The nightmare is now officially over, hooray! Vending machines that dispense gold bars will debut in Beijing on the 23rd of September, with bars weighing up to 2.5 kilograms. The machines will apparently work just as normal ATM's do, only with the added sense of security that comes from leaving an ATM with an assault-grade brick of gold in one's back pocket. The machines will accept cash and credit cards in exchange for gold, and will be available in upscale clubs and private banks. Which is great, because we always thought putting an expensive cellphone on a table at a bar to show off was so October to mid-December of 2009. At last, an alternative. Rejoice. more ›

In 2008, Patti Waldmier of the Financial Times referred to a McKinsey survey that said, “Chinese consumers are becoming more price conscious, less brand-loyal and generally harder to please.” Oh, how times have changed. more ›

Or so says the BCG Global Wealth survey, which measured 262,000 new millionaire households in China (a 31% jump) in 2010. Now with 1.11 million millionaire households, China moves into 3rd place, behind Japan (1.53 million) and the U.S. (5.22 million). more ›

What should a Wall Street firm do when it loses billions on risky bets in the mortgage securities market? Have its CEO call the Chinese government for a capital infusion of course. Bear Stearns did it back in October. Yesterday, Morgan Stanley announced a USD $5 billion equity investment from China Investment Corp. after writing down USD $9.4 billion of its mortgage securities portfolio, ouch! China Investment Corp. is the USD $200 billion sovereign wealth fund that the Chinese government has setup to invest its massive foreign currency hoard, estimated at roughly USD $1.4 trillion. more ›

This a rough translation of Fan Gui's response to Sun Liping's essay (which we wrote about here): 1. Regarding Sun's first point, I believe that he has ignored a very crucial fact—the growing gap between rich and poor. 20% of the population controls 80% of the wealth, how can you say that such a status quo has "flexibility"? While Professor Sun divides the population into urban and rural, does he mean that the urban poor... more ›

Starbucks Corporation, the world’s biggest coffee shop chain, recalled 250,000 children’s plastic cups made in China after receiving reports of the cups breaking and posing a choking hazard. more ›

Image of algae in pond by Wandering in China. more ›

...says the Chinese female population. According to China Daily, the Hong Kong superstar topped the list of most desired sperm surveyed by 1000 women and conducted by Self Magazine. The women cited his good looks and wealth. Right on his heels, in second place, was none other than Bill Gates, also due to his wealth great charm and good looks. At a measly and disappointing tenth place came Brad Pitt. more ›

Last Saturday, Shanghaiist was invited to attend the unveiling of Shanghai's newest gallery space, m97. Once we negotiated the tricky shared building entrance, we made our way to the second floor and was immediately impressed by the physical space and airy nature of the gallery. The grand opening featured an exhibition of by emerging Beijing photographer and artist Jiang Zhi titled "Things Would Turn Simpler Once They Happened". Immediately we had diametrically opposing thoughts. "How were these photos taken?", and "I don't quite get it...". We wished that our interpretation of the photographic exhibition was as simple as the exhibition's title, but we assume this is the art part of the exhibition. Here's a little about Jiang Zhe (pictured below) and his exhibit from information posted by m97. more ›

Sure, your wife/husband/partner might slap you, but assure them that this is not a fanciful excuse, because it could really happen to you. more ›

On the website, there's information about the hotel, world's highest observatory, shopping and business areas that will comprise the center. As for the name, we found this explanation: more ›

Beijing is holding a human rights exhibition, the first of its kind, from November 17-26. The exhibit features all kinds of human rights related materials, such as documents, white papers, multimedia and interactive stations, as well as sculptures and other artistic works. more ›

It is interesting how different countries around the world envision themselves in the year 2020: more ›

Photo by spiky247 taken from 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. more ›

... or the "50 foreigners shaping China's modern development" as the People's Daily calls it. The list includes some people we knew, some that rang a bell, and others that are dim memories from arid history textbooks. The list begins with Jean-Jacques Rousseau and ends with No. 23 -- Michael Jordan. The grammatically challenged introduction says: more ›

For those who have no idea what we are taking about, Shanghaiist is having an 80s-themed Happy Hour this Friday at Freelance. All are welcome. There will be cheap drinks, free food, 80s music and at least one tall white guy wearing slip-on checkered Vans and a "Frankie Says Relax" T-shirt. More party details here. The best (or worst) dressed will get a bottle of Solid XS Vodka, courtesy of the friendly folks at Freelance. Some other prizes could trickle in this week, so stay tuned (and if you are a local business owner and want to donate a prize, please email us at info at shanghaiist.com). more ›

Photo by goodnight&go taken from 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. more ›

Oddly enough, our random internet search process seems to turn up a lot of stuff about China -- and in this case, an article about freedom of religion, publications about religion, and book culture in China from none other than -- who else -- The Turkish Weekly. This article is, for people who don't know much about the subject, quite informative. The writer visits some general bookstores (such as the Shu Cheng in Shanghai) as well as state-sanctioned religious book shops, where you can get Bibles, Korans, and more devotional type books. more ›

Over the weekend, China’s Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture jointly launched Linese.com, a website dedicated to spreading Chinese language and culture abroad.(Wouldn’t LearnChinese.com or something similar be a better name?) Anyway, Shanghaiist isn’t so sure why the Chinese government is suddenly spearheading this move, the whole operation has a Borg-ish feel to it. Say it with us now: “Resistance is futile” or “抵抗是没用的”. more ›

There's an interesting piece in the Shanghai Daily today about the habits of China's rich, who, instead of learning from the moral paragon that is Warren Buffett, are spending more money on themselves. Says the report: more ›

Shanghaiist, admittedly, doesn't venture into online forums too often. But we do realize they can be a valuable resource ... if used properly. Shanghaiist readers possess a wealth of knowledge and insights about this wonderful city we call home, and you deserve a platform on which you can impart that wisdom to the rest of the world. So, today we are proud to present to you the Shanghaiist Forum, where your voice can be heard. The Forum offers a different outlet than just commenting on posts -- in the Forum, you dictate the topics and where the conversations lead. It should be a nice complement to the rest of site. more ›

One more thing: It sounds as though we need to get Jeremy a girlfriend. Interested parties can leave a comment below. more ›

Heard of the "Millionaire Fair"? We hadn’t either, but apparently it’s coming to Shanghai. What is it you ask? The fair’s website had this to say: more ›

Via Gridskipper, we learn that The Observer has singled out some of the world's top hotels, calling them the "Magnificent seven: icons of modern hotel design." A Shanghai property, of course, makes the list: more ›

"Ideology by numerology", that seems to be the prevailing wisdom guiding the giant party machine in Beijing. After "One China" and "Three Represents", we now have “Eight dos and don'ts”, courtesy of Chinese President Hu Jintao. It is the centerpiece to his “Socialist concept of honor and disgrace”. Sure, it might not sound like a zinger, but eight is greater than three and way bigger than one. What it lacks in pizzazz, it more than makes up for in quantity. We know you're at the edges of your seats, so without further ado, here is the full list: more ›

If you choose to undergo the necessary procedures for hiring a car, or even easier, borrowing a friends, then where to go? more ›

Image from yeungstuff.com. more ›

They pretty much roll like your average rap star. The Hurun Report surveyed 600 of Mainland China's wealthiest, those with at least RMB 10 million in the bank or under their mattresses. The results aren't really too surprising, but Shanghai's rich search the Internet with Google, while the rest of the country prefers Baidu. And Shanghai's wealthy like to travel to Europe, while Beijing's like to jet to the United States. We have reproduced the Shanghai survey findings below. For the other lists, follow these links: Nationwide, Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Northeast, Shandong, Sichuan/Chongqing. There is also a China Daily story about the list. more ›

The Chinese government has launched an English-language website, english.gov.cn, and if taken with the appropriate handful of salt, it looks like it could actually be kind of helpful. The site is currently in beta mode (anyone know how to say "beta mode" in Chinese?), according to the official announcement from Xinhua, which we will quote from liberally right now: more ›