Finnish expatriate Mario Hakulinen, also known by his Chinese name Ma Ruinan, has been living in Fuzhou for the last 11 years. Over the last decade, he has become increasingly frustrated with the drivers who refuse to give way to pedestrians. To do his bit to make Fuzhou the safest city in China, he decided to take matters into his own hands -- by jumping in front of cars and using "tai chi" to ensure drivers stop for pedestrians. More on why he does what he does after the jump... more ›

A kindergarten school bus collided with a truck in Puyang, Henan province this afternoon. All 10 children and 2 adults were saved and only suffered from slight injuries. more ›

Yesterday in Chengdu, A woman in red dove off a bridge right into the path of speeding vehicles, whose apathetic drivers then appeared none too willing to lend a hand. more ›

At 11:17am yesterday, at Xixiang Village in Shenzhen's Bao'an district, a 1 and a half-year-old young girl was killed outside of her home after she was struck by a truck. more ›

WARNING: Graphic image after the jump. Reader discretion advised! Luzhou Evening News brings us a report from October 20 that in Luding County, Sichuan Province, Luzhou City, a truck knocked down a five-year-old child returning home from school, causing the child to die on the spot. Luzhou citizens have claimed the accident was actually cold-blooded murder. more ›

Frequented spots within the downtown core, including the Bund and part of Lujiazui, will be off-limits to cars and trucks for chunks of time from Friday to Monday as Shanghai authorities work to ensure that traffic runs smoothly as the nation's 62th National Day holiday gets underway. more ›

Shanghai's Metro authority just announced the closure of two downtown roads, beginning this Saturday. Qufu Road (曲阜路) in Huangpu District and Damuqiao Road (大木桥路) in Xuhui District will be closed for more than two years, until the end of 2013, in order to make way for Line 12 metro stations in the Metro expansion plan. Once completed, Line 12 will connect Minhang district with northern Pudong. So if you're a driver, bus passenger, or frequent cab-taker, expect to catch yourself stuck in traffic or making a detour if you're near the mentioned areas. Pedestrians, and cyclists, (and we suspect four-legged friends, as well as some e-bike/scooter riders) will not be affected. more ›

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If we claimed this video was just one crazy dude doing a wheelie for over a minute on his moped while traveling at dangerously high speeds with no protective gear and a surprisingly calm girl holding on, we'd be doing a disservice to the artform. This is no simple video; this is a statement, a revolution, a pièce de résistance unmatched by any past moped wheelie endeavors and setting the bar for all future attempts. more ›

Whoo-wee what a storm we had this morning! Heavy clouds rolled in and started dumping on us around 7:30am, went nuts for about two hours, and resulted in 17 canceled flights and flooding all over the city. Thanks to all loyal weibo-using Shanghai residents out there with their phone cameras handy, here's a nice photo collection of the madness. more ›

We're actually a little surprised they weren't doing this already. From today, Shanghai traffic police will be patrolling from the skies for four hours a day during rush hour: "Equipped with video surveillance cameras, the helicopters allow officers to survey some 1,800 meters below, providing clear ground visuals of vehicle plate numbers. The helicopters will primarily focus on monitoring daily traffic along the G2, G60, and G15 highways during the morning and evening rush hour. Any problems found will be forwarded to traffic police controls on the ground." They plan to mostly focus on congestion issues, and also violations more easily detected from the sky, such as illegal parking on our elevated highways. more ›

This little incident speaks volumes about Beijing locals and their misplaced sense of self-esteem. At 11:30am today, a man brandished a knife and threatened his own life near the intersection of Zhongguancun Street (中关村大街) and Haidian South Road (海淀南路) in Beijing's Haidian district (海淀区). Stopping traffic in the process of his solipsistic attention-seeking hostage situation, the man was eventually wrestled to the ground by SWAT team members after being distracted by journalists, with traffic then resuming to its regularly scheduled programming. more ›

China's got talent -- no kidding! Look what we've got in Taizhou, Zhejiang province -- a man driving not one, but two bumper cars on a busy city street. And the uniquely talented individual even tries to overtake a car at the lights! Fortunately for the other motorists, traffic police caught up with the man before he created any mayhem, and told the poor soul having the time of his life that bumper cars are meant for the amusement park and not, erm, meant for the roads. And fortunately for us too, surveillance cameras were on hand to catch all the action. Enjoy:
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Massive crowds gathered in Jiuting, Songjiang District, southwest of Xujiahui, yesterday after a number of chengguans, or urban administrative officers, allegedly roughed up two motorists. more ›

Recently, the police in Heze, Shandong, published a video compilation of raw footage caught on security cameras documenting some of the most horrific accidents that have taken place on the city's streets. The video has attracted "tens of millions of visits" according to the Ministry of Tofu, and has gained its fair share of controversy -- some say this is the most effective way of raising the level of road safety awareness, while others say there are less graphic ways of achieving the same goal. more ›

"POLICE in Shanghai are to trial the use of helicopters to help direct road traffic during rush hours, the latest move by the city to relieve its notorious traffic gridlocks. An EC-135 police helicopter will cruise over the city's major thoroughfares on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, videotaping road conditions and broadcasting warnings to drivers violating traffic rules, the Shanghai Bureau of Public Security said yesterday. The use of helicopters, which are fast and command views over a wide area, could assist ground controllers to better handle accidents and clear traffic jams." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Yesterday morning at around 7am a massive pile up occurred on the Donghai Bridge connecting Shanghai to the port of Yangshan. Three people were killed and another 15 injured when a chain collision involving 27 vehicles resulted from Shanghai's worst fog in six months. more ›

It's around that time of year when everyone is making resolutions - even the government is setting new goals...they're doing 5-year ones! Here in Shanghai, the jury is still out on whether organ donations can be used for transplants (among other things) and as for Beijing, their check list includes quite a few big to dos. In five years time, they're hoping to build a second international airport, rid the city of the terrible smog and traffic congestion, and become an all around more "livable" city -- though we'd like to point out that the last one sounds especially vague, kind of like those "lose weight, eat healthier" resolves. more ›

The World Expo draws to a close in less than a month and Shanghai urban planning officials seek to turn the space into yet another busy city hub chock full of, not surprisingly, ritzy malls and high rise apartments. more ›

As if traffic in Shanghai isn't bad enough, the upcoming national holiday will be sure to increase headaches for already wary commuters. Shanghai Daily reports that police are warning people about increased congestion and offering tips on alternative routes as thousands flock to the Expo to pay some sort of homage to the homeland. Thinking of walking instead? Well, if you can safely dodge the influx of drivers you'll still have to deal with the heavy layer of smog that will no doubt coat this city as 80,000 cars are expected on the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway. Let's just hope these next few days don't turn into the horrendous 15 day traffic jam that hit Beijing. more ›

The Mid-Autumn Festival is almost upon us, and as with any country-wide holiday in China, we can expect huge amounts (millions upon millions of people moving around!) of traffic both in and out of Shanghai. So what's Shanghai going to do? Block roads around Expo, apparently. more ›

The App Store has 1000’s of paid or free applications which are useful to anyone planning to live in or visit China. Every week or so I plan on introducing a few applications in this ‘There’s An App For That:….’ section. Today I’m covering driving with 3 free applications from the App store available for download now! more ›

You know that thousands-vehicle-strong traffic jam that's ensnarled roads in Northern China? The one that stretched for 60 miles and 11 days, thankfully vanished before the weekend, but then reformed on another 19-mile section on the Beijing-Tibet Expressway? Apparently our friends at MKRide were stuck in that! more ›

For tonight's viewing pleasure, here's a video filmed by one of our favorites from the Shanghaiist Flickr pool, dbmboise. From his own description, he's using his Nikon's intervalometer, jpg's and Windows Live Movie Maker to create this hypnotic vid of night traffic on a Shanghai street. Beautiful! more ›

The average Shanghai commuter takes 47 minutes to get to work, China's Academy of Sciences discovered. Its survey considered population distribution, distance and public transit, and the final report concluded that the long commute is most likely due to the dense population in big cities. Given the city's notorious traffic jams, the news doesn't come as that much of a shock, but Shanghai only came third in the survey of 50 Chinese cities. Beijing took the number one spot with 52 minutes, and Guangzhou came second with 48. Shanghai beat out Shenzhen for third place by one minute. more ›

From Lrock:
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Now that we have the Yan'an Lu and Renmin Lu and like six other tunnels connecting Puxi and Pudong, it's hard to remember the time when there was only one underground linkage across the Huangpu. But now the Dapu Lu tunnel, which first opened in 1971, has finished its seven-month renovation run and is expected to be fully utilizable by Wednesday. A second tube right next to the existing part will open at the same time. Hopefully this will make traffic a little more bearable around rush hour. more ›

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. more ›