I just can’t stop thinking about the taxi drivers across Shanghai. They actually have a great deal of power over your day when you think about it. A good cab journey can see you skipping off to your office full of the joys of Shanghai Spring. But they can equally annihilate any day into becoming what the whinging masses describe as a “China Day”. You know the kind of days, there are...[read more]Posted: Monday, November 09, 2009 under Chinese Culture | 1 comment
A lot of foreigners are convinced that Chinese food is the culprit of creeping waistlines and spreading derrieres. I admit there are times that my dish seems more fried than noodle, but when compared to a lot of Western cuisine Chinese food (eaten right) probably kicks our cuisines fat butt. I mean, my own America is the home of both McDonalds and the Atkins diet! For years, dieticians over there have been telling us "Eggs, no eggs; juice, no juice;...[read more]
This past weekend Bubba's pulled off another successful chili cook-off. There were costumes, beer, great chili and even Chippendale dancers.
The competition was heated (pun intended), with over 20 teams competing. All competitors arrived by 6am to assemble their top secret ingredients and begin cooking the perfect chili. Some teams used a combination of ground meat while others went untraditional with shredded meat. All had lots of chili spices and many included chasers of tequila, Jim Bean, vodka or whatever your...[read more]
I hate that my Chinese is still crap. I was under the impression that after living somewhere for nigh on a year I’d at least be able to hold a conversation with old people and even a few small ones too. But no, my brain refuses to let my mouth make the sounds I know it should be fully capable of. It just won’t sink in…does anyone know of any good methods so all those tomes and tones...[read more]Posted: Monday, November 02, 2009 under Chinese Culture | 2 comments
It's possibly the narrowest, steepest - and maybe even the most dangerous - staircase in the city. Getting down is even more hazardous - going down backwards is the safest option. At the top of the stairs you come to a room measuring about 3m by 5m, inside which is also a fridge (disappointingly it doesn't contain beer but frozen meat), some wardrobes and a TV. It looks suspiciously like someone's makeshift bedroom, with a sofa lining one of the...[read more]
It's time for the most important question of the season - what will you wear for Halloween? And, just as important, will you be dressing up in traditional scare-wear or wearing a more fetching, skimpy number? Will it be corpse bride or slutty nurse?
If you haven't already got a costume, chances are you'll be throwing together a few old rags and some face paint and just hoping for the best. I know, I've been there. Normally it involves some version...[read more]
As mentioned in my blog last week, Shanghai seems to be cracking down on street food. Despite my loyalty to these traveling cheap eats, the sweep has some defense. The government cites sanitation as the big danger of street food vendors. If people get sick or die, it's hard to trace which vendors are cooking with contaminated food or oil, and even harder for the sanitation department to do regular investigations. The city is also responsible...[read more]
I always wondered where she lives, the "Teddybear woman of Xuhui." Maybe she's friends with the beer-drinking monkey owner. But I only ever saw her after 9pm at night, pushing those sad floppy eared, raggedly looking bears through the streets of the French Concession. I kept trying to take her picture but when I arrived in Shanghai this time last year it was too cold for walking and every journey was made in cabs. So I always ended up with...[read more]
Walking down the street is a couple with a young boy, about 9 years old being carried in his mother's arms. As I walk up behind them I see something on the boy's head that's reflecting off the sun. With typical Chinese curiosity/nosiness, I start to discreetly tail the family and see five needles sticking out of various points on the boy's head. Some are protruding by a few centimetres but one needle, imbedded just above the middle of his...[read more]
I like to think I don't dress like a complete bum - my everyday wear is a shirt or t-shirt and a pair of jeans, largely clean and holeless. On the other hand, I don't wear a jacket, tie and suit trousers around town all the time. So why do so many people try to sell me property?
As soon as I set foot outside my compound, a gaggle of real estate salespeople flock around me and start honking, quacking and...[read more]
I think I have come to dislike that Monkey. He/she/it is always outside one club or another after I stumble out onto the pavement with the flotsam and jetsam, slightly worse for wear after yet another poisonous "all you can drink for a 100 kuai" bash.
It was outside Not Me again recently, chuckling and grogging back unsuspecting expats' dregs. A beer drinking monkey? There's nothing so special about that, this little fella can knock back a glass of red or...[read more]
Eating late, the best bet for my neighborhood is the trusty shaokao place around the corner. Operating out of a storefront past 4am, the place is perfect for a beautiful night of squatting on little stools and tearing meat off sticks. Last Sunday however, just as I and my dining partner had tucked in for a 9pm feast, the grill-master informed us that the police were coming and that we couldn't eat there. They promptly took the seats from under...[read more]
And another one goes down in flames. Last year Bukhara caught fire. No one was hurt - well, except for those of us who "need" frequent helpings of their butter chicken and black dal.
Last night unfortunately the same calamity happened to another Indian favorite, Masala Art. Diners were seen exiting their original Dagu Lu restaurant as the kitchen filled with smoke. Again, luckily no one seems to have been hurt. This time around though, Indian food addicts like myself have...[read more]
On the last day of his stay in Shanghai, Michael gets a call from his hotel room from an uncle asking if he'd like to go for lunch before his flight leaves in the afternoon. Thinking that his uncle will give him a lift to the airport after, they agree to meet outside the main entrance of his hotel at 1pm.
Half an hour later, Michael receives a second phone call, this time from another man, 'I'm a friend of your...[read more]
This year marks Shanghai's inaugural year as one of the nine ATP Masters 1000 tournament events - pretty important stuff in the tennis world. However, amidst a wave of injuries and withdrawals from some of the most high-profile players, has the Shanghai Masters lost its honeymoon shimmer before it's even had the opportunity to shine?
Three of the five top players were out of the tournament before it even reached its halfway mark, all due to injury. World No. 1 and...[read more]
The lights are neon. The walls are white and bare. The wait staff ignores you until you kick them in the shins. Picking the right hole-in-the-wall (HITW) restaurant can be difficult because they are ubiquitous in their dingy looks, non-English menus and the fact that they never get a smiley face from the board of hygiene.
However, some of the best Chinese food is served for cheap in the crummiest looking places, even in Shanghai. Telling between a HITW that serves...[read more]
What is it exactly about cycling in Shanghai? Is it as dangerous China-wide or is it just our metropolis? The rules of cycling in Shanghai:
Rule No. 1: ALWAYS cycle into oncoming traffic.
Rule No. 2: NEVER under any circumstance whilst obeying rule number one look into the eyes of the cyclist travelling in the right traffic direction.
Rule No. 3: PEEP your parp or HONK your horn excessively even if there is only one other cyclist on...[read more]
Having never attended a film premiere before, it was exciting to go to the first showing of ‘Quick, Quick, Slow'. There's no red-carpet or intense flash photography, instead, it's a quiet affair in a cinema screen with a small stage. The actors are briefly interviewed and the bizarre but entertaining activities begin. Three people in their mid-50s perform an energetic tango/cha- cha dance. One lady's dressed in a tight holey pink dress and her partner, balding actor Cao Haosheng, wears...[read more]
As part of the new Enjoy website, our editors will be blogging daily snippets about what they love in Shanghai, revealing little-known pleasures, their own random amusements and gossiping about all the news around our city on the sea. Get involved and tell us what you do to enjoy Shanghai! This week, we start with something simple and everyday, but with its own Shanghai flavor - taking the bus.
Whenever I ask people what they do to enjoy Shanghai, I normally...[read more]
Join us at Manifesto tonight for our weekly Enjoy Happy Hour from 6PM! We had a massive turnout last week, and this time we'll have the resident manifesto DJ spinning, 3 bars in operation, and some complementary tapas for all! Enjoy card holders get their first drink for free, but everyone is invited for some complimentary tapas and drink specials from 6-9PM. If nothing else, this is a good chance to meet someone new and wonder,...[read more]
A big thank you to everyone who came down to Manifesto for the launch of our Enjoy Happy Hour last Wednesday. It was fantastic to see so many familiar faces, as well as lots of new ones. We were completely overwhelmed by the enthusiastic turn-out - quite literally! Apologies to everyone that had to wait a long time for their drinks, you have our promise that next Wednesday we'll be ready for you! Despite the hiccups, it's great to hear...[read more]
Well, it could have gone a little smoother. We aimed for August 1st, and at the time of writing this (3am, August 5), this site still has a few problems to sort out. We've changed the name of our magazine (EnjoyClassifieds in print is now EnjoyShanghai Weekly) and this website is now up with a major new design, enhanced features, and new content. Many of those features and content are a little slow arriving. Thank you all for your patience...[read more]
EnjoyClassifieds magazine is now a Friday publication and focuses on event coverage for the current weekend. Distribution starts Thursday afternoon, and will be delivered to all of the nearly 500 locations before Friday evening. Grab a copy now and find something to do this weekend. If you have trouble finding a copy at your favorite venue after Saturday or Sunday let us know here: [distribution AT enjoyclassifieds DOT com ]. The deadline for event or classified ad submission is...[read more]
Frankly, that last post about the visa scammer depressed me. To those of you who wrote us directly to notify us, thanks for your assistance, and hopefully you've helped many others from falling for the same scam. But I'm still depressed. Here at Enjoy, we're all about Enjoyment. I'm hoping you'll help me out and share something positive about your experience using our classifieds either online, or in the print weekly. I once received feedback from a man who said...[read more]
If you are looking for a visa service company DO NOT trust the person who has been posting ads in our job section offering visa services. He is not legal, and we have had mulitple reports that he is running a scam. Our Jobs section is for jobs, period. If you see any service other than a job posting there, assume it's illegitimate. Thanks to those of you who reported this - we do our best to keep these listings...[read more]
I've just finished Mark Kitto's book, China Cuckoo - How I lost a fortune and found a life in China. If you're new to Shanghai, Mark Kitto was the founder and owner of that's Shanghai before a pair of his senior Shanghainese managers decided otherwise. A little disclaimer - I've known Mark since 1997 when I first arrived in Guangzhou and later worked with him at that's Shanghai until the coup in 2004. So I had been looking forward to...[read more]
If Seinfield had been able to order delivery from the soup Nazi, the episode just wouldn't have been funny. But soup is serious business and today, I thought we would put the Urban Soup Kitchen to the test. I skimmed through to the last page for the lunch sets as I'm kind of a combo guy and was pleasantly surprised with 3 pretty good value options for different sets. I thought I would spoil myself since it was Friday...[read more]
The latest issue (#123) of EnjoyClassifieds is out. Get your copy at the usual locations. This week's reviews include two Italian restaurants, Bella Napoli and Luna Bianca Trattoria. Maria finds peace of mind at the Mindfulness Workshop at Community Center Shanghai, the Gourmet Girls let champagne go to their heads, and resident Barfly Janus raves about her new YogaAlive! suit.
In our FYI Shanghai review of Grace Hair & Aesthetics we incorrectly listed the...[read more]
I discovered this little gem by accident strolling down Xinhua Lu over the weekend. My friend and I were searching for the yoga apparel store that sells the new YogaAlive!™ outfit everyone is talking about. If you haven't seen it yet, it's amazing! It's like a wetsuit, but it breathes, and it has little sensors built into the fiber that detect the direction of your muscle movement. When you move or stretch all the fabric fibers pull together to...[read more]
The latest issue (Monday, March 23) just came off the press and is being distributed now to one of these locations. City Shop is usually the first place we get to on Fridays, so you might try there first. Jules Kwan of URBN Hotels is on the cover of the latest issue. Why? Why not. They're recruiting lots of people, including a Sales Manager, and our designer thought he was good looking. Also in this...[read more]
