Nasty. Nasty. Nasty. If we didn't have to walk the dogs, we'd just stay inside our (semi) warm living room all day. We know the miserable sleet (or is it freezing rain?) and slippery conditions are forcing some offices to send workers home early today. But winter's icy grip on China is far more serious than some missed work or a slip on the sidewalk. Here's a rundown (and, please, feel free to add to this list in a comment): more ›

We didn't go to Eric Clapton's Shanghai concert on Saturday night (we opted for Yunnan food) but luckily some Shanghai bloggers did go. Here's a snippet from Jakob Montrasio's report. more ›

As if you needed us to tell you, it's Oscar night morning. We have one eye on the TV right now -- Dragon TV, and at least one other local network -- are showing a "live"[1] feed of the red carpet coverage from E! (with Chinese commentary). Why not watch on our satellite? Because it never freakin' works. CCTV usually replays the Oscars Monday evening, although we haven't found confirmation of that online yet (anyone out there got the details?). In past years CCTV's coverage has been in English with Chinese subtitles. more ›

Have our worst fears been realized? Google.com isn't loading in Shanghai currently. It works fine using a proxy server. Google.cn is loading, but it is slow and its results are crap. Let's hope this is just a hiccup and not a full-on heart attack. This is not cool. more ›

But Chairman Mao on the other hand ... more ›

The Hurun Report will release its annual "China Rich List" tomorrow, ranking about 400 of the richest people in China. On their website (link above), you can also find all types of interesting rankings, from philanthropy (individuals or corporations) to the "power" ranking, which we surmise means something in addition to just the boku bucks. The 2004 rankings are on there as well. Just for kicks, you can check out Forbes' rankings, which are also yearly but as of now are limited to the top 200, which we suppose sucks for No. 201, but with all that cash, we're sure he/she can shop their way out of that funk. On second thought, maybe Nos. 201 and 401 are happy to have avoided the spotlight. There's a Chinese saying: shu da zhao feng (树大招风), which means "the tall branch catches the wind." Then there's a another saying: qiang da chutou niao (枪打出头鸟) or "the bird that stands out from the flock is the first to get shot." And yet another: ren pa chu ming zhu pa zhuang (人怕出名猪怕壮) or "people fear fame and pigs fear getting fat." Hmmmm. Wonder why the Chinese have all these sayings. We always thought to get rich was glorious. more ›

Go here to read a gruesome, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking first-hand account of Shanghai-based Guardian reporter Benjamin Joffe-Walt's attempt to report from Taishi, a village in Guangdong, site of what Joffe-Walt calls "perhaps the most significant grassroots social movement China has seen since the Cultural Revolution, a rural revolt against corruption, against deterioration of healthcare, against the illegal sale of farmland, and broadly against urban capitalism that has reaped no benefits for these farmers." (For more on Taishi, visit ESWN.) Joffe-Walt never actually got to Taishi. He was on his way there with democracy activist Lu Banglie, when their car was stopped and Lu was brutally beaten, perhaps to death: more ›

At least seven Four explosions rocked London's public transportation system during rush hour this morning in an apparent terrorist attack. Eyewitness accounts are horrifying and all too familiar. Visit Londonist for details and updates. more ›

The Shanghai Daily tells us that the city's "red hot alarm was sounded yesterday for the second time this summer." Shanghaiist isn't sure if the alarm is audible or not -- we can't hear much over our air conditioner, which we bet will likely shut off soon due to a power outage. The red hot alarm sounds "when temperatures are between 35 and 38 degrees" -- 95 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit -- and we assume it just stops working if it gets any hotter than that. Temperatures hit 36 degrees (97 F) yesterday, which is what the Shanghaiist weather center is reporting now. But it feels like 43 degrees. Forty-three degrees! That's 109.4 degrees Fahrenheit! more ›