Video of scenes from the streets near yesterday's deadly high-rise fire submitted by Roberto Gianstefani of Flatmind. more ›

News from China's Twitterati has revealed that social networking sites FourSquare and Mashable have both been caught by the net nanny today. It seems FourSquare, in particular, was used by Twitterers to set their location to Tiananmen Square for its 21st anniversary. This crackdown comes in contrast to the slew of previously blocked websites suddenly becoming available earlier this week, including Twitter client HootSuite, Vimeo, bit.ly, Xmarks and the Voice of America news service. Having been surprised that such a sensitive era would have made for some minor cracks in the GFW, the seasonal censoring we were anticipating seems to have come. more ›

In order to commemorate the unblocking of Vimeo, here's a video from the site about Shanghai - see how you can see it now even if you don't have a VPN? Yay! Anyhow, it's a time lapse by Joe Nafis called Shanghai-ed | Shanghai In a Minute. Enjoy! more ›

I'm not sure why yet, but it seems like a whole bunch of sites that were otherwise inaccessible behind the GFW have suddenly gotten a free pass again. Most notably, video sharing site Vimeo, Twitter client Hootsuite and news site VOA News. Word is that a whole bunch of previously blocked English porn sites are now up and running too (though I have no idea which ones - honest!). Unfortunately, the big three - Twitter, Facebook and Youtube - are still nixed. Oh well, that's what you got a VPN for anyhow, right? more ›

Is it just us, or does it seem like China's just blocking websites for fun now? Just when we thought that the National Day security crackdown had passed us by without (much) damage, we wake up today to find our favorite video sharing website that isn't blocked in China, Vimeo, is now...blocked. O, China, how will we find viral videos that aren't on Youku or Tudou now? At least you've got some good options for leaping over the GFW. more ›

Take up the IDAHO Challenge from Gays.com on Vimeo. more ›

Popular bar matron Cotton Ding, owner of Shanghaiist favorite Cotton's, sits down with Daedalum Films to talk about her story - how she left her home in rural Hunan for the big city, the lessons she learned along the way to becoming a successful bar owner, and what challenges she sees on the horizon. more ›