Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

No matter how much I like Starbucks for their 12 rmb coffee of the day, how many people do they expect to type in this URL.

Source: ad in Cityweekend (Shanghai expat mag)

One of my favorite advertising methods in Shanghai is the advertising boat that pollutes my view when I have a coffee in Starbucks on the Lujiazui side.

As there seems to lack of number of advertisers a whole Haibao cartoon is shown these days. Haibao as you may have heard is the mascot of the Shanghai Expo 2010.

I got a comment in an old post, the one about the Internet Police, about being ripped off by a Chinese online shop offering electronic goods for great prices.

I don’t know the exact details but I did a quick search to see what info is available. It seems the commenter isn’t the only one who didn’t get his stuff from Storehot. And it appears there are a lot of so-called online shops that love to take your money but don’t deliver. You can find an extensive list here. (more…)

Autumn is coming and you need some entertainment. You have seen all the dvd’s they sell on the corner, including the ones that halfway change into being dubbed in Russian. The local channels aren’t really an option unless you want to see for the umpteenth time another historical drama and the very national CCTV 9 is too boring to be even considered. And yes, even Youtube is less fun.

That was kind of the situation I got myself into and roaming the Internet I found several websites that consider intellectual property rights something from the last century and make it very convenient to watch golden oldies as well as the latest movies.

I present the DVD-Alternative China TV Guide

TVU Networks Live TV

When was the last time you saw David Letterman live and enjoyed commercials you can actually understand (hattip – Opposite End of China).

You can find CBS, Bloomberg, ABC News and many more. And not to forget God TV is included in the package.

Check out TVU Networks Live TV

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It seems the blogs on WordPress.com have been unblocked again. Whether this is a nanny aberration has to be seen.

The Ya,I Yee blog has posted a hilarious though slightly sad conversation between a Chinese blogger and a staff member of the Shanghai Communication Administration.

The Chinese blogger has his blog on its own domain on a Shanghai server and the latest campaign is to close these down as apparently a blog is considered the same as a BBS/forum and chat website which have to comply with specific regulations and need approval before opening up.

A quote: (more…)

Yahoo.com was unreachable here in China for more than 12 hours. It’s up again. The question is, is it accesible again because of a glitch in the Chinese firewall or is it allowed in again for good:)

The Chinese internet, never a dull moment…