Maybe it's because I worked last weekend (aww!) or the horrible feeling that this sunshine won't last until Saturday, but this week seems to be stretching out forever like Christina Aguilera singing "The Star Spangled Banner".

My normal method of coping for the week is to pretend Monday ... Read more »

Whilst it's no Karate Ghostbusters, I still had a blast watching Kung-Fu Panda at the cinema recently.

Blessed as we are with 5RMB DVDs on every street corner, it's easy to forget how much cooler movies look on the big screen, and that goes double for the richly ... Read more »

Oh Shanghai, Shanghai, why can't you be more like your older brother?

I visited the capital at the weekend and have to say that the bars in Beijing could drink the bars in Shanghai under the table (and then dance on it).

Most of my drinking was done around ... Read more »

Most of my mental images of Beijing come from the 1984 film

"Wham! in China: Foreign Skies": a documentary following George Michael and the gang on their tour as the first western pop group allowed into China.

Beijing does not look good in this movie: drab tourists posing in front ... Read more »

Of the two big summer sporting tournaments this year, it's hard to decide which one I hate the most.

In one corner, the Olympics: visa hassles, human flesh search-engines and Liu Xiang's massive horse-face on every billboard

In the other , Euro2008: daily reminders of England's failure to ... Read more »

Last night I put on my best fabric market suit (tip: go to stall #139 and tell them you want to look like a homeless Jude Law), combed my eyebrows and headed out to the City Weekend awards at "Bling".

Things started off well with a great post-traffic argument outside ... Read more »

With the ongoing visa restrictions and newly buffed up drug laws you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Shanghai cops would love nothing more than to lock your laowei ass in chokey and throw away the key.

Well not in Jing-An.

Recently I've had cause to spend many ... Read more »

It's not long now until the City Weekend Reader's Choice awards are announced. Breath is baited, wall space is being cleared.

The first name on my ballot sheet was "Jade On 36" for Best Restaurant.

The food I ate at Jade made me rethink what a chef can ... Read more »

Food streets are Shanghai's hidden gems, smoky strips of cheap grub stalls and shops. Try vegetable kebabs covered in oil and salt for starters, follow up with an oyster drowning in chopped garlic (ignore the pile of them being shelled directly on the street- fire kills all known germs ... Read more »

I think at a certain point in life, every classy gent needs a good collection of booze in their house- it's the male version of having cushions and those tiny miniature ornamental boxes that ladies like.

When I first realised that a quart of cooking Sherry and three Cherry ... Read more »

Shanghai is, without doubt, a city for the single man.

So much so that I’m thinking about starting a service at Pudong airport for visiting businessmen to check in their wedding rings for the duration of the trip.

I fell for a girl on pretty much my first night ... Read more »

The next time you're in a restaurant trying to order a second drink, wondering how all 18 wait staff can ignore your waving hand, raised voice, and distress flares- try flying a kite.

In my experience, the minute you unfurl a kite in any public space in Shanghai, a ... Read more »

A couple of weeks ago I bought two terrapins.

Until last night they've been a lot of fun- racing around table tops, scratching my thumbs with little spiky flippers, wowing visitors with their amphibious charms and spotted bellies.

Unfortunately, one of them is now wrapped in a kitchen towel ... Read more »

Am I the only one who feels a sense of burning shame when they take visitors to restaurants already packed out with other foreigners?

Sichuan, Yunan, Dongbei, Cantonese- it doesn't matter what style of cooking it seems that any place with good food that stays open past 8:30pm ... Read more »