God forbid you should ever come across two or more of the Shanghai World Expo mascots in the street, at least now, thanks to Shanghai Daily, you know the proper collective noun to use when describing the furry blue monsters to the 119 operator: Brace. "I am being attacked by a brace of Haibao!" Should there be six Haibao, you would say "three brace of Haibao!" Seven? Good luck. No one has ever escaped from......

Group tickets for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo will go on sale on September 28th for RMB160. [Source]......

Work began Tuesday on a high-speed rail line from Shanghai to neighboring Nanjing, creating an even stronger link between the two economic powerhouses. Authorities say travel time, currently two hours, will be cut in half and that the line will be open by July of 2010, just in time for the World Expo. Seem to good to be true? Marc van der Chijs certainly thinks so, pointing out that a vehicle with a maximum speed......

Got this from Peter, a possibly drunk Shanghaiist reader in Qingdao: Am I the only one in Shanghai who thinks the EXPO mascot HaiBao looks like Mr. Towelie from South Park? Every time I see a poster in Shanghai I think of Mr Towelie's trademark line "Anybody wanna get high?" What's the verdict, readers? Also on Shanghaiist Shanghai World Expo mascot unveiled! Ack! The Shanghai World Expo mascot is multiplying! We admit it: This photo......

In the news recently, Shanghai's taxis:"Where's the difficulty in the taxi smoking ban?" The passengers, that's where. Dazhong taxi's "Welcome the World Expo with no smoking in Dazhong taxis!" campaign has stopped taxi drivers from smoking on the job through strict supervision and heavy fines, but drivers are finding the passengers aren't as cooperative: some taxi drivers have even been fined and lost stars due to passengers' complaints of bad service after they were......

We can see it now. Fast-forward to 2010. An ancient Tibetan god called Gozer arrives atop an apartment building near Xintiandi in Shanghai, where it tells the neighborhood's restaurateurs that the next thing they think of will be the form Gozer will assume to destroy their world. Despite their efforts to clear their minds, Bob Boyce imagines Haibao, the irksome mascot of the 2010 World Expo. As he explains, Haibao "just popped in there" as......

Do films with titles like "Feathers of Dongtan" and "Sounds. Breaths" give you a tingle in your special area? If not, fret not, there's still some time to develop that acquired taste which is promotional films for really-big-Chinese-events. "Vision Shanghai", like "Vision Beijing," is going to feature documentary films by famous directors, thought the names of those directors have yet to be released. However, Shanghai Film Group has announced its next Expo film, a full-length......

The boxer shorts rebellion [Mara Hvistendahl, The New Republic] "You'd think that the younger, Internet savvy generation of Chinese twenty- and thirtysomethings would be the ones guiding China into better relations with the West. Instead, they seem to have glanced toward the rest of the world and turned back, appalled."Avoid tall buildings [Adam Minter, Shanghai Scrap] "Half the steel material sold at wholesale markets and now being used in construction has failed quality tests."Shanghai-Hangzhou express......

You may have walked past the Holy Trinity Cathedral before and not even known it. The church has been under construction for a couple of years now and protected from public view by the ever-cunning big cement construction wall. But it's still there, awaiting its impending resurrection amid a chorus of jackhammers. Completed in 1869, the Holy Trinity remains one of the oldest western-style buildings still standing in Shanghai. Its stunning design features the......

Police have arrested four men and one woman for trafficking in methamphetamine, or "ice" around the Fengxian District. While the nation's very first anti-drug radio programme aired here on Sunday, an increasing number of celebrities are getting caught for drug abuse. Zhang Yuan, one of China's most popular directors, was arrested two months ago on drug charges. And recently, singer Xie Dong, himself an anti-drug volunteer, was detained after testing positive for meth along with......

Have you got an opinion? Shanghaiist has started publishing opinion pieces from readers on selected weekends, so if you feel like you've got something to get off your chest, email it to us at info AT shanghaiist DOT com and if we like it, we will publish it under this column. China Gets Beijing and Shanghai Ready for the 2008 Olympics and 2010 Expo By Jeffrey Wasserstrom China's economy is booming like never before and......

- ESWN has translated the sad story of a 31 year old woman who left a goodbye note on her blog before commiting suicide because of her unfaithful husband, an employee at Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing. The story is now making the rounds big time in the local advertising scene and has also unleashed a manhunt which saw enraged citizens coming up to his apartment to seek revenge for the dead woman. More pictures here.......

We want some of whatever this guy is smoking: "Haibao is a jolly, confident and cute kid," said Shao Longtu, 62, CEO of the Jiumuchuansheng advertising company and head of the mascot design team. "Using a human being as a mascot reflects the spirit of human-orientation, while the color blue stands for water, sea, the Earth, life, dreams, the future and technology," Shao said. ... "The mascot is a perfect match for the emblem. It......

It may only be a spit away by plane, but for those of us too cheap environmentally concerned to fly, getting up to Beijing for the weekend is a bitch (despite our love of munching through a bottomless nosebag of sunflower seeds to looped pan-pipe renditions of Celine Dion songs). Which is why we don't go. So the proposed high-speed line between Shanghai and BJ, which will reportedly cane it along at 350km/h and take......

You heard that right, ladies and gentlemen... Our city's foresighted urban planners, God bless their hearts, have looked into their glassball and decided that Shanghai needs another Lujiazui — and really, soon — in three years to be exact. Well if they were able to build Lujiazui I in ten years, we have every confidence they can build Lujiazui II in three. Never ever ever doubt the ambitions of Shanghai city planners. Just build first,......

The People's Square station signage will soon get a makeover to get up-to-date with Line 8's signs. The new Line 8 platform will open by year's end. Metro Line 13, which has 4 planned stops servicing the future World Expo site, will be branded as a World Expo line. This is part of a move to add culture to the Shanghai subway system. The mother of the young man who was trapped and killed......

We just received news that North Korea has expressed its intention to attend the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. How exciting is that, people! Having attended the World Expo in Hanover in 2000, we just wonder what wonderful propaganda awaits us at the DPRK pavilion in 2010! So we looked up Youtube and found this clip which we thought would be a fantastic example of what would be shown at the North Korean pavilion. Leo......

The free Metro Express commuter paper has a big front-page spread today on the People's Square metro interchange make-over. The headline announces that "People's Square Three Line Interchange Hall To Open By Year's End", which is old news to those who have been following the progress of the new metro Line 8. Instead, the reason for the story being published today is that the Shanghai Rail Transport Construction Headquarters just released a bunch of numbers......

Shanghai marks the 1,000 day countdown to the 2010 World Expo today at the Urban Planning Exhibition Center on People's Square. 158 countries, regions and international organizations have confirmed their participation in the 184-day event, which begins on May 1, 2010. One day admission tickets to the show are expected to cost 160yuan each, but organisers will set different prices for different times of the day to balance the flow of the 70 million......

As if Shanghai taxi drivers didn’t already have enough foolish foreigners to rip off, soon the most gullible of all tourists, cruise passengers, will be arriving. By the end of this year, a brand new cruise terminal will be opening at the northern end of the Bund. The US$260 million dollar site has been under construction since 2004 and is expected to hold up to three luxury cruise liners. Around 1 million tourists per year......

We’re sure everyone has forgotten due to a lack of media coverage, however, Shanghai will be hosting the 2010 World Expo. In order to prepare for Shanghai’s debut on the world stage, several construction projects are underway. After all, Shanghai has to upstage former World Expo hosts, such as Knoxville in the US, Hanover in Germany, Aichi Prefecture in Japan, and the main rival, the 2008 host Zaragoza, Spain. The newest construction project, announced......

Woman strangled and stabbed. A native of Hubei Province was charged with murder yesterday after Minhang District prosecutors allege Tian Qi, 27, strangled a woman with wire and then stabbed her with scissors because she refused to lend him money.Publicity toilet paper set to wipe out theft in Taipei. In a bid to deter roll bandits, the toilet paper would be sponsored by advertisers who will allow their names to be smeared for the public......

An industry source in this Metrofans thread reveals that internal estimates for the opening date of Metro Line 8 (M8) have moved up to October 31st from the previous estimate of December 28. Line 8 is a north-south line with all but two stops in Puxi. The stops are expected to be named as follows: ▸ 市光路站、嫩江路站、翔殷路站、黄兴公园站、延吉中路站、黄兴路站、江浦路站、鞍山新村站、四平路站、曲阳路站、虹口足球场站、西藏北路站、中兴路站、曲阜路站、人民广场站、大世界站、老西门站、陆家浜路站、西藏南路站、周家渡站、耀华路站 ▸ Shiguang Rd (northern terminal station), Nenjiang Rd, Xiangyan Rd, Huangxing Park, Yanji Middle Rd, Jiangpu Rd, Anshan......

Face-lift after 'health check' on Xupu Bridge "Xupu Bridge's 240 suspension cables are to have a large-scale renovation to make the bridge safer and more beautiful prior to the opening of World Expo 2010, the Shanghai Engineering Administrative Bureau has said." If no Expo, safety not an issue. Frozen fish from China recalled as two in Chicago fall illfpr "The list of potentially deadly products reaching the United States from China continued to grow......

On our way back from the gym today, we noticed a new big screen (really big screen) TV for advertisements at the Huangpi Nan Lu Metro stop. And yes, we stood there like an idiot and videotaped it with our phone for five minutes. Most of the ads are for the 2010 World Expo, and boy do they make Shanghai seem like a great place to live. Which, of course, it is.......

The back cover of yesterday's Xinmin Evening News featured the photograph to the right accompanied by an article centered on Mr Ding, a worker who has been employed at Shanghai historic Jiangnan Shipyard for 42 years. The reason that the photographer wrote the article is because he finally got the chance, through a photography contest, to tour the limited-access factory that was founded in 1856. And the reason that the newspaper published the article is......

The city is getting ready to purchase three police helicopters, a security improvement leading up to the 2010 World Expo. The Shanghai force decided to go with Eurocopter instead of a domestic manufacture because, as the PSB director put it, ""Flying over Shanghai, a densely populated city with about 20 million residents, demands absolute security insurance." Here's more: The helicopters will be initially utilized during the 2008 Olympic Games as some soccer matches are will......

A round-up of BBS posts on the Shanghai metro: People's Square concrete drying... and drying... Poster SanNiu British Teacakes noticed yesterday that the yellow metal floor protectors place in front of the glass safety doors on the People's Square Line 1 platform have been moved around as the floor is repaired following the safety door installation process. Line 7 to perform "double crossing" of Suzhou CreekThe Metro Line 7 will perform a over-and-under double crossing......

We missed this when it was released last year, but we thought 人 ("Ren"), also known as the Peoples Building (but perhaps it should be called the Person Building), deserved a mention — if only for its audaciousness. This is just a proposal for a new building in Shanghai. It has not been approved yet, and we have no idea if it will be approved, or how long it would take to build if......

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......