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• Three of the Best Health Insurance Providers
• Thousands take to the streets to express nuanced views on complex issue
• Find of the Week: Hai Pai’s Croque Madame
• Watch: Financial Times On The “Ghost Of Mao”
• WIN Two Tickets to Maroon 5
• Next Media Animation’s Take On China’s Patriotic Protests
• Another Weird Pageant In China, This Time Involving Goldfish
• Did A 2009 Video Game Foresee The Current Island Conflict?
• Man in Wuhan falls off his bicycle, someone helps him
• China-built projects in US stir up environmental concerns
• Italian Kitchen 26: Exceptionally helpful staff, but a hit and miss menu
• Another Rally In Beijing, This Time To Commemorate The Mukden Incident, Or Something
• US coal exports make mockery of green policies
• WIN Tickets to the Booka Shade Party
• The Two-Day Trial Of Wang Lijun Is Over
• Interview: Bob Boyce, owner of Blue Frog and KABB
• Presented By:
• Let's Talk About Sex: Too Big in the Bedroom
• Girls Night Out Launch Party at Bar Rouge
• Video of the Week: The Five-year Old Piano Prodigy

Three of the Best Health Insurance Providers Posted: 18 Sep 2012 08:47 PM PDT Date: Sep 19th 2012 10:44a.m. Contributed by: georgiabarnett

Thousands take to the streets to express nuanced views on complex issue Posted: 18 Sep 2012 07:26 PM PDT By WO KOU Sovereignty Correspondent 'Look – there's a diplomat. Let's have a rational debate!' BEIJING (China Daily Show) – Across Chinese cities, thousands poured into the streets yesterday, to express a diverse range of considered musings concerning the controversial issues raised over a quintet of uninhabited islands in the South China Seas. The Diaoyu Islands, currently claimed by Japan and China, as well as Taiwan, have become the recent subject of a heated political dispute. Today, concerned protestors around China used a sensitive anniversary to publicly call for delicate diplomacy and plead for measures to prevent the clumsily-handled dispute from escalating into a potentially devastating confrontation. Thought-provoking banners were in abundance, many proclaiming prudent slogans such as "Remember the tragic 1931-1945 war! End all violence, seek diplomatic solutions" and "We condemn the provocative actions of the right-wing Tokyo nationalists but urge the Chinese government to seek a bilateral solution," as crowds called for a tactful end to the immature stand-off. "It's about peace and free love, man," smiled one long-haired citizen, waving a sign playfully urging fellow citizens to "Fuck the Japanese." "We will not stand for any more bullying!" insisted another poster; its owner, Beijing shopkeeper Lao Ping, 52, explained he was sickened by the recent acts of cowardly violence and looting committed against foreign-owned businesses. Many placards bore the images of incumbent leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, as well as President-in-waiting Xi Jinping, because, as one demonstrator explained, "they're the ones who are supposed to be in charge of defusing this mess." Millions of Chinese plan to march tomorrow to their local libraries, in order to research the thorny, unresolved historical issues surrounding the partially submerged outcrop, and seek more informed opinions. "But at the end of the day, they're just rocks," shrugged one. Declare support for Diaoyu! Follow us at @chinadailyshow on Twitter or use Baidu

Find of the Week: Hai Pai’s Croque Madame Posted: 18 Sep 2012 07:18 PM PDT Date: Sep 19th 2012 10:12a.m. Contributed by: geofferson

Watch: Financial Times On The “Ghost Of Mao” Posted: 18 Sep 2012 07:09 PM PDT Though China's modern-day Maoists may advocate larger government, wealth redistribution, and a return to a backward agrarian society, they strike me, by and large, as Bible Belt conservatives in their longing for past glories and comforts, their love for a transcendent leader, and their fondness of ideology. They also have this annoying habit of cherry-picking only the best parts from Mao's rule and forgetting that millions were purged, starved to death, and slandered/slaughtered by their coworkers, students, neighbors, friends. But hey, no cadre corruption! Yay! This Financial Times video paints these Maoists as generally convivial, song-loving people, but all the same — I'm glad they don't have a vote in this country. Video description: As China prepares for a once-in-a-decade leadership transition, many of the country's Maoists are longing for a time gone by. The FT's Kathrin Hille joins a group of Maoists as they travel to the birthplace of Mao Zedong and listens to their grievances with today's Communist party. (H/T Alicia)

WIN Two Tickets to Maroon 5 Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:31 PM PDT Date: Sep 19th 2012 9:25a.m. Contributed by: geofferson

Next Media Animation’s Take On China’s Patriotic Protests Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:00 PM PDT Japanese ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya committing seppuku when he finds out he's been assigned to China is a nice touch, though perhaps a tad too soon: Japan's ambassador-designate to China, Shinichi Nishimiya, died on Sunday in a Tokyo hospital, the Foreign Ministry said, three days after he was found unconscious on a Tokyo street. For the record, NMA claims the Diaoyu Islands for Taiwan. Obviously this video will not be appearing on any Chinese video hosting site anytime soon. VPN time, you folks in China, if you haven't got one already.

Another Weird Pageant In China, This Time Involving Goldfish Posted: 18 Sep 2012 10:54 AM PDT We've seen beauty pageants for cows, so it would naturally follow that there would be a pageant for goldfish. In Fuzhou, Fujian province on Saturday, 3,000 fish from 14 different countries competed in the International Goldfish Championship. They were judged according to breed, body shape, swimming gesture, color, and overall impression, judge Ye Qichang told ITN News. Some fish stood out more than others, such as a 3.9-pound goldfish. That's really fat. "Many factors such as breed and breeding method may affect their size," Ye said. "A goldfish cannot grow into that size if it suffers any hardship or major illness during the breeding. So it is a very rare one." And morbidly obese. Youku video for those in China after the jump.

Did A 2009 Video Game Foresee The Current Island Conflict? Posted: 18 Sep 2012 09:49 AM PDT Here is the cinematic intro to Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising, a tactical shooter game released in October 2009. In it, an island originally owned by the Chinese, called Skira, is jointly colonized by Russia and Japan through military force in the 17th and early-18th centuries. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan gains the entire island, then loses it back to Russia following World War II. Sometime during the Cold War, oil is discovered on this volcanic island but is "hard to reach." After the Cold War ends, Russia and the US become bound by certain treaty arrangements related to Skira. In 2004, a "massive Chinese economic boom" depletes the country's domestic reserves of oil, and after the global economic crisis of 2008, Chinese leadership destabilizes as the people gravitate toward hardliners. In 2011, China mobilizes its forces toward Russia, closer to Skira Island. Russia responds. And then, the PLA takes Skira, claiming "original ownership." The trailer ends with the US sending forces to the Sea of Japan. Swap out Russia for Japan, and does any of this sound familiar? The connection was made by Reddit user XADE101, and if nothing else, it makes me want to play the game. I'm sure the Bo Xilai scandal is tied into Operation Flashpoint's storyline somehow. You know what they say: reality imitates first-person shooters. Youku video for those in China after the jump. (Update, 12:53 pm: The video was up for a good hour-plus before censors removed it. I wonder which senior censor figured out the connection.)

Man in Wuhan falls off his bicycle, someone helps him Posted: 18 Sep 2012 09:34 AM PDT by Barry van Wyk on September 18, 2012 The front page of the Changjiang Daily (长江日报) from Wuhan in Hubei province today features an illustrated account of what should be an everyday act of kindness yet in China is by no means guaranteed: helping someone on the street. When a middle aged man crashed his bicycle on a street in Wuhan, falling on his face in the road in a spatter of blood, a journalist and photographer happened to be close by, and they recorded what happened next. A young man went to crouch next to the middle-aged man, asking if he was hit by a car and whether he was able to see the car's license plate, before proceeding to call emergency services. The middle-aged man did not reply, but the young man helped him to lie down by the side of the road. A worker at a pharmacy nearby and a sanitation worker had by now joined a small throng, and they inspected the man's bike and found no signs of a collision. When after 20 minutes the emergency services had still not arrived, another young man wearing sunglasses took the middle-aged man's phone and contacted some of his relatives. About ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived, yet all the while the middle-aged man said nothing. A doctor's initial assessment at the scene concluded that he had suffered flesh wounds to his mouth and nose. When the middle-aged man was safely taken away in the ambulance, about 30 people stayed loitering about and talking to the journalist. Some of them were saying that in other places in China if a person falls in the street, no-one will dare help them, but clearly Wuhan is different! Indeed, they concluded, Wuhan is a city that has love! Links and sources Changjiang Daily (中年男倒地流血 众帅哥出手相救) More Front Page of the Day stories on Danwei

China-built projects in US stir up environmental concerns Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:13 AM PDT California's new Bay Bridge is one of several major infrastructure projects across the US in which Chinese contractors play a key role. What are the environmental consequences? With an expected price tag over US$6 billion, California's new Bay Bridge will be one of the most expensive structures ever built when it opens next year—and a crucial component of it was built just outside Shanghai. The Bay Bridge is only one of several major infrastructure projects across the United States in which Chinese contractors have recently played a significant role. These firms have completed a wide range of projects in multiple states, including a coliseum in South Carolina, a hotel-casino complex in Atlantic City, and bridge and subway projects in New York. They reportedly won over US$1 billion worth of US contracts in 2010 alone. With concerns focused on labour and safety issues, the environmental consequences of Chinese contractors' growing reach have received little attention. Conversations with industry and environmental experts, however, suggest they deserve a closer look. Construction of the original Bay Bridge began in 1933 in tandem with its more famous cousin, the Golden Gate. Both quickly became vital transportation arteries linking San Francisco to the rest of California. The current project, designed to ensure the bridge's survival during a catastrophic earthquake, involves retrofitting the bridge's western span and constructing an entirely new eastern span over two miles long. Controversially, the contract to fabricate key components for this eastern span—the bridge's most vulnerable and iconic section—was awarded to a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries. Earlier this year, those components were brought over on barges and put in place: the bridge's massive cable, containing 137 strands of steel, the deck, and critical parts of the span's single, striking tower. (Unlike a typical suspension bridge, where cables are strung between two towers, the eastern span will be asymmetrical and "self-anchored".) With a contract value over US$350 million, the more than 45,000 tonnes of steel provided by Shanghai Zhenhua and fabricated at their plant in Shanghai represent a significant investment by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in Chinese steel, which is cheaper and dirtier than its American counterpart. "I am not aware of any environmental component to the pre-award audit," said Bart Ney, a spokesman for Caltrans, of the contract. Ney did not respond to other questions about the environment impacts of the largest public works project in California's history. Carbon-intensive steel from China China is now the world's largest producer of steel, responsible for 45% of global output (eight times that of the United States) and increasingly oriented towards export. Structural steel from China typically has three times the carbon footprint of steel produced in the United States, according to Joe Cross of the American Institute of Steel Construction, an industry association that promotes structural steel in the United States. US producers employ a method called Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) that uses up to 95% recycled steel. By contrast, around 90% of steel production in China, according to the World Steel Association, involves the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) method, reliant on coke, iron ore (usually imported) and a much smaller quantity of recycled steel (25% to 30%). Indeed, some research indicates that the carbon footprint from BOF steel in China may be significantly greater than Cross indicated. Chinese efforts to convert to EAF are still in their infancy. As for carbon emissions and environmental factors associated with Bay Bridge construction, "you would definitely see a recognisable difference" between using American and Chinese steel, said Michael Lepech, a Stanford professor who specialises in life-cycle assessments (LCA) of construction materials and undertakes projects in China. Transporting materials from the United States to China plays a relatively small role in the project's environmental impact, as most materials are shipped by relatively low-impact barges, said Lepech. But carbon emissions from a booming shipping industry, increasingly centred on China, can start adding up: Brian Lombardozzi of the Blue Green Alliance, an umbrella organisation of labour unions and environmental groups, pointed out the estimate that they will increase between 150% and 250% by 2050, based on a finding by the International Maritime Organisation. "The much bigger deal [about China-built infrastructure]," argued Lepech, "are the emissions and environmental impacts associated with Chinese power production and Chinese industrial processes. The downside of that is that we have relatively little good data on exactly what those emissions are. Obviously, they don't have to comply with the [US] Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, all these other things." Issues of "public health equity" quickly arise when steel is produced in China for American infrastructure. "We're putting developing populations at more risk for asthma, for ingestion of heavy metals, for all of the things that come out of the stack of a steel plant," Lepech said. Lombardozzi cited a report by the Alliance for American Manufacturing showing that Chinese steelmakers emit around 3.53 kilograms of sulphur dioxide for every ton of steel to US steelmakers' 0.7 kilograms. Chinese companies also emit much more particulate matter. "The regulations that have been put in place have made the [American] industry figure out cleaner and more efficient ways of doing things," Lombardozzi said. In the production of concrete, water and aggregate are usually sourced and mixed in locally, but the input cement may come from China (the single biggest source of US cement imports). "The production of cement is quite damaging to the local environment from the standpoint of dust emissions… and the alkalinity of water coming off of the site," said Lepech, adding that it is also a major global pollutant in terms of carbon dioxide. In connection with an even more massive project—California's planned high-speed rail system—one expert recently stated that low-CO2 concrete "could reduce the infrastructure's environmental footprint by 15%." But will California make the investment or simply source the cheapest material on the global market? Growing global clout of China's builders In a relatively recent, momentous development, five of the world's 10 biggest contractors are now Chinese SOEs, according to the International Construction rankings compiled by the KHL Group, with large Chinese construction firms accounting for US$344 billion in revenue in 2011. Their ability to underbid the competition, often based on low-cost labour and supply chains in China, has enabled them to win an extraordinary range of projects including dams in Africa, a highway in Poland, rail projects in South America and, most recently, a football stadium in Italy. The environmental impacts of these projects vary wildly. Chinese contractors are just beginning to push beyond their primary markets in Asia and Africa (a combined 80% of their overseas business, according to the China International Contractors Association) and into North America and Europe. It no longer comes as a surprise to see Chinese politicians lobbying for their SOEs to get a big piece of the (troubled) high-speed rail projects in the UK or California—and cash-strapped western politicians are sorely tempted. Even if they follow the letter of the law where they work, the major Chinese contractors do not have a reputation for leading on environmental issues. In contrast, said Lepech, "a US-based firm like Bechtel is coming in and adhering to pretty much United States law everywhere they work". China Construction America (CCA), a subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation, the largest of these contractors, is based just outside New York City and was recently named one of the region's fastest growing construction companies by The New York Times. The company has worked on over 100 public works projects and private developments across the US worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including seven public schools, apartment blocks in Washington DC, and major transportation infrastructure in and around New York City. Despite repeated requests, CCA refused to comment for this story, leaving unanswered questions about the sourcing of their construction materials and the environmental impact of their projects. Western contractors are not always models, of course, and there has generally been far too little attention given to the infrastructure-environment nexus and to life-cycle assessment for large-scale projects. China's own Environmental Impact Assessment law only came into effect in 2003, and LCA is essentially a new idea in China, even for manufactured goods, given the lack of a national emission database and a shortage of expertise. The global expansion of low-bidding Chinese construction companies—increasingly in every country, on every continent, often in connection with public works projects—is occurring at a significant environmental cost. Greenhouse gases, energy, water, land use, particulates, ecotoxicity, human health impacts and the lives of ordinary Chinese people are all at stake. Ross Perlin is a writer and linguist. His book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy is out in paperback and ebook this year from Verso. Homepage image by Sha Sha Chu

Italian Kitchen 26: Exceptionally helpful staff, but a hit and miss menu Posted: 18 Sep 2012 08:45 AM PDT Italian restaurants are arguably the most "hit and miss" of Shanghai's foreign eateries. For every Sabitini Ristorante there's that restaurant (we're not naming any names) that serves some very Hamburger Helper-esque pasta and rubbery baloney with the cold cuts plate. So when we spotted Italian Kitchen 26 during a night stroll on Anfu Lu, we had to pop in and see if it could tip the scale in the "hits'" favor. What we found was a kind've hit and miss restaurant. [ more › ]

Another Rally In Beijing, This Time To Commemorate The Mukden Incident, Or Something Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:34 AM PDT The more I think about it, the more I want to believe these anti-Japan protests are just an excuse for people to catch some fresh air and blow off steam. The genuine anger in some parts isn't reflected in the above video, taken today by Jacob of BeijingShenghuo (who you'll remember took this video of Saturday's more volatile protests). The chants of "Little Japan, fuck your mother" are said so nonchalantly that a spectator who doesn't know Chinese could confuse this gathering for a high school prep rally. Look at all the people recording with cell phones: they're not angry; they're curious. They are, as the Chinese expression goes, cuo renao – joining the fray. There for the hell of it. And the cops are chaperones, just keeping the kids from dancing too close. Jacob says the crowd was only slightly more lively closer to the Japanese embassy. A few projectiles were thrown, but "it looked like the people throwing things from the back were just hitting the people in the front, including the armed police/soldiers." And the police, according to Jacob, "were actually pretty friendly." In other words: we've seen twice this anger at CBA games, and infinitely nastier insults at Guo'an soccer matches. And like so, another anniversary of the 1931 Mukden Incident — during which the Japanese sabotaged their own railroad in Manchuria as pretense to invade — passes. (Almost — I suppose there's time yet for real violence, but hopefully not.) Japanese stores will open again tomorrow, and all will be okay. Of course, bloggers in Changsha and Liuzhou and Chengdu et al. could well report tonight that their cities are going up in flames. But I prefer to hope that the worst of these anti-Japan protests are over. For all our sakes, let us hope.

US coal exports make mockery of green policies Posted: 18 Sep 2012 02:11 AM PDT California fights moves to ramp up coal exports to Asia through new terminals planned for west-coast states. While emerging economies of the world are hungry for inexpensive sources of energy, coal use is stable – if not slowly diminishing – in the United States, while US emission standards for fossil fuels are growing more stringent. Unfazed by new regulations, the coal industry now sees a golden future in expanding American coal mining, and exporting the coal to fast growing Asian markets.  Coal export terminals are slated for construction in the states of Washington and Oregon, on the west coast of the United States. If built, they will make America the world's third largest coal exporter. As those terminals begin operating, the coal exported will effectively cancel out the progressive benefits of new energy policies especially in adjacent states. In an unusual expression of concern over the planned terminals, nearby California has adopted a resolution – AJR 35 – which says: "This measure urges the President of the United States and the 112th Congress to enact legislation to restrict the waterborne export transshipment of coal for electricity generation to any nation that fails to adopt rules and regulations on the emissions of greenhouse gases and airborne hazardous air pollutants that are at least as restrictive as those adopted by the United States." California's concern is not without cause. With the exception of the young renewable-energy industry, coal is the world's fastest growing energy source. Worldwide, coal use has grown an average of 4.4% per year since 1990. In recent years, the growth rate of coal consumption has vastly increased. In 2003, the World Coal Institute projected world consumption would reach 7 billion tons by 2030. Just eight years later, in 2011, the figure was almost 7.5 billion tons. The fastest growing markets are in Asia. In the last three years alone, South Korea's coal imports have grown by 30% and China's by a massive 313%. In less than 10 years, China has gone from being a net exporter of coal to the world's largest coal importer and consumer. With estimated imports of 190-million tons per year and its own production of 3.47 billion tons, in 2011 China accounted for 48% of the world's coal consumption. Political support for coal  Six years ago, in lieu of a comprehensive national energy policy, the State of California created its own policy, crafted in the state legislature with bipartisan support and signed into law by then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. With the signing of the California Global Warming Solution Act of 2006, California embarked on an ambitious plan to increase the state's energy efficiency and reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions. The goal it set was to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, regardless of population growth and increased demand for energy. As a state ranked as seventh most powerful economy in the world, both the California's public and private sectors had long been aware of air pollution and the environmental threat presented by the release of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, from its power plants, factories, cars and homes. One component of California's plan targeted coal-fired power plants as a major cause of airborne pollutants. While California has almost no coal-fired power plants within state borders, it does buy electricity generated by coal from other states. So, California's Public Utilities Commission created a standard for coal-fired plants of a maximum of 1,100 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions per megawatt hour. After the termination of existing contracts, electricity from power plants exceeding the standard was banned. The work of California in cooperation with the state's electric utilities set a valuable standard for the entire United States, and blazed a trail for other states to follow. But without national guidelines governing energy exports, circumventing energy policies such as California's is easy. America's major coal-producing states have small populations and the coal industry makes generous political contributions. Gaining support for coal exports is a simple matter. The coalfields of major coal-producing states such as Wyoming and Montana are on public lands already leased to the coal industry. The lease fees equal approximately one dollar per ton for extracted coal. A sufficient rail system for transport of coal to the export terminals already exists. All that is needed is to build the export terminals themselves, and then coal can be exported to countries where California, or any other US state, has no control over emission standards. Applications for permits-to-operate four new coal export terminals are on file with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Two additional terminals are under consideration. The four terminals by themselves will export more than 150% of the coal that the entire United States exports today. To reach the proposed capacity of the new terminals, the coal industry is prepared to increase production in the United States by at least 100 million tons a year. Actively working to increase American coal production and stimulate worldwide coal use are companies like Peabody Energy, the major player in the largest of the planned coal terminals – the Gateway Pacific Terminal – in Bellingham, Washington. Peabody is the largest private coal company in the world, with holdings in the United States, Australia and Asia. Not only does Peabody plan to export US coal to China, it is also a major player in the development of new coalfields in western China's Xinjiang autonomous region. Cancelling out emissions savings While both the United States and China, as the world's two largest coal users, have begun to institute significant energy-efficiency standards and stringent greenhouse-gas regulations, the unspoken reality is that burning more coal in power plants and steel mills will continue to release more carbon dioxide. Simple mathematics suggests that ever increasing coal use will overwhelm even the best and most rigorous regulation. With California as an example, and taking an average of the carbon emissions projected in a staff paper produced by the California Energy Commission, the coal shipped from the proposed new terminals will add 250 millions tons of greenhouse gases a year to the earth's atmosphere. The number is five times greater than the quantity of greenhouse gases California has fought to reduce from out-of-state coal-fired power plants. As coal is mined and burned at an accelerating pace, the conflict between demand for cheap, reliable energy and the environment grows more acute. Carbon dioxide has no respect for international borders, and when the coal shipped by the planned west-coast terminals is burned, that coal will number among the world's top 25 emitters of carbon dioxide. Charles West is an American journalist and TV producer with a strong interest in the politics of energy. He lives in Washington state. Homepage image by coalswam

WIN Tickets to the Booka Shade Party Posted: 18 Sep 2012 04:04 AM PDT Date: Sep 18th 2012 7p.m. Contributed by: katvelayo

The Two-Day Trial Of Wang Lijun Is Over Posted: 18 Sep 2012 02:10 AM PDT The "open trial" of Wang Lijun, on charges of bribe-taking and "bending the law for selfish ends," according to Xinhua, began this morning. It is now over, having taken place "under tight security before a carefully selected audience," according to the Guardian, from which the above picture is taken. "Foreign journalists were not permitted to attend." Yesterday, Wang, the former Chengdu vice mayor and police chief, stood a "closed-door trial" on the charges of defection and abuse of power. He did not contest any of the charges. As the NY Times notes, "The outcome of trials in China, especially those connected to elite politicians, is often predetermined. The flamboyant Mr. Wang, 52, is expected to be found guilty on all four charges." And with that, another trial in the Bo Xilai saga begins and ends, swiftly and efficiently. We're down to one last player, someone we haven't seen in months: Mr. Bo himself. But before we move on, let us pay homage, one last time, to the man who kicked off this preposterous, made-for-TV political saga. Words via NYT: Residents of Chongqing interviewed this year said they could not recall a police chief as flashy as Mr. Wang. He traveled with a group of policemen dressed in dark overcoats, and two officers would always catch his own overcoat when he took it off. In restaurants, he would demand that the entire floor be sealed off. He brought his own food and drink or asked that the restaurant's be tested. When he drove to his police headquarters from a nearby home, officers cordoned off the route. Along with the flashy image, Mr. Wang had a canny side. On Feb. 15, after he was taken to Beijing, a Chinese journalist, Chu Chaoxin, received a mysterious text message that said in part: "Briton Heywood was murdered in Chongqing; Wang Lijun investigated the case and found out Mrs. Bo is the suspect." Some people now suspect Mr. Wang had previously arranged for an ally to send out the text. Mr. Chu posted the text on his microblog, an action that helped turn Mr. Heywood's demise from merely a suspicious death into a worldwide murder mystery. And image, not via NYT: Be well, Wang Lijun.

Interview: Bob Boyce, owner of Blue Frog and KABB Posted: 18 Sep 2012 01:08 AM PDT When we last spoke with Bob Boyce, Montana-native and founder of Blue Frog Bar & Grill and Kabb, he had just opened a third Blue Frog on Tongren Lu, and was in the midst of expanding the Blue Frog/Kabb empire. In light of last month's closing of the original Blue Frog on Maoming Lu after 13 years of business, Boyce shares his thoughts on the journey from its opening to closing, the evolution of Shanghai's Western dining scene since his arrival, and future ventures. [ more › ]

Presented By: Posted: 18 Sep 2012 01:08 AM PDT

Let's Talk About Sex: Too Big in the Bedroom Posted: 17 Sep 2012 11:31 PM PDT Date: Sep 18th 2012 1:31p.m. Contributed by: thewooster

Girls Night Out Launch Party at Bar Rouge Posted: 17 Sep 2012 11:04 PM PDT Date: Sep 18th 2012 12:04p.m. Contributed by: cityweekend_sh

Video of the Week: The Five-year Old Piano Prodigy Posted: 17 Sep 2012 10:30 PM PDT Date: Sep 18th 2012 12:30p.m. Contributed by: cityweekend_sh

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