Results tagged “wangjianshuo”

The Peking Duck: Is the rush to study Chinese a time-wasting fad?

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.

Photo from Swiss James of ISpyShanghai.com

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.

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:

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.

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.

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:

Photo by spiky247 taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos 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.

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:

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!

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 indeed covered in a whole mound of sugary, quicksand-esque snow the likes of which we have never seen in our lives before. It quickly became apparent that one’s board or skis served as the proverbial ladder across a thinly-iced pond, but no need to panic, so long as you’re over one and a half feet tall.

Got any other old Shanghai pics? Send them our way: tips(@)shanghaiist.com

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":

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:

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.

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 sidewalk corners had been fenced in, and there were so many traffic wardens and police that we took to avoiding the intersection whenever possible. After all, when in a rush, the last thing we want is to have to stop at a red light. We did notice, however, a large number of signs standing on one corner, and had to investigate. It turns out that the signs are part of the most recent city-wide initiative to promote traffic safety that began in June. How? Well, whenever the police stop someone riding or walking the wrong way, they politely escort them over to the corner, where a warden attempts to educate them about the specific law they've violated. With the aid of pictures. Pedestrians, she informed us, are the biggest problem here. Strange, considering the police car turning left through a red light as she spoke. "In China we don't talk about that," she responded.

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.

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 42 functioning seat belts.) According to Xinhua, fuel prices increased 6 percent on July. Of course, they didn't mention what the prices actually are. And Shanghaiist can't remember the last time we actually saw a gas station.

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 their boots. Said Alibaba spokesman Porter Erismann, "We're ready, we're prepared and not very concerned because they've got a lot of catching up to do." Oh snap! The online auction site gloves are off!