People of Shanghai, take heed. Typhoon Muifa (梅花), which has been upgraded to a SUPER TYPHOON, the ninth in the country this year, is expected to hit Shanghai this weekend, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau. more ›

Last week, our neighboring Zhejiang Province shut down two 125MW generating coal-firing power plant units which had been in operation for 18 years. According to Huaneng Changxing Power Plant, the units did not comply with energy efficiency requirements. Replacing them will be two more efficient (if still, unfortunately, coal-fired) 600MW units. more ›

According to Netease, a pig farmer in Zhejiang province found this little porker amongst a litter of eight by his 4-year-old sow. The piglet has three eyes and two mouths and the ability to make anyone who looks at its picture squeal. more ›

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  Shanghai wants 50 top minds every year
  
  
  “Local authorities are offering lucrative packages to lure leading academics to the city under a new scheme to help boost its competitiveness.”
  
  


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  Shanghai to launch int’l channel targeting foreigners
  
  
  “The ICS programs, covering news, information, fashion, entertainment, foreign TV shows and movies, will be aired in English and Japanese, with Chinese captions, for 19 hours a day.”
  
  


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  Shanghai GM to launch Buick LaCrosse hybrid prior to Olympic Games
  
  
  “The move will make Shanghai GM the third joint venture automaker to deliver a hybrid vehicle in China following Toyota and Honda. Toyota Motor Corp is currently the only carmaker that builds a hybrid car in China.”


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  China Eastern to resume Shanghai-Saipan flights
  
  
  “China Eastern will resume its twice weekly Shanghai-Saipan flights starting Jan. 11, 2006, close to five months after the charter flights were suspended because of the decline of tourists coming in from China.”
  
  


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  China to survey dialects to better protect them | World | Reuters
  
  
  “A focus will be the Shanghai dialect … ‘As more and more young people in Shanghai use the dialect to communicate online, and as its vocabulary expands, it will be standardised and promoted as a distinct local language.’”
  
  


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  China’s New Bestseller: The Bible
  “Amity has churned out 41 million Bibles for Chinese believers at its plant outside … Nanjing, including more than 3 million copies last year. (About nine million copies have been exported to Africa, other parts of Asia and Central Europe.)”
• 5 nabbed in whisky sting
  “Police have arrested five people alleged to have duped a Swedish man into paying nearly 5,000 yuan ($680) for coffee and whisky during a recent business trip to the city.”
• Cyclists to race to top of city’s tallest tower on December 31
  “One contestant, Zhang Jincheng, the Guinness record keeper, is a 23-year-old from Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. His two challengers are 28-year-old Andorran Xavi Casas and 34-year-old Colombian Javier Zapata.”


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  City tightens protection for historic buildings
  
  
  “The city government issued new rules last week banning road expansion on most of the 144 downtown roads lined with historic houses. The rules also ban tall buildings from being built in conservation areas.”
  
  


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  blognation China
  
  
  China tech blog worth checking out.
  
  


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  China Web2.0 Review
  
  
  Another China tech blog.


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  China: Pollution map of China released
  
  
  “Just over a year since their first mashup was released, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, headed by journalist-environmentalist Ma Jun, has just released its Air Pollution Map, complete with its own BBS and space for feedback forum.”
  
  


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  Todd Crowned China’s Sole Survivor
  “The 22-year-old flight attendant and world-class schemer outwitted, outplayed and outlasted his competitors for 39 days to be crowned the $1 million winner of the reality show’s 15th edition and the youngest winner in the series’ history.” 15!
• Three Beijing buildings on Time magazine’s best list
  “Three architectures in Beijing are on the list of 10 best architectural marvels (new and upcoming) selected by the Time magazine to be published on the Dec. 24.” None from Shanghai.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently published a report about how much income you need in order to be classified as white-collar in various Chinese cities. At the top of the list was Hong Kong, where you needed to make at least 18,500 RMB. As for some of the other cities:The benchmarks in some major cities at the upper end are: 8,900 yuan ($1,194) in Macao, 5,350 yuan ($717) in Shanghai, 5,280 yuan ($708)... more ›

When Shanghai resident and blogger Jakob Montrasio posted this photo on our Contribute Page, we wondered exactly when he visited the Forbidden City, because the blue skies in the photo weren't in Beijing last week when we were there. Then we realized the photo was taken in Zhejiang Province — a place called Hengdian World Studios (横店影视城) — where a seemingly life-size replica of the Forbidden City can be found (with a small mountain... more ›

Well, at least Puxi appears to be safe. Thank god for the Huangpu! more ›

Not content with what was already the world's longest sea bridge, Donghai Bridge, Shanghai's built yet another bridge, the 36-km long Hangzhou Bay Bridge, which starts at Jiaxing, near Shanghai, and ends at Cixi, about 70 kilometers from Ningbo in Zhejiang Province. more ›

to embroil a listed company this year. more ›

China's hospitals and in particular, Chinese hospital food, do not necessarily have the highest of reputations. Now the whole scare factor of heading off to a Sino hospital has just raised that little bit more with the recent story that a poisoner is at large in a Harbin hospital restaurant. more ›

Photo by 2 Dogs 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. more ›

Xinhua reported that the first official commemoration of the birth of Confucius occurred on Tuesday in Confucius' home town of Qufu in Shangdong Province (山东曲阜) since 1948. More than three thousand people showed up to pay homage to the great thinker. In fact, there were celebrations and ceremonies across China and the world, including in places like Zhejiang Province's Quzhou (浙江衢州) where in 2004 the first "Confucius Day" festival was held. Kids recited verses from Confucius' most well-known work, The Analects (论语). We're sure it must have been a stirring and patriotic scene. more ›

The latest on Typhoon Matsa based on various news reports: more ›