Results tagged “traffic”

Hey VIPs! Just because you’re VIPs doesn’t mean you get to drive all willy nilly on the road, despite there actually being regulations that allow you to do so. Shanghai mayor Han Zheng has warned government officials and emergency vehicles to stop abusing the privilege, scolding that “vehicles for the government departments should set a good example.” In three weeks in October, there were 57 cases of privileged vehicles breaking traffic regulations. Stop it, Han Zheng has requested, adding that police will be checking for these kind of violations more stringently.

• Recession be damned! Shanghai shoppers spent more than 1.2 billion yuan over the past 3 days of the holiday weekend. This represents a 23.6% increase over last year. It seems none of us were able to resist the lure of deals, promotions, and other bargains that chased us around over the holiday. [Shanghai Daily]
• Although it might be a mess at the moment, some of that construction on the Bund is finally panning out - the new Pennisula Shanghai hotel is scheduled to open by mid-October. The hotel with combine Art Deco architecture characteristic of the area with modern luxuries. [Urbanatomy]
• Walking down the street with all of the traffic noise from the cars, buses, mopeds, old women yelling, and bicycles always manages to give us a headache. Shanghai is trying to clamp down on its bus drivers who are honking excessively by installing "horn-monitoring" devices that fine drivers if they are honking in a non-emergency situation. Although part of us is relieved to hear there will less noise, the other part now worries about getting hit by a bus even more. [Shanghai Daily]

We all knew this was coming - along with the 60th anniversary holiday, there was bound to be strict traffic controls. The Shanghai Public Security Bureau has given us the details about what we can expect: Traffic will be controlled everyday between today and October 4th from 3:30pm to 11:30pm.

Not only was Car Free Day in Shanghai neither car free or a day, it seems that the two-and-a-half hour traffic ban on Nanjing Xi Lu this morning probably just caused more congestion (and possibly more pollution thanks to stopped, but still running, cars) thanks to nobody even knowing it was Car Free Day. And who can blame them? The day has shrunk from an entire 12-hour ban on private cars in central business districts in 2007 to just six hours on fewer streets last year and now to the measly little attempt this time around. And while today's efforts may have been symbolic, transport planners apparently forgot to tell the media to widely publicize their mediocre, lame action. As a result, traffic was backed up along most nearby roads. Good going, guys. Source:Shanghai Daily

While we suppose that people who use private transportation are wiping their brows at the news, Shanghai's Car Free Day - which happens tomorrow, September 22 - seems to be a bit of a wash. While there is a rule that no cars are allowed in a section of the city during the day, take a look at where and for how long. Unlike previous reports that cars would be banned over five square kilometers for twelve entire hours, it seems that drivers will actually only need to worry about roads from between 8am to 10:30am... and only if they are traveling the stretch of Nanjing Xi Lu between Shimen Er Lu and Huashan Lu. If you happen to be around Shanghai Center and Plaza 66 at that time, we suppose you could leap through the usually crowded street (watch out for buses if you do), but otherwise, everywhere else will remain exactly the same as usual. Source: Xinmin

• Aw, so Harry Potter can't seem to cast a spell over Shanghai, earning barely half of what Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen did. Is it because we didn't organize a movie night around this opening? [Shanghai Daily]
• Reacting to the Stern Hu detained in Shanghai saga, Rio Tinto is now pulling ALL of its foreign staff out of China. Allegedly. [CNN]
• To battle potential traffic jams, Shanghai will be employing an even-odd license plate system for the Expo like Beijing did for the Olympics. [Xinhua]

This guy gets our vote for ballsiest old man ever: 74-year-old Yan Zhengping, a retired language teacher living in Lanzhou, got sick of all the damn cars running red lights at an intersection in his city. So he went to a crosswalk armed with a brick, whacking at any vehicles that zoomed past him during a red light. He got 14. He told reporters that there were just too many instances of nearly dying while walking across the zebra crossing. Though he knew his actions were illegal too, he couldn't think of any other way to bring attention to the problem. It seems like it worked. According to the Lanzhou Morning Post, there are now police at the intersection keeping an eye out for errant drivers. Source: Xinhua (Chinese)

One of the most hilarious things we've seen all week is this: “Most Niu Traffic Police Officer Directs Traffic While Dancing Cha Cha.” We don't know if we really need to say anything more, except to repeat the words of several of the netizens: 顶！(ding)

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute 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 (and here).

Didn't think the Chinese celebrated Valentine's Day? Chengdu apparently does, constructing this love-themed traffic crossing close to the city's Hejiang Pavilion, a popular dating venue for young couples. The local traffic bureau wanted to give the crossing a romantic atmosphere - and what's more romantic than gleefully stepping on hearts and the words "I love you"? Source: Ananova

Randy Cohen, New York Times "The Ethicist" columnist, might be inclined to think so. Granted, Cohen's anti-auto podcast from last week is about Manhattan, but several of his arguments already seem applicable to Shanghai (and, in 2020, when our city's subway system looks like this, there will be few ethical excuses for owning personal cars in most of Shanghai). Cohen lays out five reasons why cars and Manhattanites shouldn't mix. Here's No. 1: "Cars kill. If you introduced a transportation system by announcing, 'It'll only kill 40,000 people a year,' it's hard to believe it would gain widespread popularity." (The number of "traffic deaths" in China was down to 73,484 in 2008, but up 100 percent over the last 20 years.) Listen to all New York Times podcasts here or subscribe via iTunes. They're all free.

Photo from Laurence&Annie

Last Thursday, an irate passenger stole the taxi he had been riding in after having to wait in a blocked street. According to the Shanghai Daily, the man, surnamed Wang lost his temper when a truck blocked the traffic of Wanping Lu in Xuhui District. After arguing with the truck driver he "broke off the taxi's rear-view mirror and hit himself over the head with it", and then proceeded to smash the taxi's meter. Subsequently Wang injured the taxi driver, managed to take his keys and drove off. Wang was soon detained and the taxi later found abandoned.

• Former Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian was finally arrested after five hours of questioning over various corruption charges on Tuesday. He has been accused of embezzling of 14.8 million Taiwan dollars (480,500 US) and otherwise using his Presidential powers illegally during his eight year term.
• Five cement factory workers died on the job yesterday when a building in Donghe, Qinghai Province collapsed. Another worker was seriously injured and is in critical condition, but "might still survive", according to doctors. Officially, the building's collapse was not related to the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that rocked the region on Monday.
• Beijing has just committed RMB240 billion ($34 billion USD) to upgrade traffic infrastructure over the next five years. By 2012, the city is expected to have 420km of subway lines up and running. Oh, and that RMB240 billion sum? It's RMB70 billion more than Beijing spent in the five years leading up to the Olympics.

• In a Beijing-inspired move to reduce traffic, Shanghai civil servants will not be allowed to drive their cars on certain days of the week, decided according to their cars' license plate numbers.
• This Tuesday, government officials declared that more than RMB 4 billion will be invested in a move to improve Pudong New Area, the site for the 2010 World Expo. Among other measures, 200 square meters in 25 old neighborhoods will be "reconstructed", ie., torn down and replaced with skyscrapers.
• In a crackdown this Thursday cabbies who refused to drive customers to destinations in the Lujiazui area were named and shamed, as well as fined and cut off from work for 15 days. Some taxi drivers have avoided driving in this area since the distances are considered too short or because traffic is slow.

From Reuters:

Shanghai police will post photos and videos of jaywalkers in newspapers and on TV in a bid to shame them out of breaking traffic rules, local media reported on Thursday.

Continue reading "Finally, a quick way to get famous in Shanghai"

Zhou Zhengyu, deputy director of the Beijing municipal committee of communications announced in a recent press conference that the cheap bus fares that Beijingers have been enjoying during the Olympics will continue after the games.

That's right, lots of road closures, stronger than average nationalistic fervour, and even more tat being sold on the streets than normal can only mean one thing: the moment we've all been waiting for is here! The international leg of the relay might have been less than harmonious, and it might be three days later than originally expected (following an understandable postponement for this week's official mourning period), but tomorrow [Friday] will see the Olympic torch hit the streets of Shanghai.

The world's longest sea-bridge from Shanghai to Ningbo opened on schedule (May 1st), cutting travel time to the port city from 4 hours to 150 minutes. However not everything is going according to plan.

A record power shortage hits China:

The Peking Duck: Is the rush to study Chinese a time-wasting fad?

The Hong Kong chief executive, Donald Tsang, says that the Chinese government is committed to a plan for letting the country's mainland investors trade shares on the city's stock exchange.

One of our favorite Chinese sites seems to have run afoul of the net nanny: vip.bokee.com has been on again off again, but perfectly viewable with a proxy. Using the proxy we saw an article about a list published in a Chengdu newspaper of the top-grossing authors in China, at least based on royalties from the sales of their books. At the top of the list was a Guo Jingming, a young author (born in...

So in the meanwhile, Youtube remains blocked. Shanghai blogger John Pasden of Sinosplice informs us that Youtube wasn't the only unlucky fella. Revver.com and Dailymotion.com also appear to be hit. And of course Google Video was never accessible in China to begin with, so that's a no-count.

The massive NBA marketing machine rumbled through Shanghai last night in the first of three “China Games,” the latter two to be held in Macau beginning tonight. The pre-season game between the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers was held at the Qizhong Sports Stadium in the Min-hang district. Some observations:

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 and allow pedestrians and cooks only. Oh sure, we'll have music, games for kids, and games for adults as well.

Continue reading "Chili Cook-off - the sequel"

At the closing ceremony at Jiangwan Stadium last night, Kenny G played a rendition of “Butterfly Lovers” (梁祝) as women in butterfly costumes descended from cables strung to the stadium lights. When they reached the stage, they claimed a Special Olympian and escorted her back to the lights as the announcer declared in a monotone voice, “Now she has made it.” And that was just the beginning.

Via China Net Investor, this interview of the founders of Shanghai-based dot.com Tudou.com, Gary Wang and Marc van der Chijs, serves up one very juicy tidbit of information — that Tudou.com is already streaming more minutes of video content every month than YouTube (15 billion minutes per month versus 3.5 billion)! Then in a self-deprecatory turn, Wang turns around to say that those numbers are never really accurate.

Over the week-long National Day holiday:
• Total airline passenger numbers climbed a quarter on the year-earlier period to 3.75 million people, with the record of 540,000 was set on September 30 - the highest number of people to be flying on a single day.
• One million computers were infected with various computer viruses, and 118,000 computers crashed on one day alone.
• Retail sales of consumer goods in China rose 16 percent year-on-year to almost 350 billion yuan.