% of fumes are industry-based. more ›

By Jeffrey Wasserstrom more ›

During this year's joint exhibition "Design Week" and "Sino-International Real Estate Summit" a seminar about New Public Space was held by FAR. This is a non-profit foundation to facilitate the communication and collaboration between architects in China and Shanghai. more ›

While we were "researching" information for this post, we came across an Answers.com entry about the Yangpu district which says that Wujiaochang was constructed in 1929, and the English name of it is "Pentagon Plaza." Maybe it's just because we're Americans, but we think that of all the English names we've heard for places, that's about the snazziest one. Well, not quite as snazzy as "Email Plaza" by Jing'an Park, but a close second. more ›

Browsing the Ditiezu.com (Subway-ers) BBS, we came across some interesting tidbits: more ›

Photo by Mike Chen taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

In a move to uphold restrictive cultural gender norms, Tongji University's College of Women, in cahoots with the Shanghai Women's Federation, will require its students to participate in what amounts to glorified home-ec classes in the upcoming Spring semester. more ›

We have no idea, but it's happening, according the subscription-only South China Morning Post (via the World Business Council for Sustainable Development): more ›

The World Expo Shanghai is almost here! Yes, that's what we'll be saying in December 2009. Until then, we are relying on titbits of information fed to us by the Mayor of Shanghai.

City Government approved the detailed construction plan for Shanghai Expo more ›

Shanghaiist is all for water conservation, recycling and reuse. Which is why we're going to start pulling our weight to aid the water crisis which is afflicting the nation and Shanghai itself: more ›