It's beginning to look like China's animal parks are subtly attempting to lead the way in liberalizing attitudes towards nontraditional relationships in the motherland. Not two months after Harbin allowed two gay penguin parents to adopt, now the Yunnan Wild Animal Park is promoting interracial marriage! To celebrate the love between "Long Hair" (长毛) the ram and "Junko" (纯子) the deer, they will hold a wedding ceremony on Valentine's Day next week. more ›

From 6:30pm to 8:30pm on Tuesday the 14th, couples can stroll into any of the three Lofree restaurants in Shanghai and exhibitionistically suck face make out for 60 seconds to receive "free food until you're full!" more ›

Thanks for everyone who came out to our Enjoy Shanghai + Shanghaiist Valentine's Party! The lucky winners of the various raffles are below - Enjoy will be calling you in the next 48 hours to tell you how to get your prize: more ›

Music fans, say hallelujah! and quickly add this to your list of things to do tonight. more ›

VALENTINES DAY Happy Valentines Day! If you're still in need of last minute ideas, we counted out 9 different awesome Vday dinners for every budget. Here's that list. Or if you like us, tend to believe that Valentine's Day is nothing more but an over-commercialized holiday, why not give the day some true lovingful meaning and donate blood today? City Weekend has pointers for blood donating where and how. more ›

Join us and EnjoyShanghai at Prive this Saturday for our Bad Romance party, talk about design at KIN's ARCDES or book swapping at Glamour. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more. more ›

Still looking for something to do on the Saturday before Valentine's Day? We can guarantee that we're going to be the best party in town... and, for the amount of drinks you can get (unlimited!), the cheapest! The pre-sale tickets to our Bad Romance bash are only 120RMB, but we stop selling them on February 10th. So, if you haven't already, order them on this page. Enjoy will deliver the tickets to your door! more ›

God, Valentine's day....a look at the all options for dinner makes our heads spin. But there's no denying that restaurants are pulling out all the stops (we'd even suggest grabbing a friend to go if only for the special deals) so we've done all the hard work for you and picked out the most interesting, best-value dinners around town. And don't forget, if you don't feel like a sit-down fancy meal, there's always our Vday bash that's happening this Saturday! more ›

Before you guys inevitably put your heads down and power through the last thirty-some hours before Chinese New Year holidays start, here's something to look forward to when it ends: a Valentine's Day party, hosted by us and some friends at Enjoy Shanghai. more ›

Every Friday, Weekendist brings you our picks of the best of what's coming in the next three days. more ›

• This year the Chinese New Year celebrations and Valentine’s Day woo-ing hit on the same date. But never mind if you’re lacking in both the family and lover department, Urbanatomy offers a hot solution to pack in some pleasure for one: Shanghai’s sex shops uncovered. [Urbanatomy]
• If you missed the launch of Sonia Rykiel pour H&M lingerie line, here’s your chance to redeem yourself for not taking our advice the first time. The French design house hits H&M stores on February 20th with a fierce knitwear collection and fabulous stripy tights. [City Weekend]
• Shanghai’s aging population is in the hot seat this week as the city looks to raise its official retirement age to an increase of 5-years. The decision will be made in an effort to relieve pressure on pension funds created by, well…the aging population. [AFP]

This week is marching in, and with it comes a wide and wild variety of events to check out, from horrible 90s movies to special burlesque shows to a ballet about Marco Polo. more ›

O cruel fates: this year, the Spring Festival and Valentines day happen to fall on the same day. The deadly combination of holidays will force young Chinese lovers to choose between their family and their significant other. Or will it? Shanghai Daily reports that over a third of polled netizens said they would celebrate with both family and lovers. If everything goes smoothly, Double Happiness should ensue. But for the lonely and far from home, it's probably going to be one of the worst days ever. more ›

A record 2,662 couples got married in Shanghai on Saturday, according to figures from the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau. That's three times the daily average of roughly 800 marriage applications and about 30% more than last year's Valentine's Day. A representative of the bureau said that younger couples are more likely to pick fashionable Western festivals, especially V-Day, to get married. We say these Shanghainese ladies will probably regret it in the future when they end up getting combined Valentines-slash-Anniversary gifts from their husbands. Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

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). more ›

While we were getting gussied up for the Shanghaiist Valentine's Day party, homosexuals in Beijing were taking to the streets in a remarkably open advocation of gay marriage. more ›

Happy Valentine's everyone! Check out this bouquet of roses that we received recently... in our email. We're not sure if we've ever seen any bouquet more beautiful, more expensive, or more romantic than this one in China, but it sure did make us blush. Maybe someday we will find a rich boyfriend that will send something like that to us? Just maybe? more ›

Yes, that's what the top of the world looks like, at least from the top floor of Le Royal Meridien Shanghai, the tallest building in Puxi. As you've heard, we're going to remake this bar on the 65th level into a giant bedroom for our slumber party this Saturday evening, and if you've never been up there, don't miss it for the world. more ›

Shop 1104A, 8 Jianguo Xi Road near Sinan Road. 建国西路8号， 近思南路 more ›

Valentine's is coming up this Saturday, and if you're still not sure where to spend it, worry not! Shanghaiist is converting the bar on the top floor of Le Meridien into a giant bedroom with a magnificent 360-degree view of Shanghai and inviting everyone over for a massive slumber party! more ›

Update: IT'S A HOAX? Daft Punk is headed to Shanghai for one night only on February 13th... and you don't get to know where until the morning of the concert. You've got to head over to the 2nd floor of 58 Taicang Lu (near Xintiandi) to pre-book your ticket, give them 500RMB and keep your phone at ready on Wednesday. more ›

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 more ›

People’s Daily reports that Tianjin-based China National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre warns Chinese Internet users of a Valentine’s ‘virus’ which may spread through emails and on-line chat services (such as QQ and MSN): watch out for "Vbs_Valentin.A" in “attachments disguised with Valentine blessings for February 14.” Now who would like to mislead us naïve lovers on such a day like February 14? more ›

The Italians are famous for their invention of romance and pizza. The Chinese are famous for expertly copying the Italians. And now along with Dolce and Prada, romance and pizza have been copied in time for Valentine's Day. Perusing the delivery menu of Deli Roma Pizza, you will be delighted to discover the 10" Love Pizza–heart-shaped and extra cheesy for 98 RMB (buy-one-get-one-free, in case you don't like sharing, also comes with chicken wings and 1.25 L of Pepsi or 7up). more ›

We know you're probably tired of hearing about Valentine's Day, but we just discovered on mop.com the existence of a group called the "Go Die Club" (死死团), whose members are on a mission to eradicate love, or at least the mawkish, sugar-coated thing that passes for love and romance in a consumerist society such as today's China. All the information and links are on this main page, including a history of this group. Word has it that the name first came about in Japan in relation to some manga. The name then spread from Japan to Taiwan and Hong Kong and finally to the PRC. However, to the best of our understanding it wasn't always an "anti-Valentine's Day" or love type of group. However, in China, that's what they become. Their motto is "death to couples," but read furtehr before you dismiss this as the gripes of fugly people that never get laid. more ›

star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the new graffiti king in town, Bill Cosby's adorable dog, and the disturbing tale of a yoga instructor who was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, a dancer from Ohio who stripped to make ends meet. more ›

Shanghaiist hopes that Valentine's Day 2007 went better for you than it did for us. We had planned, after dinner and drinks, to get drunk and screw, especially after watching the above sex ed video for inspiration. more ›

Potatoes grown from seeds that mutated in space while aboard a Chinese spacecraft are the newest culinary fad in Shanghai. This potato, dubbed the Purple Orchid Three, is supposedly going to be popular choice for upscale Valentine's Day dinners:

Several Shanghai restaurants have developed dishes using Purple Orchid Three 'space potatoes,' claiming that the unusual colour of the vegetables represents the 'nobility and romance' of Valentine's Day, the official Xinhua news agency said. more ›

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. more ›