The craze for Chinese language learning The Economist: False Eastern Promise: The craze for teaching Chinese may be a misguided fad Ken Carroll: The Economist at its misguided worst The Peking Duck: Is the rush to study Chinese a time-wasting fad? The Pudong petrol station blast Shanghai Scrap: China National Petroleum to Dead Workers: Blame Yourselves. Wang Jianshuo: Diesel shortage caused traffic jam The lifestyles of the rich and famous Sydney Morning Herald: Britney......

They say bad news travels fast. That Pudong gas blast we told you about on Saturday has made it to international news. The Associated Press, Reuters, the International Herald Tribune, BBC, Times of India, ABC (Australia) all reported on the blast. The AP reports that four deaths have been confirmed and more than two dozen people were injured from the explosion. Our hearts go out to the family of the 29 year old cyclist from......

Marc van der Chijs spends the weekend watching sailing races at Dianshanhu, a lake about 50 km outside Shanghai, and recommends it as a great weekend greataway. Membership at the sailing club starts at just RMB2500/year (gawd, that's cheaper than our gym membership), and you can rent boats there by the hour, if you're not bringing your own boat along, that is. Driving on the way to the lake, Marc catches sight of a......

Shanghai Daily predicts an "early summer" for Shanghai, with temperatures hitting 30 degrees Celsius today. The Shanghaiist Weather Center, however, says today's high will only reach 27 (our current temperature) and that temperatures will remain in the 20s throughout the week, maxing out at 29 on Wednesday. Not that 29 is exactly chilly — for all you Americans out there, that means 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Why are we talking about the weather? Well, while shopping......

In light of this week's national holiday, here are some transportation stories for your enjoyment: Shanghai to host 4.4 million tourists during the May Day holidays: That is five percent more than last year. Yay. Avoid People's Square and other hot spots these week.China May Day spells nightmare: This AP story claims that the Chinese government is looking to develop "a new system of staggered holidays" to ease the burden on the nation's transportation systems.......

Our weekly round-up of some of the highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: The Opposite End of China is in Kashgar and has the wicked picture of a sandstorm below to show for it. Positive Solutions comments on some Olympic affairs, leading with the dissing of the '08 Olympic torch run by Taiwan's Olympic Committee. He offers a good way for Taipei to make a winning statement without looking foolish. Meanwhile, the Olympic team up in......

This morning, Chinese language news portal 163.com had a great scoop, and revealed the future planning for Shanghai and China's Maglev railway system. Shanghaiist's Chinese ability is sadly limited, but using the new-fangled internet technology we reported on earlier this week, we were able to get the gist of the 163.com article. The article reveals that the current 30km long section of the Pudong Airport-Longyang Road Maglev line will be extended to eventually form a......

Longtime Shanghai blogger (and head of eBay's Kijiji operation in China) Wang Jian Shuo has posted a comprehensive look at the current cost of living in Shanghai. Go check it out and see how it compares to what you are paying. Some readers are leaving helpful comments, as well. UPDATE: Jian Shuo has already added three additions to the post: here, here and here.......

We didn't mean for our post about transportation card fees to be controversial — we were just reporting on a national news story — but the topic struck a chord ... and did all the attention cause the Shanghai transportation card fees to be lowered? Marc van der Chijs reports: But it seems the blogs had some effect. This Sunday I wanted to take the metro and realized I forgot my card, so I bought......

Oops. At the Hu-Bush White House press conference yesterday, China was announced as the "Republic of China." One problem: The "Republic of China" is Taiwan. Just when you think they can't get more stupid ...Imagethief tried to live blog the press conference ... but his TV screen kept going black. Wonder why.Shanghai police have no patience for hemophiliacs or people who write about them.If you are like Shanghaiist, you are tired of reading about Google......

Wang Jian Shuo introduces us to a local Shanghai restaurant chain called Zhending Chicken. We've never been, but we might go now -- sounds like an interesting place: This noon, we went to our favorite restaurant Zhengding Chicken (振鼎鸡) for lunch. It is famous for its chicken. It is a successful business, just like KFC for fried chicken. Zhending Chicken meets the need of local market precisely, because people are very sensitive about cost and......

Even though fares are said to be on the rise, Shanghai taxis are still pretty cheap. And usually -- if it is not raining, rush hour, or a national holiday -- you can call ahead and reserve a taxi with little or no problem. Imagine that, a taxi will come pick you up at your door at the time you request free of charge. What a country! Oh wait ... um, yeah ... they're probably......

Shooping down pristine white slopes has been a recreational option for Shanghai residents since the Yinqixing Indoor Skiing Resort opened back in 2002, but it has taken all that time for Shanghaiist to actually get its all-weather, gore-tex gloves on (Xiangyang Market – 50 kuai) and hit the 45m-high slopes that are apparently "covered in snow of a depth up to 50cm". Well Shanghaiist got a very close look at those slopes, and they are......

Apparently, the above photo is of Shanghai's Xujiahui area. Wang Jian Shuo estimates it was taken sometime in the late 1980s, but he said it didn't look too much different there as recently as the mid-1990s. We're assuming the photo is of the main intersection in Xujiahui, but too be honest, we can't find anything recognizable in the photo. We couldn't even tell it was Shanghai when we first looked at it. Not really surprising,......

And no, it's not by flushing less often or turning the tap off while brushing teeth. It's that other tried and true solution: stealing! In a post about the city and some of its many slippery ethical slopes, Wang Jian Shuo introduces us to something he calls the "Magic Water Saver": After I get off board the Metro and head to the Raffles City, a group of people are selling their Magic Water Saver equipment......

Shanghai blogger Wang Jian Shuo has a funny/interesting post about some bad driving habits he picked up on a recent business trip to San Jose ... like stopping at stop signs and yielding to pedestrians. Here is his description of a recent encounter he had with two pedestrians back in Shanghai: ... I saw two girls going to cross before me. My habit learnt from last month worked. I stopped -- full stopped and waited......

For all of you who are afraid of accidentally buying fake brand-name goods when all you really want is a pair of socks, this is your day. Having been to Xiangyang Market over the weekend, we heard from one of the “salesmen” that the yearly crackdown is going on as we speak and that it lasts until Wednesday. What does this mean? It means that people selling Montblanc pens and Chanel keychains have to quickly......

Teachers' salaries, the burbs and long underwear...

While Shanghaiist has been here long enough that the picture to the right didn't seem wrong at all, it's true that Shanghai traffic can be a little crazy sometimes. And while we have personally been hit by a taxi (and several bicycles) it may be getting worse, despite efforts to the contrary. A few weeks ago Shanghaiist noticed that the intersection of Jianguo Xi Lu and Ruijin Er Lu was becoming rather, well, fortified. The......

Via our friends at Danwei, we learn of BaiGoo, a search engine hack (we think) that presents simultaneous search results from Google and China's Google, Baidu, in a split-screen format. Cute. Danwei also serves up a good wrap-up of Baidu's stellar IPO, with a dash of skepticism. Baidu shares jumped 354 percent in the company's first day on NASDAQ -- the biggest jump since the heady halcyon days of the dot-com era -- creating 200......

Earlier this week we learned that Shanghai will start subsidizing its taxi drivers due to "soaring" fuel prices locally. Each taxi driver will receive an extra 412 yuan ($51) a month from the Shanghai government and the taxi companies. Drivers who share a car and work in shifts will receive 275 yuan ($34) per month. Shanghai has 43,000 taxis shared between 100,000 drivers that carry about 3 million passengers each day. (Shanghai also has about......

We all know that eBay loves it some China. Well, soon it will be easier for China to love eBay back. eBay will launch PayPal in the electronic-payment-challenged country "within the year." The Motley Fool said this of PayPal's impending China debut: "It's a proven entity that now seems likely to enter an unproven yet potentially riveting new region." But the folks at Alibaba.com, which owns Taobao.com, eBay's top China competition, aren't exactly shaking in......