2008. Year of the Rat. Year of the Beijing Olympics. The year Chinese electronica broke. The year of Shanghai. The year they solved Beijing’s traffic problem. The year of breathing easy. The year of eco-friendly fuwa warrior vigilante justice. The year to cash in on Olympic tourists. The year ... Read More
Interviewing real deal journalists precipitates an identity crisis: is what we are doing even in the same ball park as Evan Osnos dodging police in Sichuan to report on the effects of river dams on local populations? Not really. But flip it around: who's going to cover expats in ... Read More
Complaining is endemic to Western culture and the interesting thing about complaining here is how specific it can be. For us, it’s not the biggies like traffic or pollution: it’s ATMs. Why does it take people so long to make a simple withdrawl? This isn’t some demon ... Read More
Know what? We don’t like soccer. It’s boring, it has two names, it’s on all the time on every screen in every bar in the world (that or, inexplicably, motorcycle racing). Rugby and cricket? Just plain wrong. So what, we’re provincial. Luckily with satellite TV strapped ... Read More
Let’s face it, Linkin Park is to metal what China is to socialism; the four locals bands we interviewed for the Metalheadz story are way more horns in the air. What’s salient about the upcoming Linkin Park show, however, is that it’s the first big arena rock ... Read More
It’s not easy being black in China. For that matter, it’s not easy anywhere in the world. Modernity seems inherently polarized against people of color, whether in the United States, Africa or the streets of Sanlitun in Beijing, where people with black skin risk being hassled. At the ... Read More
"It was a completely new environment for me when I first joined this enthusiastic working team," says Xu Yin, Shanghai's newest intern. After two weeks uploading Shanghai’s latest and greatest events and venues to the new City Weekend website, searching for material on the Internet and writing up ... Read More
East side meets west side when Nine Inch Nails, Public Enemy, Marky Ramone, New York Dolls, Brett Anderson from Suede and more arrive in the capital to perform at the Beijing Pop Festival alongside the best bands China has to offer. It's been a brilliant year for music and ... Read More
"Beijing's not there yet, but a year is a long time," says Jonathan Haagen who spoke with Olympic officials, student volunteers and even China's Miss Manners to find out where the city stands with 12 months to go before the 2008 Olympic Games (Coming Soon, pg. 08). Progress ... Read More
Living in Beijing's Wudaokou, writer Lauren Mack meets many overseas Chinese who have come to China to study or work. "I suspected overseas Chinese had a different experience here in China, but I wanted to test out this theory," says Mack. After speaking with several "huayi" and professors, Mack ... Read More
As one of City Weekend's new
Shanghai Entertainment Guide
interns, Taryn Campbell was
sent on her first mission: Find
Shanghai's top spots for cool treats
this summer.
"How can I complain when my first
assignment was running around
the city and eating ice cream?" asks
Campbell. Hailing from ... Read More
"I was a competitive swimmer when I was young, so my summers were filled with swim meets and road trips,” recounts City Weekend’s newest Shanghai editor, Trista Baldwin. “I never really went to a full-on summer camp though.” After researching various summer camps and programs around Shanghai for this ... Read More
Voltaire once said that nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. After spending a weekend tackling the best restaurants and bars of Beijing (pg. 12), City Weekend’s newest Beijing editor, Jennifer Thomé, definitely appreciates ... Read More
"Even though I'm straight, I've never had so much fun going out," says freelance writer Jamie Feldmar on covering Shanghai's gay scene for this issue's “Queer Me Out” (Shanghai Entertainment Guide, pg. E08). After scouring the city's best alternative hangouts and resources, Feldmar is happy ... Read More
"Although it’s 10 years since I graduated high school, compiling this month’s Yearbook (Beijing Entertainment Guide, pg. E44) spread did indeed bring back fond, and not so fond, memories of my former glory days,” says Candice Rafferty, Beijing Entertainment Guide editor. When approached by the Western Academy of ... Read More
"I didn’t know Midi was such a BIG deal until one day my 17-year-old cousin came home and screamed 'road trip' into my ear and left me temporarily deaf,” says Beijing intern Mia Li. When Li recently went out to the site of China's rock 'n' roll Mecca ... Read More
"Peachy Catchy? Poobah Klangy? No matter how many times I would tell my editors or friends about this story I was working on—‘It’s Pecha Kucha!’ I'd say over and over again, ‘It’s not that hard to remember!’—none of them ever seemed to be quite capable ... Read More
If you look pass the dilapidated and decrepit facade, hospitals in China really aren't that bad. In fact, some of the world's greatest doctors are inside giving hope to Chinese and foreigners," says writer Lauren Mack , who spent three months learning the ins and outs of China's ... Read More
Writing about British ensemble Bugz in the Attic for the Shanghai Entertainment Guide on pg. E19, freelance writer Sophie Kalkreuth found out that it's not she who wrote this article, as it pretty much wrote itself. “Planning a story is like trying to plan the perfect picnic,” says Kalkreuth ... Read More
"I never imagined I would be writing about a day in the life of a pig (pg. 22) when I joined the City Weekend team,” says Whitney Rosenberg, CW’s new National Edition intern. In order to get an authentic swine perspective, Rosenberg shadowed a pig for a week. To ... Read More
"I am not sure if researching and compiling real stories for our ‘Most Memorable Date’ article has turned me into a romantic or a cynic,” says Candice Rafferty, Beijing Entertainment Guide editor. By asking friends, family, co-workers and random people, she quickly realized that dating in Beijing (like many other ... Read More
It took a year for Managing Editor Collin Crowell to convince the editorial team that a story on Beijing's bathhouse scene could conjure up more than just seedy adventures for young men. At our creative planning meeting he said, "There are 700 employees on staff at Ba Hao during ... Read More
What a great way to start the New Year – by listening to everybody's “positiveness” about Shanghai. You think you know everything there is to know about a place ... until you start asking others what it is that keeps them coming back. I’ve realized there's now a lot ... Read More
With the end of the year comes a landslide of deadlines, which means I've been working a lot of overtime. My girlfriend hasn’t minced words about her dissatisfaction, but hopefully my wish for the New Year (that she will marry me) will make her happy in the end ... Read More
Being asked to write a bar review for my first assignment went a long way towards alleviating my initial feelings of apprehension. Booze usually has that effect. Apprehension soon turned to joy when I realised I was being sent to a bar at the end of my road. That is ... Read More
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Middle 8th: The New Sanlitun Village Location Has Creative Zest
By JPDM
I tried the new Middle 8 location last night. We tried to make a reservation... >>