Sorry about the delay in getting out the latest part of this series. In case you'd forgotten (and rightfully so), we've been searching through a list of 155 unprotected heritage sites in Shanghai. Here is Part I (Baoshan and Hongkou) Part II (Huangpu, Zhabei and Putuo) and Part III (Luwan and Jiading). Part IV is about Minhang and Yangpu. more ›

2012 could be your special year. Construction began yesterday on metro Line 12, which will connect Minhang district with northern Pudong, passing through Xuhui, Luwan, Jing'an, Zhabei, Hongkou and Yangpu along the way. Most eye-popping line: "Nineteen stations on Line 12 will connect with 16 other Metro lines." Line 19 (still in planning stage) being one of them. It doesn't seem too long ago that there were only two metro lines and there would be a mad dash for open seats at Shanghai Railway Station, because that is where Line 1 began. It doesn't seem too long ago, because it wasn't. By 2012, Shanghai is supposed to have 13 metro lines covering 500 kilometers. [Shanghai Daily] more ›

While searching the web for Tianma Shan, we stumbled upon this helpful site by Robin Zhang, "the software designer of JetPhoto." Clicking around a bit, we found this neat panorama of the University of Shanghai (沪江大学) in the 1920s. We also found these current photos of the old University of Shanghai buildings, which are now part of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology [official site | map] in Yangpu District on the Huangpu River. We found this all kind of interesting — we had never heard of the University of Shanghai, which was founded in 1906. We probably should have, since we have a friend who recently graduated from USST. Here's what she said: more ›

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Various reports on yesterday's bus explosion in Yangpu District have attributed the cause of the fire to flammable material that one passenger brought onto the bus, but Hong Kong's Apple Daily《苹果日报》has suggested a "suicide-style bombing" (自杀式炸巴士) by Xinjiang terrorist groups. Here's part of the report, as translated by ESWN:

... Even more frightening to the citizens than the casualties at the scene is the vague reporting by the media. The description covered 'self-ignition,' 'ignited explosion (that is, a fire caused by an explosion in the engine),' 'arson' and 'explosion' and this is enough to make one question whether the truth is being concealed. Even more terrifying than the bus being set on fire in an attack is that the Shanghai public security bureau said casually that this was caused by flammable materials brought on by a bus. Even more scary to the outside world is that the authorities could cover up the fact that the train in the Shandong collusion was the Olympic Games special promotion train. If they can seal off the truth about the Shanghai bus and they can seal off the situation about epidemics, what couldn't they not deceive the Chinese people and the rest of the world on?

This just in, from Xinhua: more ›