A good design should be self-explanatory, yet I would still be happy to tell you more details about the changes that you may or may not have noticed.

More legible
The text fonts are enlarged; columns and gutters are widened; more crossheads are added.

More about business
A new Biz Commentary page is now published every day from Tuesday to Friday on A7, which will provide you with more insight thoughts on domestic markets and economic trends.

 
We have also revised our business data box, which now focus more on data from local exchanges and brokerages.

More explicit
The info box on A2 lists index, contact, publishing and web site information for your reference.

Beyond newspaper
In A2’s box, you can find the introduction of our new media products on other platforms. 

Our website offers rich multimedia news resource, such as news videos, audios, photo albums, data and etc. We will provide link clues on the newspaper with related stories to help you dig them out at www.shanghaidaily.com.

As always, we cherish your opinion. Please write to us and help us do a better job. You can email to annchenjie@shanghaidaily.com or editor@shanghaidaily.com.

Her name was included among 127 local industry leaders praised for making major contributions toward boosting the city's economy and cultural life.

Wu is in charge of the newspaper's daily news planning and developing journalism exchange and communication programs between Shanghai Daily and overseas counterparts.

She was also responsible for planning news coverage with innovative angles for Shanghai Daily special issues for each day of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. These yielded a sizeable hike in circulation and attracted much attention.

Wu was among the six recipients from the cultural sector to be honored. Some 89 of the industry leaders come from high-tech industries.

As the convergence between our web site and newspaper advances, we more frequently find that we should print hyperlinks in our newspapers. Short links, such dly.sh/abc, comes in handy because they are easier to remember and type. These shorter links will automatically be translated into the full URLs of a corresponding page on our website.

The new service also helps us to track clicks on shorter links, such as when the clicks were made and where the users were coming from.

Our editors will convert ShanghaiDaily.com’s full-length links into dly.sh shorter links and place them on social networking sites or in newspapers. We have also converted some often-used special URLs into shorter dly.sh links so that they can be printed and used for marketing purposes.

A list of pre-shortened links:

To download mobile apps:
iPhone - dly.sh/iphone
iPad - dly.sh/ipad
BlackBerry - dly.sh/bb
PlayBook - dly.sh/pb
Windows Phone - dly.sh/wp

To access special sections:
Photo Gallery - dly.sh/gallery
HD Photo Gallery dly.sh/hdgallery
PDF downloads - dly.sh/pdf
MMS - dly.sh/mms

To access content sections:
Metro - dly.sh/metro
Business - dly.sh/business
National - dly.sh/national
Vibe - dly.sh/vibe
World - dly.sh/world
Sports - dly.sh/sports
Features - dly.sh/feature
Opinion - dly.sh/opinion
Ideal - dly.sh/ideal

Prior to this change, ShanghaiDaily.com used a special URL shortening link – xpo.sh – for the Shanghai EXPO in 2010 with great results. As we start using the new shorter URL service, all previous xpo.sh links will continue to be valid.

Similar to its counterpart on Apple’s iPad, SHDaily HD features complete coverage of the newspaper’s online and print stories, as well as a full archive with comprehensive search functions. A recent update also brings the addition of HD photo gallery, PDF download for the print edition of Shanghai Daily, and the new Sunday section.

Like its cousin applications on iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and Nokia Ovi platforms, SHDaily HD is available for free to readers in all countries.

First, search results used to be inaccurate with many irrelavent entries because the engine fetched results on a character-based rather than a word-based policy. Second, irrelavent entries cost more data, thus slowing the search and sometimes causing the browser to crash.

Now, Users are able to get more accurate search results at a faster rate. Keywords are highlighted on the search result page.

The new interactive map is linked with the directory of Live in Shanghai. Registered users can add new venues and link them to the respective Metro station.

Main features of the Metro map:

- Displaying nearby roads and location of each station
- Downloadable PDF file for storage
- Search function
- English-Mandarin conversion
- Details of future Metro lines

Each story now has an info box indicating where it appears in print edition. By clicking “Buy PDF of this page,” the user adds that page to the shopping cart; after clicking “Check Out,” the user is brought to a payment page; once payment is done, a download link appears.

Subscribers to ShanghaiDaily.com can download PDF pages for free using the same link. They will not be prompted for payment and can start download as soon as they click “Check Out.”

Unique Features:

-          Customized designs with print-edition grade layouts;

-          Photo sections loaded with High-Definition galleries;

-          Real-time updated weather report/forecast of any given cities;

-          Add articles to favorite, or share with friends;

-          Breaking news Push alerts;

-          Access to FULL archive for free;

-          Sophisticated search function;

-          Optimized background updating bring you new stories in the blink of an eye;

-          Retain the free download of daily print edition for free feature from preview edition.

iPad users may download and rate the app at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shdaily-hd/id378323812?mt=8# or http://xpo.sh/ipad for free.

Owners of Amazon Kindle, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Phone 7 can now download versions of Shanghai Daily on their devices. Our new media team is busy working to make Shanghai Daily available on more portable platforms while ensuring all editions are up to date.

The small box that served as a World Expo 2010 bulletin board has been changed into an online poll site to show public opinion on certain hot topics. The most recent ones concern Shanghai’s decision to lower the dog license fee and the disastrous fire of a Jing'an District building. By voting, users can view the poll result.

Above the poll section is a small application for users to submit news and tips to us. All topics are welcome and the sender’s information will not be revealed in the published story.

Visit http://xpo.sh/iphone or search for Shanghai Daily in your iTunes. The app is totally FREE. 

Features of the app include: - news and featured stories updated in real-time - full access to an archive of articles - breaking news PUSH alert - weather report and forecast - save articles to favorite, or share with friends - sophisticated search function 

“The UI design is of one of the most user-friendly out there, and it does feature several handy functions such as favorite, sharing on SNS and the localised weather forecast,” a customer reviewed. 

Shanghai Daily HD for iPad, an even more sophisticated development, will also be launched soon. Users of its preview version, now available in the App Store, will get automatic notification when the full version is available and upgraded. 

The full version of Shanghai Daily HD will still be free to download but some of the premium features and full archive of new stories will be accessible exclusively to subscribers. 

With the introduction of the more functional and more versatile editions of Shanghai Daily on Apple devices, the New Media department finally decided to stop the publication of Shanghai eDaily, a twice-a-day e-newspaper based on much simpler PDF functions. 

Today’s afternoon edition will be the last issue of Shanghai eDaily, which was launched in January 2008. Subscribers of the 12-month eDaily package worth 200 yuan (US$30.10) will automatically be entitled to a full year’s account of Shanghai Daily’s online edition (worth 400 yuan), starting from tomorrow. 

If you don’t want the account, you will be refunded 200 yuan. Please contact us by calling 021-52921569 or email online@shanghaidaily.com to arrange the refund.

Sign in with your username and password, go to the download page and click on the “1-click download” link at the top of the download list. The PDF file contains all pages of a day’s issue of Shanghai Daily, but it is compressed, by reducing image quality, to achieve a much smaller file size for faster download.

Print-quality PDF files are still available in the download list.

The “1-click” PDF file was designed for the Shanghai Daily HD app for iPad, which is now available in the App Store as a free demo application. However, to download the files on a PC or other desktop computers, you need to be a paid subscriber.

To subscribe to our newsletter, simply visit http://www.shanghaidaily.com/newsletter/newsletter_subscribe.asp and enter your Email address in a form on the page.

To revise categories and news features or to unsubscribe, please follow links at the bottom of each newsletter sent to your mailbox.

Thanks to the biggest hardware upgrade in four years, the new server provides a faster and more stable connection and a quicker response to user demand. It also gives us room to bring richer multimedia content to our Website and better support to our new media services and products, especially on mobile platforms.

During the switch period, some of you may have difficulty logging on to Shanghaidaily.com due to our IP switch. The problem may last one or two weeks but only a very small number of users will be affected.

Yao’s series of stories on Expo site Zone C (Expo Daily, June 15, 16, 21), with good writing skills and a fun touch, were based on her own tour experience in the site. Min-G gave a very detailed and useful three-part route to the zone rating attractions as hottest, popular, or unrated. She did lots of preparatory work. And the series received positive response from foreign readers who found her stories contained useful information.

The business desk contributed to the Lujiazui Forum series (B1, June 25/A10, June 26/A3, June 27/A11, June 28) with four consecutive days of reporting on the key economic and financial forum held in Shangahi. There was good teamwork throughout the preview, forum and after-forum reporting. The series touched on popular topics and offered insight from both regulators and experts.

One of the “Best Page Awards” goes to the biweekly My Business column (B5, June 4), design by Chen Jie. Biz reporter Feng Jianmin offers interesting stories as well as good photo shooting skills.

The other winner of ‘Best Page” was our South Africa supplement (June 10, C1-8). Editor Liu Qi and page designer Chen Jie organized the special coverage on FIFA World Cup with wonderful illustration by Yu Yige.

Enjoy reading Shanghai Daily stories on your tablet gadgets all for free.

The app allows users to access all sections of the daily print editions and afternoon updates of Shanghai Daily.

An updated app, Shanghai Daily HD full version, will be launched next month. Users of the current preview version will get automatic notification when the full version is available and upgraded.

The full version app will still be free to download but some of the premium features and full archive of new stories will be accessible exclusively to subscribers.

Shanghai Daily is also working on its app on iPad's little brother, iPhone, which shares a subscription with iPad. The iPhone app will be available late July.

Exclusive features of Shanghai Daily HD:
real-time updated stories across all sections
unlimited access to full archive
print edition grade layouts
high-definition galleries
user-friendly offline mode
breaking news notifications
functions to mark favorite articles, or share with friends
fully customizable user interface
full access to PDF editions

The Pavilions section has added a new vote function. Just click onto the detail page at each pavilion, put your mouse onto the “vote” icon and cast your vote. You can vote for as many pavilions as you like, but each IP address can only vote once for the same pavilion during 24 hours.     

iPhone and BlackBerry users will soon enjoy this voting function on the official Expo applications, provided by Shanghaidaily.com.

Published on an irregular basis, these guides cover various Expo spotlights like dining, Expo record-smashers, national treasures, movies, spots for kids, featured art pieces and pavilion highlights of Zone A.

Other updates to the minisite include some changes in the Transport section. Expo Bus Route 15 was cancelled and Routes 17-37 have been changed to All Stops Buses. The bus page was duly editted to reflect this change.

The best story for April went to Metro writer Xu Chi for his report “That’s amazing, Auntie Sweetie” (A2, April 21) - which was praised for its exclusive topic, interesting interview and clear writing. Xu is the only local reporter who managed to approach the grassroots star, Shanghai ’s own Susan Boyle.

Ni Tao’s “Han Han is hardly a hero of our times” also won best story for its big influence. It was translated into Chinese and led a heated discussion on Sina’s blog, attracting much attention from young people.

The best page award for April was shared by Business headline news (April 16, B2) and Sunday’s City Scene (April 25, Page 5).

On the business news page, “Tamer CPI but 2 rate rises possible” was vividly represented by an illustration and chart.

Sunday’s City Scene page was well-integrated design introducing Shanghai ’s featured architecture Shikumen, with eye-catching maps and figure highlights on the page.

The best picture award went to Zhang Suoqing’s “Sparkling Expo Night” on the front page of April 28. This beautiful picture caught an impressive view of fireworks for Expo’s trial run.

A special award went to Shanghai Daily’s Expo team. Five taskforces of 17 journalists worked hard to wrote trial run news of the Expo. They also provided many useful tips for Expo visitors.

Shanghai Daily’s World Expo special coverage website opened for business two weeks before the grand opening ceremony. Web application developers and online content editors at the New Media Center have been working since to improve both the look-n-feel and content quality.

International Channel Shanghai launched quite a few dedicated programs to report various aspects of the Expo. We stroke a deal with the online department of ICS to help syndicate their video content, as ICS agrees to convert the video to a variety of formats to support multiple platforms and release a public RSS feeds to the digital distribution of their programs.

Thanks to the channel data feed, ICS’s video coverage of the World Expo is synced with Shanghai Daily’s World Expo database in real time, so visitors can view the FLV video footages integrated with the webpage with a Flash video player directly in the Videos section, while MOV format of these videos are served to the user of Shanghai Daily’s World Expo 2010 iPhone App (xpo.sh/apple), which can be downloaded from iTunes of Apple App Store.

As a tradition, we designs the videos to be linked to all relevant items, such as pavilions, events and news articles published by Shanghai Daily. Thus, on all platforms, viewers from around the world are able to make clear connection among news stories and data encoded in various forms of media. At the bottom of an item’s detail page, related items (pavilions/events/news/videos) show up as lists. On the pavilion browser interface, under the thumbnail of each pavilion, graphical indicators show if there are single/multiple image and video content available.

The interactive map on the minisite's home page has been updated with clearly drawn information on routes of Metro and ferry lines and locations of Expo-related Metro and ferry stations. Road names on the map are now in both English and Chinese. A newly-added search engine provides convenient search functions through the whole site.

Thanks to some persistent Shanghai Daily photographers, pages on pavilions now display more realistic photos in addition to the artist renditions added at the time of launch.

Co-developed by Shanghai Daily's new media department and iUUMobile Information Tech Co. Ltd, the app can access pavilion details, event schedules, news, and Expo site weather - all updated in real time. Download size is only 0.4M, which means a user can install the app on their iPhones almost instantly.

An exclusive feature is that users can search for pavilions and events through the powerful search engine and filter function and keywords matching system.

All text and images in the pavilion, events and news sections are synchronized with those of Shanghai Daily's Expo 2010 minisite (expo.shanghaidaily.com).

This service is totally free.

The app could be found in iPhone app store or accessed by visiting xpo.sh/apple.

The minisite provides essential information on the Expo pavilions, events and news as well as a practical visitors' guide specially written for English speakers. It is faster and more convenient to use than the official site, which is more lavishly illustrated with richer multimedia features but runs very slow on some outdated computers.

The home page of the minisite features a flash-based interactive map of the Expo site developed by new media department designers Zhang Rui, Shen Xinyi and Li Hualiang (a.k.a. Xiao Bai). Shen elaborated the map by literally depicting all the pavilions on an empty Expo site plan. Zhang and Li worked as Flash coders and provided the application with satisfactory functionality and usability.

A user can view an information card of a pavilion by clicking on the pavilion depicted on the map. A foldable pavilion browser panel superimposed on the right portion of the map also enables a user to quickly locate a pavilion by selecting the pavilion's name from a list with several filter options.

By clicking "View Details" button on a pavilion's information card, one can access a full page devoted to that pavilion which includes description, photos and related events. The minisite now exhibits 149 separate pavilion pages to form a "Pavilion" section, in which a user can browse through all the pavilions like a photo gallery. More information are being uploaded.

The other exclusive feature on the minisite is the "Transport" and "Guide & Tips" sections. These include articles compiled from first-hand materials collected by new media department's vanguard reporters who braved the crowds of the first few days of the Expo's test operation. They cover various means of transport to visit the Expo including Metro, bus, taxi and ferry services, travel inside the site as well as information on dining and performances.

The minisite is also accessible from ShanghaiDaily.com's home page. Visible to the right of the Metro section is a small portal of the minisite, which has links to today's events and the transport guide and offers a featured pavilion every day. Live information on the number of visitors to the Expo site will also be available on the portal after the opening of the Expo.

The content of the minisite is synchronized with that of Shanghai Daily's application on iPhone. For more information about the app, go to xpo.sh/apple.

Hope you enjoy our service.

The new media department devoted the past three months on the research, design and production of the site, which has been conceived as a breakthrough extension of the Shanghai Daily Hangzhou Special pages launched a year ago.

The end product is an engaging, user-friendly portal that offers information on government, news, tourism, dining, events, entertainment and even a brief history in clear, concise English.

Work included checking out transport options, visiting tourist sites, tasting food, brainstorming on design, researching and even walking around West Lake on a rainy day to see if the wet, misted scenery is as beautiful as locals claim.

If you are curious about this city that dates back 5,000 years or just want to find out about local happenings, stop by the Website while surfing the Net.

Homepage of www.hicenter.cn

At this English portal, visitors can immerse themselves in the legends surrounding the scenic West Lake. Discover how literati and statesmen Bai Juyi (772-846 AD) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and Su Dongpo (1037-1101) of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), contributed to the revival of West Lake. Learn about the great General Yue Fei of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) who was executed on false charges by the treacherous Minister Qin Hui. Appreciate the famous love between scholar Xu Xian and the White Snake Spirit, Bai Suzhen.

The Website gives detailed transport information to help visitors get around. This includes getting to Hangzhou by plane, train, coach or cab and getting around the city using public transport. It even provides prices for boat rides on the lake. Website maps pinpoint scenic sites and bicycle rental kiosks.

It isn't difficult to plan an excursion on a rented bicycle or visit islands in the lake.

City Guide section of www.hicenter.cn

For visitors and foreigners living in Hangzhou, there is a wealth of information on dining, sports, nightlife, services and education. The Website lists fitness centers and swimming pools, as well as reputable learning centers for language classes. The education section includes international schools and kindergartens for expats with families.

If you're out of ideas on dining or want to try something new, check out the Website's dining section for numerous restaurants and cafes, featuring local delicacies as well as international cuisine. Hangzhou is a cosmopolitan place to wine and dine.

The city's culinary specialties are famous, not only flavorful but filled with juicy folklore. In the Hangzhou Chinese Dining section, visitors can find reviews of restaurants serving traditional local cuisine and read about some of the dishes in the City Guide section. Don't miss Dongpo Pork - you're tasting more than 900 years of history.

The Hangzhou English Website provides local news and daily updates, in keeping with the HI Center's function as a press center for reporters nationwide and worldwide.

In addition, Hangzhou International Information houses the West Lake Expo Museum; it is built on the original site of the 1929 Industrial Exhibition Hall.

Website visitors can learn about the 1929 trade exposition held at the West Lake for 137 days, attracting more than 20 million visitors. They can learn how Hangzhou silk merchant Xu Rongcun became the first Chinese to take part in the 1851 Great Exhibition in Britain (the world's first Expo) and take home gold and silver medals for his prized "Yungkee Huzhou Silk."

With an increasing number of news Websites offering high-definition photos, our team members have long been thinking of developing a gallery, providing our readers with pictures of unprecedented clarity and detail on our site.

By using existing applications developed for our special coverage mini-sites as a foundation, web designer Li Hualiang a.k.a. Xiaobai designed a brand-new HD Photo Gallery application, code-named "Alibaba," since he misread his own crabbed handwriting of the word "Album."

The new HD Photo Gallery application features playback of high-definition slideshows with a self-defined interval between two photos. Set on a black background, the gallery is clear and easy to use and can also be viewed in full-screen mode.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

The Live in Shanghai team has quickly responded to this delightful accomplishment by incorporating the latest information on the two new lines and the real-time display system to the Website's Metro section.

Check the page (http://live.shanghaidaily.com/guide_metro.asp) for a first glimpse of this massive upgrade of Shanghai's Metro.

The full email is attached below:

Good morning!

I daily receive, and enjoy reading, your fine newspaper via the Kindle electronic edition.  I enjoy keeping up with matters in your vibrant city as well as in your lovely country.

I have found particularly interesting the comments by your columnist in America; his other culture perspectives are interesting and, from my perspective, often reflect my own amazement and discouragement at aspects of America's culture.

Yesterday's column, featuring a discussion of the degradation of our environment was particularly good.

Two responses:

First, many of us in this country are still privileged to live "close to the land and its creatures."  In Iowa, one of our principal economic investments is agriculture, not just the farming of the land but all of the infrastructure supports necessary for healthy food and good harvests.  In Bellevue, we live right on the Mississippi River, so fishing and wildlife also play an important part in our daily routines.

I wish to extend an invitation to your newspaper to have your person in America visit us here in Bellevue.  He could stay with my wife and myself for the duration of his visit, and it would give him -- and your readers -- an insight into another side of America.  I have listed my contact information below, should you be interested.

Second, as I know you are familiar, he negative impacts of industrialization which have scarred the United States in so many ways are also harming China's soil, water and air.  It makes it even more urgent that we find ways to work together to minimize such injury to our beautiful planet, while ensuring that our citizens enjoy good food and healthy lives.

Thank you for your fine newspaper!

Peace and continued best wishes,

Greg Cusack

We are pleased to receive such a fervent response from a reader of the Kindle edition, which was launched in May 2008 as the first Asian newspaper published on Amazon Kindle. Visit Shanghai Daily's Kindle edition on Amazon for more details and comments here:

http://www.amazon.com/Shanghai-Daily/dp/B0016LG8QW

One of our newcomers this year, metro reporter Zha Minjie, shared the Best Stories Award with feature writer Yao Minji.

Zha covered a successful breaking news report with the story "3 crew die in cargo plane crash" (A2, Nov.29). Zha rushed to Pudong International airport immediately after learning about the accident for spot interviews on a Saturday morning, and arrived back with fresh first-hand quotes and vivid descriptions.

Yao did a good job in offering an interesting topic just perfect for Chinese Single's Day together with detailed and clear writing in "When guys and gals share a flat" (C2, Nov. 11).

News writers Wang Xiang, another newcomer to the newsroom, shared the Best Translated Stories with Li Xinran.

Wang grabbed the award with his well-organized story "Gas giants lift output as supply runs short," while Li provided an in-depth analysis and timely follow-ups for "Soccer officials face match-fixing inquiry."

Best Page of the month went to "Disneyland in Pudong" (A4-5, Nov. 5), with stories by Zha Minjie, Cao Qian, Lu Feiran and Xuwei, and design by Chen Jie and Li Xiaoying for a well-coordinated sidebar story package for major news with exquisite and eye-catching design.

In order to reduce loading time on GPRS network, the mobile edition has been designed as a lite text-based version of ShanghaiDaily.com. Users accessing ShanghaiDaily.com with mobile phones are automatically redirected to the mobile edition.

However, users of advanced phones with large screens like iPhone have a desire to view the full site, and the development of mobile networks has made the display of a full multimedia site on a mobile phone increasingly possible.

Therefore, the online department added an easily clickable link to the full version on the mobile version's page to enable users to view ShanghaiDaily.com as it is on a computer monitor.

The best story for September went to feature writers Yao Minji and Xu Wei for their story "Half and half, Chinese and Western, get best of both worlds" (September 18) - which was praised for its interesting topic, solid interviewing and good writing.

The best page award for September was shared by the special National Day Guide and Expo Shanghai Newsletter.

"A guide book to the National Day celebration" (September 30, A9), which detailed information on the celebration and parade with an eye-catching page design in vivid colors, was written by reporters from the Metro department and designed by Chen Jie. Our Website designers and online team also contributed to the page.

The Expo Shanghai Newsletter, produced by Shanghai Daily, is the current weekly four-page official newsletter of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination. Shanghai Daily has published the weekly, formerly bi-weekly, newsletter since September.

The best picture of the month went to photographer Dong Jun. He captured the dynamic moment when China's Olympic champion Liu Xiang returned to the track at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix (September 21, A1, B16). 

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Following the launch of Shanghaidaily.com V5.0, the online department received constant complaints that the website did not display properly in Mozilla Firefox Browser.

One user, unable to view the website using Firefox without the layout getting all jumbled up, was so disappointed that he considered the revamp "a step backward rather than a move forward."

We apologize for this issue, which was due to very short testing time caused by tight schedule. We aim to make the website look better and function better and we realize that every step forward would not have been possible were it not for the help and support from our users.

The site is considered "V5.0" because it is the fifth version of Shanghai Daily's Website. The first one was a totally fee-based Website that offered subscribers PDF file downloading services. The second version was launched around October 2005 and the next design, Version 3.0, was officially launched on January 1, 2007. The fourth version, which had been thoroughly revamped, was put into use on May 1, 2008. The current version, improved from the fourth version, was launched in October 2009.

The new version differs little from the previous one structurally, but graphically it has taken a new approach. Text blocks now look more compact and images have been enlarged. Each section has its own color identity to better stand out.

Some new functional features include:

Mobile Newspaper

Mobile phone users in Shanghai are able to receive Shanghai Daily mobile newspaper every morning. The mobile newspaper focuses on top news in Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta and other provinces in China to feature a wide variety of local news and practical services messages with Expo coverage as its highlights. News in the mobile paper also has Chinese abstracts.

The mobile newspaper will be issued once a day in morning editions, 3 yuan a month. No GPRS fee will be charged for receiving the MMS newspaper. Forward the newspaper or click through URLs contained in the newspaper might trigger GPRS charges.
 
Mobile Browser Version

This is a WAP-style fast-loading version of ShanghaiDaily.com, optmized for mobile phone users with GPRS connections.

For more information on ShanghaiDaily.com V5.0, please see About Us.

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Energy, Real Estate, Food & Beverage, Cosmetics and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

The selected student reporters will have the opportunity to cover various events and activities at the 2010 World Expo and interview celebrities from all over the world and work with senior reporters.

Both Chinese and foreign students studying in Shanghai, aged under 16, are eligible.

The reporters will get free training in either English or Chinese.

The four-day training program, presented by reporters, editors and news experts, will cover news writing and editing, photography, illustration and page layout. Candidates will find out how a newsroom works.

The first round of training will start next Tuesday and the program will run till November.

Free training will also be offered to elementary- and middle-school teachers to help their students understand newspapers.

Candidates can get more information and apply online at http://www.dfdaily.com/club/.

Application form: http://www.dfdaily.com/application/exponewspaper/
Telephone: 5292-1569, 6247-4264

Shanghai Daily unveiled its monthly "Best Stories" and "Best Pages" awards yesterday.

The best stories of June went to metro reporter Cai Wenjun, business reporter Zhu Shenshen and feature writer Yao Minji.

Cai had an exclusive with her story headlined: "HIV grows rapidly among city men who have sex with men" (June 19, A2), which was widely cited by media and Internet bulletins. Cai attended a scientific education lecture and managed to collect enough material that authorities normally are reluctant to disclose to raise social concerns.

Yao and Zhu developed their own idea into the feature story "Telling pigs from porn: Problems with anti-porn software" (June 23, C4-5), which focused on the green-dam software. It was a very timely and in-depth story with resourceful and interesting sidebars. It was critical, yet well balanced and offered a nice read.

The best page of June went to Sunday's Style column (June 23, B4-5), which showed and commented on celebrities walking the red carpet on the opening night of the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival, written by Zhang Yi and designed by Fu Rong.

The best visual art of the month was shared by our illustrator Zhou Tao and the whole new version of "Live in Shanghai" website (live.shanghaidaily.com).

Zhou created an interesting Scope cover (June 3) combining animation characters together in a classroom of "Olympic math."

Website designers Zhu Moqing, Li Hualiang, Zhang Rui and Shen Xinyi were mainly involved in the "Live in Shanghai" project. 

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Auto, Air, Retail, Energy, Real Estate and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

May's "Best Story" and "Best Page" awards were announced today.

The Best Story award was shared by Business reporters Leo Zhang, Zhang Fengming, and Winny Wang and Metro reporters Cai Wenjun, Liang Yiwen and Lu Feiran.

Reporters from the Business department produced in-depth coverage on the Lujiazui Forum for four consecutive days with abundant and authoritative information, says Zhu Huanian, Shanghai Daily Deputy Editor-in-chief.

A series of Metro stories about a young boy from a poor family coming to Shanghai for treatment of a life-threatening disease with his sister offering a bone marrow transplant was well organized: "Donor girl lost as boy awaits cure" (A2, May 22), "Boy sent home as search continues" (A5, May 23), "Donor girl ran in fear of her mom" (A2, May 26) and "Singapore benefactor meets stem cell transplant siblings" (A4, May 27). The reporters made big efforts to keep the stories vivid and readable, said Shanghai Daily Deputy Editor-in-chief Wu Zheng.

The Best Page went to an Expo Insight page (A4-5, May 1), which detailed, with a lively layout, a one day route around the Expo site on the occasion of the one-year countdown to the event – it was written by Yang Jian and designed by Li Xiaoying.

The Best Translated Story was Li Xinran's "Local men pass test on panty washings" (A2, May 19). It was not an easy job for Li to display the good writing skills in this story with limited resources and time, said J.J Jiang, our managing deputy editor-in-chief.

Feature writer Yao Minji and photographer Wang Rongjiang won a special assignment award for their brilliant performances for the anniversary coverage of the Sichuan Earthquake.

The issue has 8 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Metal, Property, Consumer, Nanhui-Pudong Merger, Energy and Auto, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

April's "Best Story" and "Best Page" awards were announced yesterday.

The Best Story award was shared by feature writer Yao Minji, biz chief Leo Zhang and metro writer Liang Yiwen.

Yao's series of Hangzhou stories about Kui Yuan Guan (C5, April 3), Su Xiaoxiao (C7, April 9), and the Xiling Seal Engraving Society (C7, April 7) gave her a definite edge. "Min-G's writing combined her personal experiences and made the story vivid and impressive," said Zhang Hong, our deputy editor-in-chief.

Zhang and Liang's story "City plans new equity exchange to help boost high-tech startups" (A2, April 28) was a scoop for the "over the counter stock" market. "Metro reporter Liang has made big efforts to get exclusive business news from a government document and conducted solid interviews," said Shanghai Daily Deputy Editor-in-chief Zhu Huanian.

The Best Page went to a feature page (C1-3, April 1), which showed how people worked in a funeral parlor, written by Lu Feiran, designed by Li Xiaoying; and a biz page (B2, April 17), with a graphic showing a clear explanation of statistics, designed by Chen Jie.

"Thanks to Chen Jie's ideas for the funeral parlor story and a set of touching photos by photographer Wang Rongjiang, the page had a fresh and impressive look", said J.J Jiang, our managing deputy editor-in-chief.

The Best Translated Story was Chen Xingjie's "Parents' march calls attention to lost children" (A2, April 17).

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Finance, Property, Health Care, Air, Technology, Energy, Conference and Auto, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Shanghai Daily has become an active media source on twitter!

Twitter is one of the most popular social networking services and has a huge number of online participants who send and read each others’ updates which are called "tweets.” Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them.

Shanghai Daily posts several tweets a day from Monday to Saturday on http://twitter.com/shanghaidaily, covering the major stories in our newspaper with a shortened URL to the full news stories on shanghaidaily.com.

The number of our followers (tweet subscribers) is growing steadily. Many actively follow our news reports and communicate with us via twitter. We welcome any questions and feedback, especially during this swine flu outbreak. Just type your thoughts and “re-tweet” us. 

We have also created a citylisting account on twitter (http://twitter.com/citylisting), which is connected to our lifestyle sub-site live.shanghaidaily.com via an external twitterfeed application. Anyone who wants to advertise can send their classified ads directly within twitter.com and after approval they will be published.

On Shanghaidaily.com, we have canceled the auto-refresh function of the “latest news” box on the front page, for it may interrupt some users surfing. The “latest news” page will refresh every five minutes.

March's "Best Story" and "Best Page" awards were announced today.

The Best Story award was shared by feature writer Yao Minji and opinion writer Wan Lixin.

Yao's story "'I push myself to do even better than men in a male-dominated field'" (March 7, C2) was about women with "cool" jobs under the International Women's Day theme which fell on March 8. "It was a timely story with very interesting examples. Yao Minji did lots of work and research to find the sources. And nice writing!" said Shanghai Daily Deputy Editor-in-chief Zhu Huanian.

Wan contributed an interview with the Nobel Economic Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz. Wan's depth of knowledge and background in economics and his insightful questions led to a high-quality opinion story "Growing economic inequality lies at root of global crisis." (March 17, A6)

The Best Page went to A1, March 13, which used headlines, a graphic and a table to show the 2009 Forbes ranking, and Sunday's double-page "2009's A to Z for femme fashion," story by Michelle Zhang, designed by Fu Rong and Wang Jia.

The Best Translated Story was Li Xinran's "Water-pumped meat widely sold for two decades." (March 13) Li consolidated materials from various sources into a solid news story.

Like all other search engines, to search for a particular phrase, one has to put quotation marks " " around the phrase. Simply typing a phrase in the search box may end up with results containing either of the words in the phrase.

A reminder has now been inserted in the search box to prompt the use of quotation marks.

The issue has 8 sections: NPC/CPPCC, Finance, Property, Technology, Logistics, Textile, Steel and Air, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Sample pages of Hangzhou Special

To show the world a thriving and dynamic Hangzhou, Shanghai Daily yesterday inaugurated its Hangzhou Special page in the capital of Zhejiang Province known as the "tourism heaven." The page is now available to all Shanghai Daily readers Mondays through Fridays.

The page aims at display Hangzhou's abundant tourism resources and sound investment environment with vivid pictures and stories in an all round way.

Song Chao, director-general of the Shanghai Municipal Information Office, said at the ceremony that it was a conducive trial between Shanghai Daily, a young and innovative newspaper, and Hangzhou, an old city with a history of more than 2,200 years.

“I believe sparkles of joy will come into being between the two sides,” Song said. “With World Expo Shanghai 2010 being around the corner, I hope Hangzhou Special page can take the opportunity of the Expo, endeavoring to strengthen international communication of both cities.''

The page's highlights include the city's economic development, urban planning, full tourism strategies, history, culture and interesting people. Expats can find practical guide in life and tourism in the city.

Since last October, the two parties had jointly published supplements for Hangzhou West Lake International Expo and were well-received. Hangzhou Special page was then published for the first time on March 2.

Zhang Ciyun, editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily, said Hangzhou Special page is bound to attract more visitors from home and abroad to travel and live in Hangzhou, serving as an efficient platform to conduct foreign exchanges.

After months of assessment, ShanghaiDaily.com yesterday celebrated winning an award from the local Internet association for excellence again.

ShanghaiDaily.com was one of only six local news Websites selected for awards.

Although many Chinese Websites like to use sensational stories and graphic pictures to attract more traffic, the guideline for ShanghaiDaily.com has been, and will continue to be, making quality news its priority, and this is the key to long-term success.

A lot of hard work is needed to create something worthy of these awards.

"I'm glad that we grabbed the honor again," said Martin Guo, the editor of the online department of Shanghai Daily.

"The praise for our past efforts will encourage us to meet more challenges in the future," he said. "We will try our best to achieve a profitable and efficient development. And we will offer an even better service for our readers in the next few months."

Eleven people were killed and 20 hurt after an explosion destroyed a construction dormitory in Jiangsu Province on March 11. An initial investigation showed that the blast was triggered by the ignition of leftover aluminum powder.

Peter offered us a link to “4-Working Safely with Aluminum Powder” on the Website of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety.

The guide explains the dangers associated with aluminum powder (uncoated) and other safety issues.

Shanghai Daily welcomes feedback and discussion from our readers and thanks Peter for his contribution.

The issue has 5 sections: Cover Story, Finance, Retail, Auto and Real Estate, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Mobile phone users used to complain about the huge homepage of ShanghaiDaily.com, which not only takes time to display but also causes big data flow on which fee is based in many packages.

The mobile version simplifies the page structure of the Web version, fully cutting down the page size while retaining all the news content.

It's more than an RSS feed in that it represents a miniaturized version of the full Website rather than merely a list of links to the full website.

Currently the mobile version only supports browsing functions and only stories of the recent two days are available.

Subscription-based news archives and search function are yet to be extended to the mobile version. They are under development and will be incorporated in the near future.

The newsroom yesterday received chocolates in egg-shaped covers with the name of our deputy editor-in-chief Wu Zheng. It is a Chinese tradition family to give out eggs after having a baby. Wu gave birth to a boy on February 12.

But he is not the first Shanghai Daily baby born this year. On February 10, writer Chen Qian had her first baby, also a boy.

Both of the mothers had caesarians. Wu was back home early this week.

Wu's boy weighed 2.7 kilograms and Chen had a 4-kilogram "big" boy.

Wu named her boy Cheng Yuntao (程允韬). “He works hard at sleeping and eating,” Wu told the newsroom with an SMS. The boy looks more like his father, according to our HR Wu Jingling who visited mom and baby.

Chen has yet to name her baby. The boy's father is a policeman also surnamed Chen.

Shanghai Daily congratulates the new moms.

Shanghai Daily's "Best Story" and "Best Page" Awards for January were announced last Friday.

"All of the nominated Best Story reports were of a high quality. However, they were all competing with the scoop we were most proud of," said Shanghai Daily Editor-in-Chief Zhang Ciyun.

That scoop, one of the two winners of the best story award for last month, was the Metro crime story headlined "Nanny slices baby girl on chopping block" (A2, January 15) by metro reporters Cai Wenjun, Dong Hui, Xu Fang and intern Weng Lingling. The story attracted attention around the world with more than 80 newspapers and news agencies picking up Shanghai Daily's scoop, including The Associated Press and CCTV.

IT reporter Zhu Shenshen's report of China's launch of the 3G licenses (A2 January 8) shared the "Best Story" honor. His main story together with informative Q&As explained the news and just how 3G technology would change our lives.

The Best Page went to two different styles of page design — "A tale of two poets" (Scope, January 19) with a classic and historical feel and "Dial up digital savings" (Sunday, January 11) with a simple modernity.

The Best Translated Story was Li Xinran's "Fears for Deng's life on US trip." He added a great deal more background information than was published in the original Chinese story.

Our technician has inserted some code so that the list alone refreshes automatically every five minutes and no other parts of the pages are influenced. You can now stay on the homepage for a while and read brand-new headlines without doing anything.

The issue has 3 sections: Cover Story, Year-end and Preview serie and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Metro reporter Cai Wenjun happened to hear people talking about a tragedy when she was in line to see her dentist at Shanghai No. 9 People's Hospital on January 14. People were talking about a 20-month-old baby receiving treatment at the hospital because her nanny repeatedly slashed her with a kitchen knife on a cutting board.

Cai thought it was so important that she reacted as quickly as possible.

Weng Lingling, a Metro intern, rushed to the hospital as soon as she got the phone call from Cai. Weng asked people for first-hand information about the case and took pictures. Weng also found out more details from the kid’s parents and doctors.

Cai then wrote the story based on the information Weng collected. Another two Metro reporters, Xu Fang and Dong Hui, also contributed to the article by interviewing the officials and police in charge of the case in Nanhui District.

The scoop was quoted by more than 80 media around the world including The Associated Press. All cited Shanghai Daily and Weng’s picture.

The story was also covered by oriental Morning Post and was picked up by Sina.com, one of China’s biggest portals.

Our foreign expert and polisher Dave Osterhout said: “It was our scoop and all the reporters and editors involved did a good job. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t give all the reporters credit in the paper because of the limited space, so we only used ‘staff reporters.’ ”

Osterhout also mentioned there were two other exclusive stories from the business department last week and he thinks Shanghai Daily will have more scoops in the future.

1.   Edison Chen to quit after sex picture scandal
By Lydia Chen  |   2008-2-21  |   National

The racy scandal broke in early 2008, sparking a media frenzy in the Chinese-speaking world. Hong Kong singer and actor Edison Chen quit the Hong Kong entertainment industry after admitting he took raunchy celebrity pictures that showed him posing in bed with several other female starlets.

2.   Crane collapse kills 3 in Pudong
By Yang Jian  |   2008-5-30  |    Metro

The two 600-ton gantry cranes at a shipbuilding company in Shanghai's Pudong New Area collapsed, killing three workers and injuring two others.

3.   Usain Bolt sets 100-meter world record
Source:  Agencies  |   2008-6-1  |   Sports

Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter, set the world record with a time of 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium in New York.

4.   Alleged HK celebrity sex photos create a stir
By Lydia Chen  |   2008-1-31  |   National

Hong Kong police said they have retrieved the IP addresses of more than 30 Internet users who allegedly posted nude pictures of actor and singer Edison Chen with female stars. The nude photo scandal shocked the Chinese-speaking world.

5.   Shanghai feels impact of earthquake in Sichuan
By Lydia Chen  |   2008-5-12  |   Metro

A strong quake rocked Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, on the afternoon of May 12, and the temblor was felt thousands of kilometers away in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

6.   Lightning strikes as man takes oath
By Yang Li  |   2008-8-29  |   Odd

In a bizarre incident, a man in eastern China was struck by lightning just as he lifted an iron bar over his head to swear that god would punish him if he had taken money from his friend.

7.   Travel services crippled as freeze turns deadly
By Xiao Long  |   2008-1-29  |   Metro

Shanghai's biggest snow storm in 24 years is making an unforgettable and expensive impression. Planes, trains, automobiles, power and food supplies, medical emergencies, collapsed buildings and frustrated would-be holiday-makers ...

8.   Police wade in as sex-video girl achieves vast notoriety
By Dong Hui  |   2008-11-17  |   Metro

A 12-minute video of a couple having sex has appeared online. The young woman in the clip has been fired from her job as a sales assistant for Kappa, an Italian sportswear brand. The keywords relating to the case soon rank high on China's search engines.

9.   Debate stirs over UFO photograph
By Chen Qian  |   2008-6-23  |   National

A man claimed he had taken a photograph of an unidentified flying object in Chongqing, which then raises a heat debate.

10.   Travelers rush to buy tickets as snow stops
By Dong Zhen and Dong Hui  |   2008-1-31  |   Metro

Flights, trains and coach shuttle services largely returned to normal after weather conditions improved after Shanghai's biggest snow in 24 years.

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Edison Chen to quit after sex picture scandal
By Lydia Chen  |   2008-2-21  |   National

HONG Kong singer and actor Edison Chen said today that he will leave the Hong Kong entertainment industry after admitting he took the raunchy celebrity pictures that showed him posing in bed with several other female entertainment stars.

The 27-year-old actor made his first public appearance this afternoon after returning to Hong Kong from the United States. He has been accused of avoiding the public and the media due to the nude picture scandal that broke in late January.

"I've decided to step away from the Hong Kong entertainment industry," Chen, who was wearing a black suit, told more than 300 reporters at a news conference at Hong Kong Kowloon Bay International Trade & Exhibition Centre at 3pm today.

He said in a brief statement in English that he would fulfill existing commitments before stepping down "indefinitely."

The Canada-born Chinese admitted he snapped most of the more than 800 nude pictures that have circulated on the Internet. The nude photos show him with dozens of female celebrities, including singer Gillian Chung and actress Cecilia Cheung.

The scandal has created a media frenzy and heated discussions on BBS communities both in Hong Kong and on the mainland since the scandal broke.

Some Internet users shared the raunchy pictures by e-mail or posting them on other Websites.

Hong Kong police said last week some 1,300 private shots of Chen in bed with at least half a dozen female celebrities had been copied by employees of a computer repair shop from a faulty laptop believed to belong to Chen.

"I'm sorry to those ladies and their families," Chen said. "And most of all, I feel sorry for Hong Kong people.

"These photos were very private and have not been shown to people and were never intended to be shown to anyone," Chen said in a calm voice amid a flood of camera flashes from the hundreds of reporters gathered.

He said he will perform charity work in the next few months "to heal his injuries and soul" before stepping away as he has "decided to do this to give myself an opportunity to heal myself and to search my soul.

"I have failed as a role model. However I wish that this matter will teach everyone a lesson.

"I hope the scandal can be over as soon as possible and prevent more young people from further injuries," Chen said.

"I beg your forgiveness in the future," he added as he concluded his five-minute statement.

He also added that he had been staying with his family and was not running away from the scandal.

Chen played the lead role in the second film of the trilogy "Internal Affairs," the biggest box office draw ever in Hong Kong's movie industry. The film was later adapted by Hollywood director Martin Scorsese and renamed "The Departed."

He previously apologized via an Internet video on February 4.

Chung, previously known for her squeaky-clean image in the popular female duo Twins, apologized to the public when she made her first public appearance last Tuesday. She admitted that "she used to be na?ve and very silly."

Police on the mainland said they have launched a nationwide online crackdown to delete the pornographic pictures and pledged to close any Websites that posted the photographs.

In the southern city of Shenzhen, police have apprehended 10 suspects for allegedly producing, selling and purchasing discs of the photos while in Hong Kong, up to 10 people were detained for spreading the pictures.

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Crane collapse kills 3 in Pudong
By Yang Jian  |   2008-5-30  |    Metro

THREE workers were killed and two others were injured this morning when two big cranes collapsed at a shipbuilding company in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, the city's work safety authority said today.

The two 600-ton gantry cranes at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group fell apart shortly after midnight today while lifting cargo, the Shanghai Safety Production and Supervision Administration said.

The injured men were sent to hospital, the administration said, without giving any details about their condition.

The administration has dispatched a team to investigate the accident.

Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group at No. 2851 Pudong Avenue is a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, the country's main ship manufacturer.

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Usain Bolt sets 100-meter world record
Source:  Agencies  |   2008-6-1  |   Sports

LIKE a bolt out of nowhere, Usain Bolt is the world's fastest man.

The Jamaican sprinter, who doesn't even consider the 100 meters his best race, set the world record with a time of 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix yesterday, .02 seconds faster than the old record held by his countryman, Asafa Powell.

Bolt was using the 100 for "speed work" and to avoid having to run the more grueling 400, when, suddenly, he ran the world's second-fastest time last month at 9.76. Even then, he said he wasn't sure if he would give up the 400 meters for the 100 for the Beijing Olympics.

Hard to imagine he has any choice now.

Unfurling his lanky frame -- listed at 1.93 meters, but probably more like 1.95 and, either way, considered too tall for this kind of speed work -- he created a big-time gap between himself and Tyson Gay at about the halfway point, then routed him to the finish line.

Gay, the best sprinter in America, finished in 9.85.

Within moments of crossing the finish line, the 21-year-old from Kingston was hoisting the Jamaican flag and a crowd with hundreds of Jamaican fans was going wild.

"Just coming here, knowing a lot of Jamaicans were here giving me their support, it meant a lot," Bolt said. "I just wanted to give them what they wanted."

But who could have expected this?

Bolt has long been considered one of his country's top, up-and-coming sprinters, but his height and running style seemed to make him much more fit for the 200 and 400.

Like so many who compete in the 100, Bolt had lots of work to do with his push out of the blocks. He doesn't consider himself a true pro at that. And after a bad false start by the field -- the second gun didn't go off until the runners were 20 meters down the track -- this simply didn't seem like a night for world records.

But it was.

"He ran a perfect race," Gay said. "I've got to take my hat off to him."

"An awesome athlete," said Shawn Crawford, who finished sixth and witnessed history from two lanes inside of Bolt. "The time shows it."

This marked the first time the record had been set in the United States since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, when Donovan Bailey ran a 9.84.

A lot is often said about Olympic trials in the United States -- that given the depth of the roster, it can be an even better meet than the actual Olympics. But face it, the highlight of the pre-Olympic calendar could now be the Jamaican nationals at the end of June, when Bolt and Powell should square off. Powell, who set the mark of 9.74 last September in Italy, is overcoming a chest injury but is expected to be healthy soon.

Also at the Jamaican nationals will be Veronica Campbell-Brown, who won the women's 100 yesterday in 10.91, the fastest time of 2008.

The fastest time ever, though, now belongs to Bolt, and it made a prophet out of Gay, who predicted that with himself, Bolt and Powell lining up against each other over these next few months, the record could go down, down, down.

The conditions were right.

The start of the meet was delayed by an hour because of threatening storms in the area. Then, about halfway through, a brief thunderstorm hit, cooling the track and leaving it with just the faintest sheen of glistening moisture before the last, and most-anticipated, race of the night. The tailwind was measured at 1.7 meters-per-second, .3 under the limit at which a record can be set.

After his victory, Bolt paraded around with the Jamaican flag, accepted a hug from Gay, then went off to do interviews. Race organizers, knowing they'd get a big Jamaican fanbase out at Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island, had scheduled a post-meet reggae concert for the crowd of about 6,000.

And what a perfect choice that was on this history making night.

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Alleged HK celebrity sex photos create a stir
By Lydia Chen  |   2008-1-31  |   National

HONG Kong police said they have retrieved the IP addresses of more than 30 Internet users who allegedly posted nude pictures of a local actor and actress in bed, shocking the city's entertainment industry, China News Service reported today.

The report cited Hong Kong media as saying that police in the special administrative region has already required several locally-registered Websites and BBS management firms to submit information about their clients. Police suspect the clients leaked the obscene.

The picture of a man, who looks like 28-year-old Hong Kong actor Edison Chan, and a woman, suspected to be actress Gillian Chung, 27, was posted on a Hong Kong Website early this week. It soon became a massive draw among Internet users across the country.

More than 100 police officers have been sent to investigate the case and police warned local Websites that they should delete the pictures at once as they have the responsibility to stop crimes, the report said.

The police department held a meeting this week with more than 200 people who are responsible for major Hong Kong Websites and BBS communities, the report added.

The picture, which is shot in dark light, showed both naked on a hotel bed.

The Emperor Group, the agency of both Chan and Chung, denied the couple in the picture were its artists and said the pictures were faked. The firm said it will seek a lawsuit against those behind the "fake" pictures.

Chan played a role in "Internal Affairs," the top box office draw ever in Hong Kong's film industry. The film was later adapted by Hollywood director Martin Scorsese as "The Departed."

Chung is a member of the most popular female singing group Twins along with Charlene Choi.

The report quoted an unnamed detective on the case who said that the pictures may have been taken with a cell phone camera.

Chung is said to have a fever and won't leave her home because of the picture scandal while Chan has flown to his birthplace in Canada to "visit his mother," according to a story by Sina.com today.

Chan and Chung were said to be dating in 2001.

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Shanghai feels impact of earthquake in Sichuan
By Lydia Chen  |   2008-5-12  |   Metro

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan Province at 2:28pm today and the temblor was felt thousands of kilometers away in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

The strong quake rocked Wenchuan County, which is less than 100 km from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or damage.

The earthquake, centered 92 km northwest of Chengdu, was felt as far away as Beijing and Shanghai, where office buildings swayed due to the powerful earthquake.

The Sichuan temblor caused a 3.9-magnitude earthquake in Beijing's Tongzhou District at 2:35pm, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the China Earthquake Administration.

Shanghai Daily reporters and other staff members were caught by surprise this afternoon when they felt their 38th floor office move on Weihai Road in Jing'an District.

"I felt dizzy for a few seconds and at first thought it was just me," said Marc Tessier, 37, a copy editor at Shanghaidaily.com. "A couple of interns then asked me if I felt the building move. It was strange and a bit scary. I never felt a building move before."

People got up from their desks and were talking excitedly, and nervously. Some colleagues even left the building, Tessier said.

The copy editor said he asked a reporter to start making some phone calls right away to find out what happened.

It was a few minutes later that our reporter learned of the earthquake in Sichuan Province.

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Lightning strikes as man takes oath
By Yang Li  |   2008-8-29  |   Odd

IN a bizarre incident, a man in eastern China was struck by lightning just as he lifted an iron bar over his head to swear that god would punish him if he had taken money from his friend.

The man, who was identified as Xu, had borrowed 500 yuan (US$73.21) from a close friend surnamed Huang three years ago. Xu, who lived in Fuqing City, Fujian Province, later forgot all about it, according to a news Web portal in Fujian.

But Huang remembered and complained before other friends that Xu had taken money from him.

On Tuesday, Huang took a wooden rod and rushed to Xu's home asking him to return the money. Xu too confronted Huang with an iron bar and stood his ground.

Huang then told Xu that he should swear before god that he was not in his debt. Xu lifted the iron bar over his head and said if he owed Huang money, the god would punish him. Just then he was struck by lightning.

He was later taken to hospital, and doctors said his injuries were not serious.

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Travel services crippled as freeze turns deadly
By Xiao Long  |   2008-1-29  |   Metro

PLANES, trains, automobiles, power and food supples, medical emergencies, collapsed buildings and frustrated would-be holiday-makers ... Shanghai's biggest snow in 24 years is making an unforgettable and expensive impression.

There has already been one death after three days of snow and a heavy fall hit the city as Shanghai Daily went to press early this morning.

Most of the flights in and out of Pudong International Airport were delayed yesterday. Many domestic flights at Hongqiao Airport were also delayed or canceled.

It was all hands on deck as airport staff applied the hoses, brooms and shovels in a bid to clear the snow.

Thirteen buildings had caved in across the city up until last night. The single fatality occurred when a house collapsed in Jiading District.

Long-distance bus travel is at a standstill as major expressways out of Shanghai have been closed for safety reasons, stranding thousands of people trying to make it home for Spring Festival holidays, which officially begin on February 7.

Many turned to trains as a second choice but found no joy there either, with services canceled as at least 14 provinces - and rail lines - are blanketed in snow under blizzard conditions.

The city rail authority has stopped selling tickets for points both north and south.

And while the three-day fall is definitely the heaviest since 1984, city weather officials believe if it continues, the snow could be the biggest in the city since record-keeping began.

Shipping at the mouth of the Yangtze River has also been affected, with almost 100 vessels stranded.

Shanghai's power, gas and water supplies are under siege, with burst pipes, overload from air-conditioners and heaters and river coal supplies for electricity held up.

The Shanghai Medical Emergency Center has received 700 calls for ambulances each day since late last week.

Hospitals reported a huge increase in admissions. "The number of patients we saw injured after falls tripled ... we treated 40 for fractures, most of them young people going to work,'' said Dr Pan Shuming, of Xinhua Hospital's emergency department.

Even the post office is finding it hard to cope, with major delivery delays.

And just to add insult to injury, food prices are soaring.

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Police wade in as sex-video girl achieves vast notoriety
By Dong Hui  |   2008-11-17  |   Metro

POLICE are investigating the origins of a 12-minute sex video that caused a storm after it was circulated online.

The video shows a couple having sex. The young woman in the clip has been fired from her job as a sales assistant for Kappa, an Italian sportswear brand. The store fired her for "tarnishing its image."

The video first appeared online about a month ago. Yesterday, keywords relating to it ranked second among the fastest increasing top 10 keywords on Google China.

As the video gained notoriety, Netizens argued about the ethics of what she had done. There followed a "human flesh search engine" hunt for her, in which Internet users tracked down and published her private information such as her full name, the place she worked, photographs of her and even her user name on QQ, a popular Web messenger.

The video originally tagged the young woman as the "Kappa girl at Shanghai No.1 Department Store's east building," after the location of the shop where she worked on Nanjing Road. Fascinated Netizens visited the store with cameras, trying to get a picture of her.

The young woman was besieged with questions and abuse but chose to confront them by starting a blog earlier this month on sina.com in which she defended herself.

Hits on the blog rocketed.

Last Monday, two days after her first post, she was fired from her job. An executive with Shanghai No.1 Department Store said she was employed by an agent of Kappa, although they declined to verify her name.

The management said it was forced to sack her as the store's name and photographs popped up every time a search was entered for the sex video. This had harmed the store's reputation, they said.

The woman recently posted on her blog that she does not want another job. Instead she wants to take advantage of her online infamy to make money.

She wrote on her blog that she will give interviews and exclusive news for a fee of 30,000 yuan (US$4,396), claiming that any Website that posts information about her will greatly increase its hits.

When Shanghai Daily tried to contact the blogger, it was told to pay 30,000 yuan before asking any questions.

On her blog, she claims the video wasn't filmed or uploaded by her, but that she has now "accepted" the whole thing.

City lawyer Jiang Song told Shanghai Daily that any person who films, uploads or sends the video is guilty of spreading pornographic content. The video would be regarded as pornographic in the eyes of the law.

In her latest blog post, she says "the Internet has hurt me" and that she will seek the law's help to bring those who filmed and uploaded it to justice.

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Debate stirs over UFO photograph
By Chen Qian  |   2008-6-23  |   National

A HEATED debate has developed after a man claimed he had taken a photograph of an unidentified flying object on Saturday in Chongqing, Xinhuanet.com reported today.

He Zhongyuan claimed that a huge, oval-shaped UFO was flying in the sky that night, the report said. He said he was at Chaotianmen Square and shot the picture at about 8:47pm.

The UFO was green and yellow color, according to the report. It was bigger than half a football field and had many holes like doors and windows, according to the report.

Chaotianmen Square had a laser light show from 8:40pm to 9pm that night, the city's lighting authority said, according to the report.

Wu Zhilun, chairman of the Chongqing Astronomy Association, examined the UFO pictures and said it was probably an illusion. Wu told Xinhuanet that it was difficult to determine if He's photo was related to extra terrestrials.

He said he used a Sony F717 camera to take the photos.

``I took pictures at Chaotianmen Square for about one hour and didn't feel anything special,'' He told Xinhuanet.com. He spotted the UFO in four photos later that night when he went home. He showed Xinhuanet all 84 photos he took on Saturday.

Shanghai UFO Research Center confirmed the pictures were not altered. The director of the center said a team will begin to examine the photos to determine if the UFO is genuine, the report said.

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Travelers rush to buy tickets as snow stops
By Dong Zhen and Dong Hui  |   2008-1-31  |   Metro

AIR and road traffic conditions improved yesterday and railway tickets again became available, prompting a rush of travelers trying to leave Shanghai while they can.

Flights, trains and coach shuttle services largely returned to normal after weather conditions improved. However, forecasters have said the respite is only temporary.

Shanghai Railway Administration said short-distance trains and shuttles to the north had mostly returned to normal at the two local railway stations, and at some hub stations in neighboring Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.

Some services to the south and southwest still experienced delays.

"We are taking advantage of the short break from heavy snows to transport as many travelers as possible on busy lines,'' said an official, Tao Liping.

The railway authority resumed selling tickets for some routes yesterday but the sale of tickets for shuttles to Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan, as well as to Chengdu and Chongqing cities, was still suspended.

At Shanghai Railway Station yesterday, tired travelers who had suffered days of frustration finally had reason to smile.

Some passengers who had pre-purchased tickets for trips scheduled to leave in a few days were hoping to exchange them for tickets to leave as soon as possible.

A migrant woman named Huang explained: "We were going back to Anhui Province, but we've only got tickets for a trip leaving on Friday to nearby Nanjing.''

Huang's husband finally came back with tickets for a service to Bengbu City in Anhui that was due to leave in 30 minutes.

"Lucky we are leaving today,'' the husband said. "Snow will come again tomorrow. Price is not an issue to consider now.''

All provincial and local expressways were open for normal traffic by 4pm yesterday.

Transport planners have required coach operators to increase shuttles to popular destinations in Anhui, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces in recent days to take advantage of the improved weather. An extra 200 buses were placed on call.

"We have added more than 150 shuttles to leave today and the transport planners hope we can schedule more,'' said Zhang Yongbing, head of the city's general coach station.

"However, road traffic is still being interrupted by the weather. The condition of the highways, especially out of town, is still very unstable.

"This morning, some major provincial expressways were closed, which again delayed our schedules,'' Zhang said.

Air traffic at Hongqiao Airport largely returned to normal yesterday, but many flights were leaving behind schedule at Pudong International Airport, which also handles domestic flights.

The issue has 6 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy & Finance, Real Estate, Auto & Air, Technology and Metal & Paper, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Special gifts are given to our foreign experts for their hard work throughout the year.

The winners of the singing contest are awarded by Peter Zhang, editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily, and Miao Guoqin, party secretary of Wenhui-Xinmin Group.

Photographer Zhang Suoqing won a thrilling super prize in the lucky draw.

SHANGHAI Daily staff members, their family and friends, celebrated Christmas with musical performances and lucky draws at the Sheraton Hongqiao Hotel last Saturday.

A Shanghai Daily tradition, the annual Christmas Party is an event for colleagues to meet in a festive atmosphere, to celebrate the year's achievements and to prepare for next year's progress.

The party began with a presentation of the newspaper's achievements during the year after which a buffet was served.

Then everyone welcomed the final rounds of the year's Christmas singing contest.

The seven qualifiers from the preliminary competition on December 12 presented an interesting musical feast of diverse styles. They competed on Saturday with a self-chosen song in the first round to be among the three finalists.

The choice of songs was interesting. For example, Wu Jiayin from the Opinion Department selected a song familiar to colleagues sitting outside her office as it had been frequently heard through the door of her office. She displayed a mastery of the song but one of the three judges failed to pass her.

Only one singer won the three judges' approval to enter the final round. That was Zhu Moqing, aka Laozhu, from the Online Department, who demonstrated his versatile voice and wide repertoire in the theme song from the classic Japanese animation film "Laputa The Sky Castle."

The second round produced two more finalists, Lu Feiran from the Metro Department and Zhu Xiaoyu from the Paste-up Design Department.

The three finalists then competed by singing with distinctive interpretations the same prescribed song, "Tomorrow Will Be Better," a Chinese pop classic. Zhu Moqing was finally announced as the ultimate champion. Lu Feiran and Zhu Xiaoyu won second and third prizes respectively.

"It's a good opportunity for me to introduce some different music to my colleagues," said music enthusiast Zhu after being awarded the champion's medal by Miao Guoqing, party secretary of Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group.

Shanghai Daily staff were the beneficiaries of many gifts during the luncheon. Cui Zhijun from the Night Desk Department won the first prize, an LCD TV set worth 6,000 yuan, and Li Hualiang, aka Xiaobai, from the Online Department, won second prize, a three-day package tour to Hong Kong.

However there was a super prize yet to be awarded and it was a thrilling moment when it was announced at the end of the party.

Everybody held their breath and award-winning photographer Zhang Suoqing raised his Canon EOS 1D Mark III camera to record the moment.
 
To everybody's surprise, the winner was none other than the photographer himself. Colleagues rejoiced and congratulated Zhang, who put down his camera to pick up the prize, two tickets for a return flight to London.

Shanghai Daily's "Best Story" and "Best Page" Awards for November were announced yesterday.

As nominated reports were all very "strong," it was really a hard decision, according to Shanghai Daily Deputy Editor-in-Chief Wu Zheng.

The Best Story of the Month was shared by two package reports of the Metro and Business sections to encourage their quick response and in-depth reporting on the "Shanghai business school dorm fire" story on November 15 and the "20th International Business Leaders' Advisory Council" package on November 2.

As more departments joined the competition of Best Story of the Month, "the cake is now smaller and smaller," said J.J Jiang, our managing deputy editor-in-chief.

Yang Jian's "Expo worker" was the nominee for the Translation Department. The Metro's "City gas pipe explosion" story and Opinion's "Public intellectuals and vigorous debates are desperately needed" were also given serious consideration for the top prize.

The heated competition and high quality reporting pushed the judges to consider increasing the number of prizes to encourage reporters.

The Best Page of the Month went to the Sunday's City Scene on November 18 as it provided more concrete ways to express the content of the column.

Are you eager to stay trendy without burning a hole in your pocket this party season? Have you felt dazzled by those bold sales streamers fluttering in the streets? Now you can equip yourself with the hottest sales information by clicking the sales box on the front page of ShanghaiDaily.com before going out to shop till you drop.

ShanghaiDaily.com now selects useful sales information of either famous brands or major department stores citywide to serve as your ultimate shopping guide for the Christmas season.

The "Hot Sales" box, which debuted online on December 12, is on the right side of the font page of ShanghaiDaily.com.

It is between "Live in Shanghai" (http://live.shanghaidaily.com/), and the "Block of the Week" boxes.

You can check the latest sales information including brand names, sales venue and time in the box with discounts shown in a red circle. By clicking either of these items, you’ll enter the sales/shopping page of Live in Shanghai to get hold of detailed information. The address both in English and Chinese, phone number and business hours of a sales venue and details about the special sales are included. You can also choose the date on the calendar on the sales/shopping page to find out about sales so you can plan ahead.

We hope the section helps improve your shopping experience in Shanghai.

Metro department's Lu Feiran sings with expressiveness.

Chen Jie, Michelle Qiao and Emma Liu, the judges, give professional opinions on singers' performances.

Shanghai Daily staff rejoiced in wonderful music and applause at the preliminary round of this year's Christmas singing contest this afternoon. Twelve candidates competed for seven slots at the final competition, which will be the key part of Shanghai Daily's grand Christmas Party on December 20.

The singers have displayed enormous talents and a variety of vocal styles. Some of them appeared in duets, such as the business department's Jin Jing and Fu Chenghao, who had practiced with great efforts in a Karaoke Bar last night and contributed a fresh and well-expressed overture for the contest.

Some of the singers either failed to provide accompaniment recordings or submitted discs unable to be played. However, some unaccompanied performances were still outstanding, like our new colleague Ding Yining's rendering of Faye Wang's "Eyes On Me," which sounded particularly touching.

The online department's Zhu Moqing, aka Lao Zhu, brought something new again this year. The third movement of Antonio Vivaldi's Bassoon Concerto in E minor, RV 484, was presented in his arrangement which converted the solo bassoon to his solo voice, a tribute to the great vocalist Bobby McFerrin.

Some singers finished the first round with pending results. They were dragged into a small overtime knock-out competition afterwards. Chen Ying from the paste-up department succeeded in the second attempt with a much better performance than his first song.

A list of singers who advanced to the final today: business department's Jin Jing/Fu Chenghao duet, Ding Yining; metro department's Lu Feiran; paste-up design department's Zhu Xiaoyu, Chen Ying; online department's Zhu Moqing; opinion department's Wu Jiayin.

Christmas is coming and members of the Shanghai Daily newsroom already decorated a Christmas tree.

Thanks to four lovely ladies – Gu Yan (center), Yan Jingjing (left), Li Jianing (right) and Meng Ting - we have a "heavy" Christmas tree this year.

Our foreign writers and polisher from the Features Department have kindly shared their plans for Christmas day.

Nancy:
I will spend the holiday with my friends and have a dinner. I am expecting the coming Christmas party for the newspaper to be fun. There will be a singing competition at the party and I am happy to just sit back and enjoy the show.

Vicky:
I have to work on Christmas Eve, but I will drop by Sam's house after work and spend the evening with his family.

Sam:
My parents and sister will come to Shanghai from Australia on Christmas Eve. I will show them around and bring them to the Bund and have a dinner there. We will also go to a midnight church service here as it is a tradition in our country. I will take some time off work and have Christmas Eve in Shanghai. I will have a bit of an "open house" in my apartment. Friends will drop by and we will have some food and drink.

Aubrey:
I don't have any special plans on that day. When I see children playing happily on the street, I will tell them there is no such thing as Santa Clause. I can not attend Shanghai Daily's Christmas Party because I will go to Hong Kong for a high school reunion.

Deputy editor-in-chief Christine Zhu appears confident and stern in front of a determined and aggressive opponent.

A Shanghai Daily team lost to Wenhui Daily in the Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group's annual table tennis tournament this afternoon.

Wenhui Daily fielded a veteran team that overwhelmed Shanghai Daily.

Foreign expert Nick Taylor lost the first match by a considerable margin, but he did display great potential with a marvelous stroke.

Deputy editor-in-chief Christine Zhu lost to a determined and aggressive opponent in a women's match.

Zhu's loss sealed victory for Wenhui Daily in the best two out of three match competition.

Shanghai Daily's Wang Xi never got a chance to play even though he is said to be an experienced player.

We now quite understand how other countries feel after they are defeated by China's table tennis masters.

Shanghai Daily PSP News Digest is edited for university and high school students with articles of interest to English learners. Content is generated by Campus of Shanghaidaily.com [campus.shanghaidaily.com]. Readers can finish the articles in about 15 minutes, perfect for subway commutes or breaks between classes.

From Monday to Friday, Shanghai Daily PSP News Digest is downloadable through the Internet. You can download the TXT files of the Digest to your PSP or other portable electronic devices (software or plug-ins supporting). Every issue includes a News Summary, Buzzword, Today in History and Ancient Wisdom (Friday only) that are designed to boost the English reading skills of students. We also provide weekly PSP wallpapers.

Beyond the limitations of monitor size, it offers a convenient and efficient reading experience.

Shanghai Daily always pays attention to education in our newspaper and considers students future readers. It is part of our strategy to provide you with 24-hour multimedia news updates along with our print edition and portal Website.

His wife Chen Haiyan gave birth to a boy at 3:20pm yesterday in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of the Medical Center of Fudan University. The baby arrived about two weeks earlier than the due date.

The boy weighed 2.8 kilograms, the proud papa told us on the phone.

The proud parents have named the boy Zhang Zichen (张梓忱).

"The word 'zi(梓)' stands for his birth in the Year of the Mouse, which also pronounced as 'zi'," Leo explained. "The word 'chen(忱)' echoes his mother's surname 'Chen(陈)'."

"He looks more like his mother than me right now," Leo said. "But I'm sure his face will change and maybe someday he will look more like me."

Leo added: "I have tried to feed and change my son... It is only the first step in a long journey," Leo said.

Shanghai Daily congratulates the new parents.

Leo wanted to express thanks to everyone in the newsroom for their kind wishes.

The issue has 8 sections: Cover Story, 20th IBLAC, Macro Economy & Finance, Real Estate, Auto & Air, Metal & Energy, CIIF and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Shanghai Daily's "Best Story" and "Best Page" Awards for October were announced yesterday.

The Best Story of the month went to Lifestyle writer Yang Di's “bedroom+living room+kitchen+bathroom = 49㎡ Tiny bachelor pad fits the bill” on the Home/Design page of Shanghai Daily Sunday, which was published on October 26. Yang found the sources on her own and compiled the whole package of home-deco stories and pictures on time every two weeks, which earned high remarks from our deputy editor-in-chief Wu Zheng.

“It's hard to define the peculiar and outstanding designs and details from a flat or house. But Yang provides impressive angles in her stories,” said deputy editor-in-chief Zhu Huanian.

The Best Page Layout went to Li Xiaoying for her D4-5 effort on October 17. The two pages were about the newly-announced sister cities of Hangzhou including Fukui in Japan and Cape Town in South Africa. Li designed a colorful layout by illustrating each city with a pattern from the first letter of its name.

The Best Photo went to Zhang Suoqing's “Sealed with a kiss.” The photographer captured the sweet moment of five couples in different poses, which impressed the jury panel.

The Best Online Story went to Yang Lifei's “Taxi firm chases up missing fare.” She added more background information through online research compared to its counterpart Chinese story.

Since the launch of the current version of ShanghaiDaily.com, the news data on our server has increased by such a stunning rate that up to now a total of 245,000 articles have been stored in a single data table. The PDF files are mounting up at an even greater rate at 200 megabytes per day.

This storage issue considerably slowed the Website's accessing speed during the last year, causing endless complaints from users and our editors. The "404 not found error" which frequently occurred on the home page during the last few weeks, resulting in an incomplete display of the page, was also indirectly caused by the cumbersome data table.

Thus, optimizing the Website's performance has been a top priority for our in-house engineers and technical support company in the last few weeks. They split the current data table into two. One is smaller and faster. It records the ongoing data of the current year. The other is large, but accessed far less frequently. It is for the historical data of previous years. PDF file storage has been similarly changed. These changes have enhanced the efficiency of the systems but at the same time won't change users' experience compared with previous settings. 

It was also found that some small applications in the right panel of the home page, such as a calendar for the What's On section, had further obstructed the loading of the page due to some complicated scripts. For this reason, these applications were either removed or considerably altered.

The optimization has proved successful as no previous problems have occurred again since its completion last week. To prevent ShanghaiDaily.com from running into similar problems in the future, our team will regularly carry out maintenance operations, including moving archive data into the historical table and slimming complicated scripts, from time to time. Thank you for your support to our work.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and are trying our best to make all of our archives available through the full-text search function as soon as possible.

Thank you for you patience.

Awards were given to journalists whose work represented a strong sense of social responsibility, especially among coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics and the Sichuan earthquake earlier this year.

Shanghai Daily's deputy editor-in-chief Zhu Huanian was awarded the individual prize for her outstanding performance in covering the Beijing Olympics. Shanghai Daily's Olympic reports focused on the themes of environmentalism, humanism and technology, capturing the spirit of the Games.

Our deputy editor-in-chief Wu Zheng and layout designer Chen Jie were awarded third prize in the 18th China News Awards for their excellent work in covering the 2007 Shanghai Special Olympics.  

Shanghai Daily will continue providing vivid stories that cross cultural barriers.

Rachel Yan and her volunteer partner, Mary Catherine, at the Obama campaign office site at Columbia, Missouri.

Look who's knocking at your door
By Rachel Yan
November 1, 2008

It never occurred to me that I would end up canvassing for US Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama on Saturday afternoon.
When I left my dorm at noon, I was meant to see some friends off at a bus station. Seven of nine fellow visiting scholars in the same program as me were heading to Chicago to witness the likely celebration at Senator Obama's election campaign headquarters on November 4.
And here I was, stuck in the small town of Columbia at the Missouri School of Journalism, which is fully geared up for its first-ever large-scale and tech-savvy Webcast coverage of the election.

How it happened
I was walking home and taking some pictures when I saw people in front of a door filling out forms. As I got closer, I realized it was a temporary office for Obama's election campaign.

I was quite curious about what was going on inside and what these people of different gender, age and ethnic background were busy doing. While I was trying to peek inside, a knowledgeable-looking woman with gray hair, gold-frame glasses and a blue T-shirt with a big "November 4" sign on the back looked at me and smiled.

"Hi, what are you guys doing here?" I asked.

"We are volunteers for the Obama Campaign, and we are about to do some canvassing today," she replied. "Are you interested in joining us?"

"Eh..." I hesitated.

I had already attended some campus voting publicity events in the past week, working as a volunteer to put up posters and distribute fliers. I'd heard about door-to-door and phone canvassing, but wasn't sure I wanted to do it since it can be frustrating to deal with people who are not interested in listening.

On the other hand, however, my journalistic curiosity and hunger for different cultural experiences propelled me to explore how it works.

So, I asked to be an observer.

A quick training session
The project started with training in the back parking lot at the office building.

There were about 10 people at the training session I attended, including men and women, old and young, black and white. Some looked like university students; some may have been housewives and retirees, A tall, young man wearing a hoodie and fat pants sat against a wall near me, while everybody else stood throughout the 10-minute training session.

The trainer was an old man, with the same blue T-shirt bearing "November 4th." Each volunteer is given a package of canvass sheets, a map, driving directions together with a bunch of fliers and door hangers. The canvass sheet lists the voters you are supposed to talk to. It includes their personal information such as name, gender, age, home address and telephone number.

Each of the voters has been categorized as either: "knock" (meaning you should knock on the door and talk to them about their voting preferences), "hanger" (there's no need to speak to them, just leave a door hanger indicating their polling station location), or "knock/hanger" (meaning you can do either).

A few blank spaces were left for the canvasser to fill out. Voting preferences were divided into five different levels with "1" suggesting Obama supporters and "5" a McCain voter. A status column included "refuse to answer," "not addressed," "not home" and "moved" was included in case the person failed or declined to answer.

Canvassers were also given a clear list of "Dos and Don'ts" such as "be courteous and respectful," "never argue with voters" and "safety first."

Mixed Experience
I was assigned to follow Mary Catherine, a 40-something woman married to a German with two children. The family has been living in Columbia for 11 years since her husband landed a teaching position at the university's computer science department.

Mary is a housewife, but an experienced canvasser. She said she worked as a volunteer in previous presidential elections and had gone door-to door on behalf of the Obama campaign at least three times.

She reassured me that most people are quite easygoing and friendly after I expressed concern that some will react rudely to our presence.

But the area we were assigned out in the countryside proved to be difficult.

 Case #1: Moved out
The community was strange. Most people lived in mobile homes and it was hard to figure out the road names.

"This is an area that is frequently hit by floods, that's why you see all these mobile homes. Few people lives here," Mary told me.

When we finally found the first address on our list, the elevated "house" looked abandoned. A man came over and told us that the men we were looking for had moved out a long time ago.

 Case #2: Why signboards are there
The next house was pretty and had a bunch of pumpkins outside. Mary was happy when she saw a big, red-and-blue Obama sign beside the mailbox.

The women who answered the door said they were also Obama campaign volunteers. “My husband is out working for the campaign right now," she said.

After chatting for a while, we said farewell. She said: “Good luck and watch out as there are a lot of McCain signs down the street.”

We did see homes with McCain signs, but Mary said there was no need to bother those people as she circled them as level 5 -- strong McCain supporters.

I have often wondered why some American families are so eager to demonstrate their political preference by putting up large signs on their property. Now, I think I know one reason -- it's a good way to keep opposition party canvassers away.

 Case #3: Already voted
The next house didn't have any signs. Mary rang the door bell and we were greeted by an old lady.

"Hello, my name is Mary Catherine and I'm a volunteer with Barack Obama's campaign for change here in Columbia. Do you plan on supporting Senator Obama in the November 4th election?" Mary said, almost following the line provided on the training instruction.

"I don't think you should waste time talking to me here," the lady replied.

My heart sunk as I figured we had bumped into a republican supporter.

However, the lady continued: "Both I and my husband have already voted for Obama!"

 Case #4: Angry old woman
I cannot remember how many doors we knocked on, but we eventually encountered a hostile individual.

An elderly woman answered the door just as we were about to leave.

"Hi, my name is Mary Catherine and I'm a volunteer working for the Obama campaign...”

The woman interrupted bluntly and said: “Could you please stop bothering me. You are the third person to come and ask such a fluffy question today. Every time, I need to hurry downstairs to open the door for you."

Mary apologized and turned around immediately. On the sheet, she circled the family as "refused to answer," and added a note: "Extremely upset. Please don't come again."

We encountered this situation more than once.

On the way home
Driving back to the campaign office, Mary told me that she's the only one in her family who can vote since her husband is still a German citizen and their children are too young to vote. Most people on her side of the family are Democrats, except her brother. Mary said she has never figured out why her brother supports the Republicans.

In the four hours or so, Mary knocked on 30 doors and spoke to 14 people. She marked six houses as unfinished due to time limits -- all of these should be noted down on a homestretch report after getting back to the office.

I thanked Mary for not only taking me along, but more importantly, satisfying my curiosity about how canvassing works, even if you run into the occasional rude person.

Several users based in foreign countries and a local user working in an international company reported during the last few weeks that they were not able to download our PDF files because they were brought back to the log-in form even after they filled it in and submitted the form.

The technicians found that they had mistakenly changed the overseas mirror server's cache settings during a previous revision. This sent the log-in panel of our page also to the cache and when overseas users submitted any information through the cached log-in panel, no information was actually taken by the server.

The cache has been reset and various tests have proved that similar log-in failures are not likely to occur again.

We apologize to all Shanghai Daily Website users for this inconvenience.

As the first beneficiary of an exchange program between Shanghai Daily and The Hindu, one of the most prestigious English newspapers in India, I visited Chennai to study advanced journalism and learn more about the city, which is home to the world’s second-longest beach, the splendid Tamil culture and its amicable people.

With my guesthouse not far from the beach, I often spend Sunday afternoon sun bathing and watching children playing in the sea.

Just opposite the road alongside the seashore is one of several campuses belonging to Madras University (Chennai was formerly known as Madras). The campus is covered with lush, green trees.

The architecture at the university is now a landmark in the city and visited by many travelers, including me. I have met several overseas Chinese students on the campus.

Police officers on horseback can be frequently seen on the streets, a very attractive scene that makes me feel quite safe here.

A sky railway system not far away has become my major mode of transport to the office.

The place I am living at is the well-known Madras Cricket Club and many local cricket stars once trained here. I was lucky to see a friendly between Australia and a local team a few days ago.

With one side of the stadium packed, the atmosphere was quite good. Spectators were shouting and yelling to support their heroes, which also exited me even though I’m not very familiar with the rules.

One of the most exciting things here is meeting Chinese families who live in Chennai. Many work in dental clinics.

I met Dr. Albert Tse Hungsen last Sunday. Dr Tse is very kind and invited me to join his family for dinner.

To avoid being recruited during China’s civil war, Dr Tse’s father choose to leave China and launch a dental business in Chennai.

Dr Tse’s clinic is at the Evening Bazaar in Parry's Corner, the starting point of northern Chennai and a famous trade hub.

After living in Chennai for decades, Dr Tse still speaks the Hubei dialect of his home province with his wife Agnes Hu Yukwan, though they also speak fluent English and Tamil.

All male members in the family are dentists. It was my first independent interview here.

The interview was a bit ironic as they had as many questions for me (about modern China) as I had for them.

Dr Tse told me they are really interested about China and read everything they can on the Internet or in newspapers and also like to see TV news reports.

D. Tse said he was a big sports fan and watched the Beijing Olympics with great enthusiasm.

“When I watched a game with a Chinese athlete, I had a strong wish for him or her to win,” he said.

“Meanwhile, I’m also a firm supporter of India’s team,” he added.

The issue has 8 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Real Estate, Air, Auto, Metal and Energy and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Very little of the content in "Live in Shanghai" was reflected on ShanghaiDaily.com, our main Website, in the previous design. Some users might never notice that we even provide this ultimate Shanghai guide site.

Now a portion half way down the right column of ShanghaiDaily.com's home page is taken up to display some new features in "Live in Shanghai."

The "Shanghai City Guide" box now combines the previous information directory with a weekly column section on various aspects of Shanghai life, beginning with the use of mobile phones.

Then an entirely new section called "Block by Block" appears beneath. Every week our fashion reporter Yang Di will introduce you a Shanghai street famous for shopping, dining, fashion and nightlife.

You'll also find that the "Editor's Pick" section on the home page of "Live in Shanghai" is incorporated here. Information on performances and events in Shanghai is now readily available on ShanghaiDaily.com's home page without the need to open "Live in Shanghai."

I just cast my absentee ballot for Barack Obama for US President because I strongly believe he is the best person to tackle the enormous problems faced by the US domestically and internationally.

America has suffered in many ways at home and its reputation abroad has been damaged by eight years of the Bush and neoconservative agenda that encourages the US to operate unilaterally in times that demand multilateralism. I am proud to have a say in helping to change my government’s course.

I am a registered Democrat, though I consider myself to be an independent and not bound by any party loyalties. As a registered Democrat, however, I am able to vote in the Democratic primary elections in New York City, my legal residence.

I applied for an absentee ballot through the US Consulate in Shanghai, though I could have done it online. A ballot was mailed to my address, I filled it out and returned it to the consulate to be mailed.

My vote will be counted. In some close elections, absentee ballots have made a difference. This election – and the removal of the Republican Party for at least four more years – is too important to ignore. And it is my right and duty as an American to cast my ballot.

There were numerous parties and candidates on my ballot – not just Democratic and Republican. There was the Libertarian Party, the Independent Party, the Green Party, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, the Working Families Party, among others. I could have written in the name of any candidate.

Barack Obama was also the candidate of the Working Families Party, and I considered casting my vote for him on that party ticket – that would send a message that the problems of poor and working families need to be addressed. The WFP agenda is more liberal (some would say leftist) than that of the Democrats. In the end, I decided to vote for Obama as the mainstream Democratic candidate.

I am proud to have a say in how my government is run.

Shanghai Daily's "Best Story" and "Best Page" Awards for September were announced last Friday. Both awards were shared.

The Best Story of the month went to Wan Lixin's "Alien take on Games" on the Opinion page of September 2 and "Kidney-stone baby on mend, parents in clover" by Liang Yiwen and Cai Wenjun on the Metro page of September 24.

Liang and Cai were commended for their vivid reporting and ability to dig deep into the story and find more information.

Wan's piece was chosen for its penetrating angle, gentle but keen debate and accomplished writing.

"The kidney stone story was an exclusive in China. It was the first report from a victim family's point of view, not the government or the hospitals," said Summer Xia, the chief of Metro Department.

Cai found the news via her network of private friends to get more personal details in a story that had national significance.

"Although the writing was not extraordinary, the reporting was good and it should be encouraged," said J.J Jiang, our managing deputy editor-in-chief.

The story was mostly compiled by Liang Yiwen, a new reporter to the Metro Department. The story shows her potential.

The Best Page Layout went to both Chen Jie for her B5 effort on September 16 and to Wang Jia and Li Xiaoying for D5 on September 24.

"It is not easy to design a page without any pictures off-the-peg," said Jiang, when commenting on Chen's page.

As B5 page story was based on a research report and did not have original pictures, thus the creativity of Chen's "candy design" was encouraged and praised.

This is Cathy Ding saying hello to you from the Business Department of Shanghai Daily.

How I came to love English is a long story. What I can remember is that my first English teacher wrote "Catherine" on the first volume of my "New Concept English" book and said: "This will be your English name." Since then I have used this name throughout middle school and university.

People who meet me for the first time usually ask: "Do you have naturallly curly hair?" I always say "yes" even though I don't know why I have curly hair. Since middle school, friends and classmates have called me Maomao, which literally means furry or curly. I like the name. But it is not an English name so I decided to use Cathy since people tend to use shorter names.

I studied English the most in middle school and I liked the idea of working in an English-related environment. But, becoming a journalist was beyond my imagination until I became an intern here three months ago. I find the job here rewarding and fascinating with so many opportunities to meet different people from all walks of life. Like all the other fresh graduates, this is my first job and I am grateful that reporters and editors in the business department give me help and support. Working with them is a continual process of learning and refreshing myself.

My favorited part of being a journalist is witnessing history.

I sincerely hope that through hard work, both my colleagues and Shanghai Daily readers will realize their dreams.

AS a freshman who has just walked off the campus, I am really grateful at being able to join Shanghai Daily as a journalist with the Metro section.

Since I was a little girl I dreamed of being a journalist. To achieve this goal, I have been preparing for years.

I have learnt lots about journalism theory at the Journalism Department in Fudan University and had a year's internship experience in local Chinese media before I came to Shanghai Daily.

But there were big challenges for me when I finally become a real journalist at Shanghai Daily. The gap between being a young journalist and being a good journalist is huge, which brings me to my next goal: to be a good journalist.

Apart from the language barrier, I feel I lack experience and professional knowledge and my responses and learning need to be improved.

Moreover the methods of local Chinese media and Shanghai Daily are quite different. I have to adapt myself to a stricter and more demanding job.

Luckily, I have met lots of experienced journalists and strict but kind foreign editors who teach me new skills every day. I am happy that I am learning and making progress.

The life of a journalist has many similarities to the life of a student: I have to learn new things and work hard every day.

But the biggest difference is that I am no longer learning for myself. It is now my responsibility to ask more and learn more to empower our readers.

Keeping the principle of wanting to be a good journalist in mind, I find myself with the energy and and enthusiasm needed to overcome any difficulties and setbacks at work.

With the constant addition of content to the Website, the capacity of the server, as configured at the Website's launch, was close to its limit. The result was slow responses especially while using the search function.

The upgrade package considerably expands the server's capacity and performance. We are optimistic that the improved performance will last for a long period before the next upgrade becomes necessary.

The problems reported by a small group of overseas subscribers who had failed to open the Website frequently were also solved by switching to a new domain name service (DNS) provider.

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Auto, Food and Beverage, Metal and Energy, Technology and Economic Figures, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Live updates of the Website will still be available during the holidays, but inevitably fewer stories will be published than under normal conditions. Normal updates of the Website will resume on October 6.

The print-edition will be reduced to 16 pages from September 30 to October 4 and 32 pages on October 6. The "Sunday" edition on October 5 will still keep its 32-page layout. Normal publication will resume on October 7.

Recently a small group of overseas subscribers using local area networks to connect to the internet has reported frequent problems in accessing the website.

Detailed research into this issue revealed that these problems was related to the configuration of the domain name. ShanghaiDaily.com has just changed the setting of its domain name to speed up overseas browsing experience. However, the new setting seems not well supported by our current domain name service (DNS) provider's current system setting.

We apologize for this inconvenience and we are now working with a new domain service provider to solve the problem. The first step is to set up an alternative domain name. If this tests OK, we will transfer the "www.shanghaidaily.com" service to the new provider.

The new domain name "www.shanghaidaily.org" is now in trial service. If you can't open "www.shanghaidaily.org" either, please report to us at online@shanghaidaily.com

Aloha. My name is Pan Xiaoyi from Shanghai Daily. You can call me Joyce for short.

I was once a young girl full of dreams. I wanted to be a painter, a dancer, a singer, or a teacher. After 16 years of campus life, I come here as a freshman on my first job. Even after I had been interviewed, had signed the contract and taken the job I could scarcely believe it. I am a journalist. A JOURNALIST!!!
 
On television journalists always stay in the limelight, shining and glorious. They go to parties and conferences in every corner of the country carrying a Prada or LV handbag.

All right, wake up and face reality. You can't assume that television has it right. Journalism means both opportunities and challenges.

Now I have become used to being a professional journalist, I can feel the bitterness and the sweetness of the work. It is not easy. I have to struggle with deadlines. Sometimes I feel completely lacking in words when I pick up a pen or click the keyboard on.

But when I read the story in print everything seems to have been worthwhile. What is important for me is that I get a chance to engage with people and stories from all over society and every part of the world. This certainly helps my natural curiosity and my passion for learning.

During my honeymoon period with Shanghai Daily, I visited galleries and exhibitions and wrote my virgin essay for Scope. This was a truly memorable experience. After while I was transferred to the business section and found I had become a new Joyce, professional and fashionable.

"Tomorrow is another day" as they say and I firmly believe there is always something wonderful in store for me after my studies and struggles. I enjoy my life here and life with all of you, my colleagues and readers.

Shanghai Daily has teamed up with Rebtel to offer our readers exclusive free minutes to call abroad.

Rebtel is a new international calls provider who are slashing the costs of calling from mobiles. The concept is simple: you give Rebtel phone numbers from another country, and they give you back a local number to call for a low price.

Sign up now for your free minutes.

Undercover tests

Shanghai Daily reporters tested Rebtel services for calling from Shanghai to the UK in Europe. After an initial registration process we found the calls provided by Rebtel to be well worth the effort. At $0.18 (1.25 yuan) a minute the calls were as cheap as most phone cards, and when calling from a landline the calls were extremely clear. The best feature however was the convenience factor – we were able to pick up our normal mobile phone and call a friend abroad from the phonebook without having to worry about costs, or go through the lengthy dialling involved with phone cards.

“The hardest part is getting people to understand the concept,” says Winbladh, Rebtel CEO. "it’s difficult to grasp that you can just call a local number for a person abroad. But once people start using the service and store that number in their phone, it becomes very sticky as it’s so convenient.”

It has been three weeks since I arrived at this little American town for a six-month journalism training program.

The Missouri Journalism School, which is part of the University of Missouri in Columbia, was the world's first journalism school and is gearing up for its centennial celebrations this week (September 10-12).

Like other US universities, Missouri ?students and staff refer to it as "Mizzou" ?delights visitors with its campus with red-brick buildings, tall trees and green spaces.

But what really sets this journalism school apart is the variety of courses, both practical and theoretical, in all sorts of media. Students have a choice of five or six different reporting or reading courses for newspaper, radio, TV, Websites or converged media.

After taking several classes, the course that impressed me most was not a project-based curriculum but one that seemed especially relevant to me as a visiting Chinese professional.

The lecturer for the course I chose was called Y. Volz. I began thinking to myself about the sort of background a foreigner needed to be lecturing in Chinese media studies to American students who have little knowledge about this remote Asian country?

But I was very wrong. After the first class bell rang, the teacher appeared in the classroom and Y. Volz turned out to be a young lady with an Asian face, black hair and, typically Chinese-accented English.

"I graduated from Renmin University in China," she explained. "And I adopted my German husband's last name."

The 20 or so American students in the class had a variety of reasons for taking the course. Some wanted to become journalists and work in China, some had been interns in China, some had just returned from being volunteers at the Beijing Olympics and one student had no China experience at all but did have a Chinese girlfriend.

The teacher started the class by asking students what they knew of Chinese newspapers. The answers astounded me.

Q: How many pages do you think a Chinese newspaper normally have?
A: Eight.

Q: Are the newspapers colored or black-and-white? Do they have pictures?
A: Black and white, with only a few pictures.

Q: Do they have ads? If they do, what kind of ads do they carry?
A: No ads, or just a few. The biggest advertisements would be for everyday consumer items.

I have been working in the Chinese media for more than five years and I have never come across a Chinese newspaper as depicted by the class. I was left speechless by the ignorance.

The teacher then passed round several Chinese newspapers and these astounded my classmates.

All the papers were large, in color, with big pictures and pages of advertisements featuring  automobiles, real estate and even breast enlargement surgery.

"There is a big gap between most foreigners' impressions and the real Chinese media and that's what we will discuss in this course," the teacher said.

Bridging misunderstandings is what I should also explore. It is one of my goals for the next couple of months.

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Biz Feature, Air, Real Estate, Auto, Metal and Energy and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Yan Fei
Print designer

1. Constantina Tomescu/ Romania/ women's marathon
(The 38-year-old champion is unusual and respectable.)
2. Michael Phelps/ USA/ swimming
(Eight golds!)
3. Matthew Mitcham/ Australia/ diving
(Winning in last dive by earning four 10s. Fighting until the last minute to gain the victory and that's sporting spirit!)

Gu Yan
Admin

1. Liao Hui/ China/  weightlifting
2. Zhang Xiangxiang/ China/ weightlifting
(Two nice guys with solid characters.)
3. Chen Yibing/ China/ gymnastics
(He is cute.)

Wu Jiayin
Opinion writer

1. Matt Emmons/ USA/ shooting
(He showed Olympic spirit even though he lost.)
2. Guo Jingjing/ China/ diving
(She showed her best and kept a high standard no matter how tough the competition was.)
3. Du Toit / South Africa/ marathon swimming
(She lost her left leg and participates in both the Olympics and the Paralympics.)

Nancy Zhang
Copy editor

1. Michael Phelps/ USA/ swimming
2. Liu Xiang/ China/ men's 110-meter hurdles
 (I am sorry that he had to withdraw.)
3. British Team
(I grew up in UK and the British often regard their athletes as having little competitiveness. I am happy to see them do pretty well in this Olympics.)

Sam Riley
Reporter and Copy editor

1. Feng Kun/ China/ women's volleyball
(A fantastic captain!)
2. Michael Phelps/ USA/ swimming
3. Stephanie Rice/ Australia/ swimming

Li Jianing
HR

1. Wang Liqin/ China/ table tennis
2. Liu Xiang/ China/ men's 110-meter hurdles
3. Yao Ming/ China/ basketball
(All three are Shanghainese!)

Han Jing
Online editor

1. Michael Phelps/ USA/ swimming
2. Wu Jingyu/ China/ women's taekwondo
(She was calm and sensible in her interview after wining the gold.)
3. China's women's quadruple sculls
(A historic breakthrough!)

Winny Wang
Business reporter

1. Liu Xiang/ China/ men's 110-meter hurdles
(I waited and waited to watch him run but he withdrew.)
2. Usain Bolt/ Jamaica/ men's 100-meter and 200-meter
(Everyone calls him alien.)
3. Michael Phelps/ USA/ swimming

Michelle Sun
Marketing Manager

1. Yao Ming/ China/ basketball
(He played as a true leader in the match vs America's Dream Team.)
2. Liu Xiang/ China/ men's 110-meter hurdles
3. Guo Jingjing/ China/ diving
(Perhaps she will disappear from public view after the Olympics so I wish her good luck!)

Everybody in the newsroom was astonished when Liu Xiang, defending Olympic Champion and megastar, quit in the first round of the men’s 110m hurdle competition in Beijing today.

Ahead of Liu, members of Shanghai Daily watched Dayron Robles of Cuba win his heat and American Terrence Trammel get injured in his race, and looked for Liu’s debut at the Bird’s Nest.

As Liu warmed up, copy editor Marc Tessier thought something was wrong with the hurdler.

“He was warming up and after completing a couple of hurdles, he went down on the ground on his hands and knees. He looked like he was in a lot of pain,” Tessier said.

The expression on Liu’s face said it all as his gingerly walked back to the starting blocks. And after a false start, Liu limped into the tunnel and we knew that his Olympics were over.

Disappointment sucked all the enthusiasm out of Shanghai Daily’s newsroom just like it did in the National Stadium.

“I had not counted him as a would-be gold medalist for China,” said online department head Guo Min, as Liu faced big pressure in the build up to the Olympics. Just like his coach Sun Haiping said in a press conference after Liu withdrew from the race: “You can see his posters everywhere, the Websites are full of his information.”

Many reporters and editors in the office surrounded television sets to watch the press conference on his injury.

“I know it is very disappointing, it would have been a great race, but that is the nature of sports and the Olympics. We watch because we never know what will happen next,” Tessier said.

Others expressed concern about Liu’s future.

“If Liu is injured, its better that he quits,” said online editor Han Jing. “He could become more seriously injured if he raced and that is what I don’t want to see.”

Deng Kajia, our online editor, watched the opening ceremony in the office with several colleagues. She gives high marks to the show, “The part to show the culture of ancient China is fantastic. One of my foreign friends from London, the host city of 2012 Summer Olympics, told me that Beijing has left all the past host cities behind in the opening ceremony.”

Vivian Yang, the newcomer who works for the newly-launched Shanghai Daily Sunday, is deeply touched by Chinese gymnasts. “The two Olympic team golds are really impressive,” said Yang.

Orange Zhou, from the Marketing Department, has been an Olympic couch potato, “My TV set has never been used so frequently.” She thinks so far the Chinese men’s basketball team and women’s volleyball team play much better than she expected. She predicts that China will gain more than 40 gold medals. However, there are lots of maybes in games, and maybe the biggest is Liu Xiang. “Liu is in so many ads and sometimes I think he is too commercial,” said Zhou.

Wang Yong, chief of the Opinion Department, thinks whoever the winner is, wherever he/she comes from, we should applaud for them, because “true gold medals come from a sporting heart.”

“I do respect such athletes like Lee Bae-Young from the Republic of Korea,” said Wang, “He folded under 184kg in the 69kg-class clean and jerk on Tuesday after his legs cramped in pain. But He tried his best right to the end.

“The moment he fell to the ground, the audience applauded him. He was a hero.”

Bindra finished with 700.5 points to edge out China's Zhu Qinan who had 699.7 points for the silver.

India's hockey team had won eight gold medals in field hockey in Olympic Games between 1928 and 1980.

Shanghai Daily's international editing team includes staff from India and the newsroom was just as excited about the victory as they were at China's silver success. 

Lancy Correa works on the Shanghai Daily's sports desk and he followed the shooting action with interest this morning.

"I watched Bindra's last four shots on the newsroom TV," Lancy said. "I am very, very proud. We have expected this gold medal since 1980."

When the result was known, Lancy immediately received phone calls from his Indian and Chinese friends, and congratulations came from all over the world via the Internet, one friend in Dubai sent him online greetings.

Lancy will be busy covering the Olympics till midnight. "Of course I want to have a party with my Indian friends to celebrate our first Olympic gold medal. But maybe it should be kept until after 1am," he said.

Sports editor Bivash Mukherjee, the other Indian in the newsroom, watched the match at home." I received seven phone calls from all departments of Shanghai Daily to congratulate me on India's gold medal," said Bivash, "And our reporter in Beijing called me!"

Bivash called his families and friends in India. Because of the two-and-a-half-hour difference, he woke them up with the good news. "There is no live broadcast for this match, so I was the first to tell them the news."

He added: "Abhinav Bindra is our Liu Xiang. Nobody knew the guy before, and suddenly he has become a national celebrity."

Online department intern Lu Jingting was lucky enough to go to the Shanghai Stadium yesterday to watch the first day of the Olympic football match in Shanghai!

Lu, sophomore of the Communication and Information Engineering School, Shanghai University, got tickets free from her school. She went to the match with more than 100 schoolmates and teachers. Lu got tickets for the Australia vs Serbia and Argentina vs Ivory Coast matches.

Her first impression of the matches was that there were “strict security checks.” After stepping out of the Metro Line 1, she received three rounds of security checks before entering the stadium.

First round of checks was at the metro exit, a policeman asked Lu and her classmates to open their bags to ensure they didn’t carry any liquid. Only Olympic football ticket holders can walk out of the Metro station after 3pm on the days matches are scheduled.
 
Lu carried a large bag, so she had to queue up for an hour at the security check spot in front of Stand 25 of the stadium, while those without bags can go directly through other entrances. During waiting, Lu was asked to re-open her bag to show there is no water, but food like bread and potato chips can be taken in.

Ten check points were operating at the same time, and each check took about 5 minutes. The policeman checked Lu’s camera, key holder and wallet. Then Lu passed the metal check. Finally, she entered the stadium gates. 

There were vending sites in the stadium for water and other drinks.

“The 80,000 seats of the stadium were filled by 5:45pm,” said Lu. She sat in Stand 25 on the second floor where almost all the audience were from Shanghai University.

“The matches were really impressive, especially Argentina vs Ivory Coast,” said Lu. “Shanghai is like home for the Argentinean team. The stadium was full of their fans dressed or made-up in blue, the color for Argentina. The well-known Argentina players including Messi all appeared on court. I think Riquelme of Argentina played best. ”

Lu spent a wonderful night, not sitting by the TV set but in the midst of the live atmosphere. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience for me,” Lu said. “I really feel lucky and hope to watch an Olympic match again in my hometown Shanghai!”

It’s the final countdown to the Beijing Olympics, and the Shanghai Daily newsroom is full of anticipation.

A set of posters with the cute Olympics ‘Fuwa’ mascots are on the walls of the newsroom. “We made our own posters.” said Bivash, our sports editor. “I told our layout designer Chen Jie what I wanted and she offered the nice pictures.”

Zhang Yi, business editor, feels excited as he has tickets of the Football Preliminary held in Shanghai. He will be in the Shanghai Stadium this Thursday and cheer for the football players. “I just want to be amid the optimistic and victorious atmosphere,” said Zhang.

Online department intern Lu Jingting also has the chance to see the famous Argentina team with her own eyes. Lu will go to the stadium together with her 60 classmates from the Communication and Information Engineering School of Shanghai University on Thursday. The school offered them free tickets.

Shanghai Daily’s online Olympics coverage [http://olympics.shanghaidaily.com/] has added profiles of Chinese athletes and will add more videos and pictures to the multimedia gallery.

Also the homepage of our main site will take on a new Olympic look with highlights feature on the Games. Just wait and see! 

We have set up a new blog for our sports reporter Ma Yue who will cover the Olympic Games in Beijing. [http://www.shanghaidaily.com/mayue/]

Ma Yue arrived in Beijing this morning! She is the Shanghai Daily representative in the group of 23 reporters sent to the Olympics by the Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group, the parent group of Shanghai Daily.

Everyday, she will call back to the newsroom to share her first-hand impressions for the blog.

Today Ma settled down in the Olympics News Center and tried to get permission to watch athletes train.

Let’s enjoy the Games through Ma’s eyes. Please leave comments on her blog to further communicate with her.

National Stadium - The Birds Nest, National Indoor Stadium, Laoshan Velodrome, China Agricultural University Gymnasium, Beijing Wukesong Indoor Stadium, Peking University Gymnasium, Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium, Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium, Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, Beijing Workers Stadium, Capital Indoor Stadium, Yingdong Natatorium, Fencing Hall of National Convention Center, Beijing Olympic Green Hockey Stadium, Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground, Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center, Hong Kong Olympic Equestrian Venue, Shanghai Stadium, Shenyang Olympic Stadium, Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium, Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium

As Beijing Olympics is only 14 days away, Shanghai Daily's IOC-registered reporter, Ms Ma Yue, is eagerly waiting for the most important assignment so far in her career to begin. Before she goes to Beijing on July 30, the online department invited her to share with our readers with her thoughts. We also plan to launch a blog for her during the Olympics at our Olympic mini-site.

Road To Beijing

Ma Yue

It's just 14 days left before the world's best athletes begin their quest for sporting world's ultimate glory.

And it's 14 of us -- reporters -- from the Wenhui Xinmin United Press Group who will be heading to Beijing to cover the Olympic Games, the ultimate thing for any sports journalist.

I will be representing Shanghai Daily at the Olympics. Can it get anything better than that?
 
The occasion is doubly momentous -- the Wenhui Xinmin United Press Group is also celebrating its 10th anniversary.

For me personally, it will also be a chance to mingle and talk to the best in the business from all over the world -- almost like an education tour, and I'm expecting a lot of help from my seniors who are making the trip to the capital. they include writers and photographers from the group's other publications, namely Xinmin Evening News, Wenhui Daily, oriental Morning Post and oriental Sports Daily.

Besides the 14 IOC-registered reporters, there will be other "resident" reporters on the beat outside the main venues. The Olympics is not only about Games and success on the pitch as well, it has also got to do with the Olympic spirit .

Shanghai Daily has set up a special Olympic team, led by deputy editor-in-chief Zhu Huanian. There are the other supporting and technical team, all of whom will work hours galore to put out a competitive newspaper and our website, all of whom I am sure, will bring the best of the Games to the readers.

The group hopes it can deliver greater better faster news to the world -- and I'm confident of delivering just that as the moment demands.
 
United working platform

A "United working platform" was launched last month after months' of trials and testings in Beijing. We did have our trial runs earlier this month. The real test, off course, begins now. All the reporters and photographers will upload their news stories, pictures and analysis from this very platform which will be transmitted to Shanghai editors and the respective papers. Despite being miles away, we will stay in touch by the minute, almost as though we are right across our desk.

Wenhui Xinmin United Press Group has also rented a room at the MPC (main press center), and next to neighboring news agencies like Xinhua, AP and Reuters, serving as the media base for reporters in Beijing.

A video conference will be held everyday at 3pm with all the seniors where ideas will be shared for stories, articles, analysis and pictures of the day from this very room. "You will never walk alone", the hymn song of Premier League club Liverpool fans, will almost be our working motto as well. At least mine.

Beijing cometh

With a laptop, a camera, and a recorder I can say I'm ready to start work right now.

I have just been a year on the sports desk with Shanghai Daily. In that sense, this is the ultimate prize I could have dreamed off. For me personally, it fills me with a sense of pride that I will get to report on the glory and the pain that an Olympic occasion provides.

I remember telling myself when joining Shanghai Daily one year ago: Great power comes with great responsibility.

I'm ready for that test.

so Beijing, here I come...

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Human Resources, Air, Auto, Metal and Energy, Technology and Opinion, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

During the Olympics, we will offer four to five daily highlights at the top of site to help spectators focus on the most exciting events. Under a cooperation deal with China’s Central Television, we’ll offer an “on air” link to guide visitors to watch live broadcasts from CCTV.com.

Since 12 Olympic football matches will be held in Shanghai, our mini-site focuses on giving expats lots of useful information about the games and the stadium.

The information consists of Olympic events, venues and events in Shanghai. It also includes a guide for tourists with multi-media videos. Shanghai Daily also is set to cooperate with China Central TV Station to incorporate video clips of Olympic events on our site.

The mini-site highlights Shanghai specialties and boasts another window into the city.  It offers some detailed local information that we have been painstakingly accumulating at our Live in Shanghai guide site.

Visitors coming to Shanghai can check out several sightseeing tours that set off from Shanghai Stadium and other handy tourism information that will hopefully make your stay here more enjoyable.

Moreover, the site will also launch some Olympic polls to collect public opinion on hot topics.

On July 6, the first edition of Shanghai Daily Sunday was published, opening a new era to the Chinese mainland - an era when there is at last an English language newspaper available on Sundays. The paper's online department interviewed Sunday Editor Wu Zheng to find out more about Shanghai Daily's Sunday, its origins, the reaction to the first editions and its future.

Q: Why did Shanghai Daily introduce Sunday?
A: Reading a Sunday paper is a long-time tradition for many of our readers. They missed it here, because there was no local Sunday paper available here. We are glad to produce this new product to meet the demands of our readers.

Q: Shanghai Daily began in 1999 but Sunday was not published until almost 10 years later. Why?
A: As I mentioned, our target readers are expats. With the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai's Expo, an increasing number of foreigners are coming to China or visiting China. They want to learn more about what's happening here. We felt that the right window of opportunity had opened. We identified a gap in the market and we are attempting to fill and satisfy that gap. Moreover our newspaper has the experience and capability of doing this effectively.

Q: What has been the feedback on the new Sunday edition?
A: Many readers tell us they really enjoy it. They get useful information on lifestyle and reports on the major events that occur on Saturdays. An overseas friend sent me a delightful e-mail recently. He said he was sorry that his office subscribed to Shanghai Daily because now he misses the new Sunday edition and has to wait until Monday to read it. He decided to switch the subscription to his home address.  

Q: What trends will Sunday possibly take?
A: Our immediate aim is to expand the number of pages and make it more interesting. We will add more stories and sections to make it as good a Sunday newspaper as it can be.

Q: Have you considered making students some of your target readers for Sunday?
A: Yes, but our immediate target readers are expats. We have another special newspaper titled Campus, which is aimed at students.

Powered by Worldfriends, Shanghai Daily `Friends' offers you an access to more than a million profiles of international and Chinese people looking to connect with others. Visit now to start building your new social network.

Users of ShanghaiDaily.com may notice that during the past month the weather panel on the Website has lost most of its functions including city selection, extended forecast and 10-day forecast. This was caused by a data format change by Weather.com, the data provider of ShanghaiDaily.com.

Since Weather.com's new data had been proved inapplicable on ShanghaiDaily.com, the production team of ShanghaiDaily.com strived to search for new source data and finally succeeded in applying data from Yahoo.com.

Again users can view forecasts for various cities while the extended forecast and 10-day forecast functions are still unusable and are under investigation.

Recently two shiny bronze plates were placed on walls along Shaanxi Road N., just a few minutes' walk from the Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Tower home of the Shanghai Daily. The Jing'an District erected the plates to mark two historical residences and remind passers-by of the glory of the architecture and the history of the homes and their former owners.

One of the buildings is the former residence of Rong Zongjing, the "King of Cotton" in the Republic of China era.

The 1918 house is a stunning white mansion hidden behind an encircling wall adorned with flowers. It is now rented by the media company Star, so visitors are not allowed to enter the house.

The many suited foreigners who walk in and out of the house without glancing at the bronze plate might never realize that their office building was once home for one of the country's most influential families.

Rong's younger brother Rong Desheng was once known as the "King of Flour" - he established the country's biggest flour factory with Rong Zongjing.

Rong Desheng's son Rong Yiren was the Vice President of the People's Republic of China, and also the president of the Citic Group.

To north of the house and opposite Nanjing Road, stands one of the most upmarket shopping malls and office complexes, Citic Square, which was built by Rong Zhijian, son of Rong Yiren.

"It is good to put a plate in front of the house and let us know the story of its former owner," said Cherry Eccen, a tourist from Australia, adding that she also wanted to visit the former residence of Sun Yat-sen.

Another historic building near our newsroom is the Cosmopolitan Apartment, or the Huaye Mansion. The 1934 mansion is in the neighborhood opposite Rong's house across Shaanxi Road N. It was once famous for its Spanish design and many famous writers and artists have lived there.

The mansion has been modified into ordinary apartments. About 100 families live in the seven-story building. The former mansion's beauty is spoiled by air conditioning unit and clothes driers.

A security guard at the mansion, surnamed Liu, said the house has not been well looked after although the city government has ordered occupants not to change the interior.

Most local residents were unaware of the history of the house a lot of information about it has been lost, said Tao Xiuqing, party chief of the Huaye Neighborhood Committee. Tao said some of the history now can only be learned by talking to elderly residents of the home.

But even just walking around the mansion visitors can easily imagine its former glory.

Go through this portal on Live in Shanghai and in just a few clicks you can see room availability and prices for any hotel listed with the Hubs1 logo, and then book online.

As the Olympics approaches many more hotels will be added to this service along with special discounts and offers exclusive to Shanghai Daily. In the future, Shanghai Daily looks forward to further cooperation with Hubs1 to provide you with more useful services.

Click the HUBS1 logo below a hotel's short info on Live in Shanghai's listing pages.

Select from various room types

Finish reservation

About HUBS1

HUBS1 is the leading travel distribution marketplace in China. As the first tailor-made Web-based central reservation and distribution system for the Greater China hotel industry, HUBS1 provides a cutting-edge technology platform that enables hotels to reach domestic and international customers. HUBS1 technology consists of a real time multi-language booking engine, channel management, as well as seamless connections to Global Distribution System (GDS), Internet Distribution System (IDS), hotel Property Management System (PMS), travel agents and corporate customers.

After being selected as the official 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games hotel reservation service provider, HUBS1 was recently appointed as the official hotel reservation service provider and sponsor for World Expo 2010 Shanghai China. For more information about HUBS1, please visit www.hubs1.net.

THE Best Story of the month went to reporter Yan Zhen and photographer Hang Lingbing who went to Mianyang City, in the Sichuan earthquake zone, to bring us stories and pictures from the scene.

 "They overcame many difficulties and showed great bravery facing the threat of aftershocks,” said Wu Zheng, our deputy editor in chief and one of the judges. “These stories are full of the vivid details, which cannot be found in translated stories.”
 
The Best Page was awarded for the Lujiazui Finance Forum package of the Business Section published on May 10-11. The page was gracefully designed and the stories have received high praise from city leaders as well as readers. 

The earthquake series of stories were awarded the Best Web Articles. Four members from the online department, Lydia Chen, Li Xinran, Chen Yiqin and Yang Jian, joined up for the story of the moment. 

They worked hard covering the latest from the Internet, other Chinese media and press conferences. ShanghaiDaily.com also opened a special section for these reports. 

For photographer Hang Lingbing, visiting Jiuzhou Gymnasium -- the biggest shelter for earthquake victims in Mianyang City in Sichuan Province – was a difficult but enriching experience.

Trekking into disaster areas on foot, taking time to absorb and accept the enormity of the quake, and interviewing people were all part of the job. But she also had to meticulously take notes of the people in her photographs while listening to heart wrenching stories of their loss and despair.

Now her photographs tell their stories. One depicts the nose injury of an 81-year-old mother, who dragged her 43-year-old son out of their house at the time of the earthquake. In another, the innocent face of a four-year-old is now tainted with a frown as he stands by the rubble where his parents might have been.

“As a person, it is a thought provoking experience looking at the massiveness of the loss,” said Hang, who has more than 10 years of experience as a photojournalist. This is the biggest disaster she has covered.

“Entire landscapes were flattened and heaps of rubble laid all around, as if remnants of a movie except that this is reality.”

Hang also felt that she grew as a photographer through the experience in Mianyang, especially in the area of ethics. Her concerns were about causing further distress to victims who were distraught enough.

“Any time there people cried, for example, I found myself remaining invisible,” said Hang. “I would ask the people around them for their story or when they calmed down. At other times, the pictures speak for themselves.”

She added that the people in Mianyang were understanding and most were willing to share their experiences and thoughts when asked.

“Most victims were receptive to us. Like the soldiers, first aid teams and other volunteers, they think the media are there to help them.”

Hang’s photographs are a documentary of the devastation of the earthquake so that people in other places could, perhaps, offer a helping hand.

Her disquieting pictures of the Sichuan Earthquake in Mianyang City, where the death toll has climbed to more than 10,000 with another 67,000 injured, can be found on Shanghai Daily’s main Website or through the link below.

Glimmers of hope in a sea of despair

The issue has 10 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Regulations, Real Estate, Auto, Logistics, Metal and Gem, Technology and Opinion, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Shanghai Daily’s “Best Story” and “Best Page” Awards for April were announced at the monthly meeting this afternoon.

The Best Story of the month went to feature reporter Nie Xin for the article “Strolling down Huaihai’s memory lane” and other “Old Shanghai Series” stories.

“The topic is well-chosen and is rather interesting,” said Jiang Jianjun, our deputy editor in chief and also one of the judges.

Judges also praised the layout of the pages on which pictures were combined smartly with articles.

Li Xinran and Lydia Chen, two of our online reporters, were awarded the Best Web Article.

Li won for the story of “Life term over ATM theft cut to five years” about the high-profile Xu Ting cases on April 1 because of his “professional court-story writing,” judges said.

Lydia won for the front page story on April 22 headlined “Sarkozy, and France, woo wheelchair angel.”

The Web journalists work very hard. They write stories quickly based on new information and good usage of background text, said Jiang.

The Best Page Layout was awarded for the Sport page A13 published on April 22. The page was designed by Ma Yue, our sports editor. Ma has just begun to learn to make up pages, and the award was mostly for her rapid progress.

Huang Qifang also received an award for the Biz page B5 in which a passenger plane combined naturally with the articles.

The jury also praised the journalists with the biggest output for the month. Fu Chenghao, Zhang Fengming and Wang Yanlin, all business reporters, all produced the most copy for the month of April.

Shanghai Daily Editor in Chief Peter Zhang with the torch

This morning members of Shanghai Daily could be spotted by our uniform white T-shirts emblazoned with the words, "Shanghai Daily lights your life."

It's a fitting slogan as today the Olympic torch comes to Shanghai for the first time in history and our Editor in Chief, Peter Zhang, is lucky enough to be one of the 416 torch bearers for the city.

To lend some moral support, around 30 of us from across all departments went together to cheer on Peter in his 100 meter leg of the torch run in Pudong.  

The torch run was started at the Shanghai Museum in People's Square at 8am today and Peter was the 15th torch bearer in the afternoon. By 11:30am, Shanghai Daily staff had arrived at Jingxiu Road in Pudong in anticipation and waited for two hours before seeing the man in action.

On both sides of the street was a sea of red. Supporters came either dressed entirely in red, or with red "love China" stickers stuck to their faces and their clothes, and of course there were red Chinese flags – some 10 feet tall and some small enough to be held in the hand. 

For security purposes the numbers of spectators were controlled, but the sense of patriotism was electric in the air. Any sight of Olympics related vehicles ignited a wave of cheering, flag waving, national anthem singing, and chanting of "Go China! Go Olympics! Go Sichuan!"

Though the time given to each torch bearer was intensely short in the words of our marketing director Emma, our Editor in Chief looked "happy, proud and relaxed" during his run.

The Olympic torch Peter held in the run even came to the Shanghai Daily office afterwards where we all posed for pictures with it to be a part of a moment in history.

Fifty-seven people made up the 20 teams that were dispatched to locations along Nanjing Road West, Huaihai Road Middle and Xintiandi.

A total of 11,454.90 yuan was collected from sales of Shanghai Daily newspaper and Shanghai Daily online subscription cards.

Each copy of the newspaper was sold for 2 yuan, while each online subscription card was on sale for 100 yuan, down from its original price of 400 yuan. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to the China Red Cross Foundation.

There were many people who paid more than the selling price of the newspaper or subscription card. A team made up of two female members from the Features/Supplement department collected 611 yuan for just 72 copies of the newspaper, which averaged to 8.49 yuan per copy. The team was at Xintiandi on May 20th.

“There were many people who paid 10 yuan, 20 yuan or even 50 yuan for just one copy of the newspaper,” said Weng Shihui, one member of the team.

“There were even elderly people who didn't understand English, but bought the newspaper anyway because they wanted to donate money,” Weng added.

Weng went on to describe an expatriate who listened attentively while she and her team member explained the donation drive. The expatriate said he was happy to see them and had wanted to donate money, but was unsure of which organization he should give the money to.

"He gave us 100 yuan, and even e-mailed me later to ask which organizations he can donate money too. I sent him the Red Cross Website," Weng added.

Newspaper sales from both days amounted to 8,854.90 yuan. Sales from the online subscription cards amounted to 2,600 yuan.

"There were 2 foreign women who walked past us at Xintiandi and said aloud, `It's so sad.' One of them then immediately took out 100 yuan and passed it to us," said Michelle Sun, one member of the team and Shanghai Daily's marketing director.

The team at Xintiandi had some minor problems with security, and had to convince the police that they were not illegal vendors trying to raise money.

"I took out my name card and canteen card, everything I had to prove that I really was from Shanghai Daily. In the end, we had to take out a copy of the newspaper and point to our advertisement because Yvonne, one of our team members, is in the advertisement itself," Sun said.

Despite all the hiccups along the way, Sun's team raised the most funds, a total of 1,400.50 yuan.

"Doing this makes us feel that we are doing something for the quake victims even though we are not there helping them at the site itself," Weng said.

Shanghai Daily will launch a charity sale tomorrow morning at 10 oriental Kiosks near Nanjing Rd. and Huaihai Rd.

From 7am to 9am, volunteers from our newsroom will sell copies of Shanghai Daily and offer our readers a chance to contribute to quake relief efforts.

Every cent earned tomorrow morning will be donated to quake-hit areas.

Please remember that together we are stronger.

While rescuers continue their relief efforts in Wenchuan County and in the neighboring towns of quake-stricken Sichuan Province, Shanghai Daily and many other media companies in the Wenhui-Xinmin United Press building participated in a donation drive on Wednesday. All funds will go to the victims of the devastating Sichuan earthquake.    

The donation drive was organized by the Trade Union, Youth Committee and Women’s Committee of the Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group. It started at 10am and lasted late into the afternoon. A total of 480,000 yuan (US$68,622) was collected in half a day.

In the Shanghai Daily newsroom, both locals and expatriates participated generously in the donation drive.

“The response was really quick and even the expatriates in our company participated,” says Xia Ruirui, Chairwoman of the Trade Union at Shanghai Daily.   

“Donations still poured in till 8pm on Wednesday and even Thursday morning,” she said.

Within half a day, 23,550 yuan (US$3,366.94) was raised by Shanghai Daily.

Wenhui Daily collected 50,000 yuan and Xinmin Evening News contributed 103,090 yuan.

While many expressed regret at not being able to donate because they were not informed, there were others that wished they could donate more if they were more prepared.

 “I really wish I could have given more than the 150 yuan that I had. However, I did not have enough cash on me at that moment,” said Chief Photographer, Hang Lingbing.

Li Xinran, a reported in our online department pointed to the heading on our homepage which says, “Together we are stronger.” He said it is a good reminder to those of us who have the means to give, should give. Not necessarily our money but also our time and energy to those in need.  

Marc Tessier, the copy editor of the online department, said: “If we look at the amount of people here in China and if everyone gives a little, we can do a lot.

“Yet no amount of money will ever replace the lives which have been lost, which is very sad and unfortunate,” he said. 

Basically, everyone in the newsroom had the same sentiments.

“We should not only donate money, but also useful items after the roads in the province have been repaired and logistics are much easier. Then we can donate things such as batteries and other electronic items,” said Martin Guo, department head of the online department.

Yet, there is more that we can do apart from giving.

“We can help the economy by buying more Sichuan products and by going there for a holiday in the future,” he said, giving the example of how many still travel to New orleans in the United States, after hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

To the victims and people of China who have been affected by the disaster, our hearts are with you. Hopefully our small gesture can help.

This afternoon, three Singaporean interns could be seen happily strolling out of Shanghai Daily’s office in high spirits. Besides relishing in the chance of being able to step (escape) outdoors on a glorious sunny day, we were genuinely excited at the fact that we were heading to Shanghai Library to view the Olympic Games exhibition.

The exhibition began with two rows of vertical boards lining both sides of the walkway, each board with a write-up and a picture chronicling every year that the Olympics took place since it started in 1896.

Further up were many other boards covering the entire process that China had embarked on to prepare for the Olympics. Pictures and write-ups were on display of workers building the “bird’s nest” stadium and leaders walking around the “water cube” while it was still being constructed. They were even snapshots of people in Beijing participating in etiquette campaigns such as the “Queue Up” campaign, which showed people lining up in orderly rows at a phone booth.

There was also a section dedicated to the five Chinese Olympic Mascots, collectively known as “Fuwa,” visiting several countries and meeting different people. Pictures showed Fuwa happily posing with a Santa Claus in Finland, as well as emerging out of a subway station in London, United Kingdom.

“These pictures and write-ups look like Fuwa’s blog!” Elaine Ng, one of the Singaporean interns amusingly commented.

This year’s Olympic torch stood proudly in a showcase, as did many other precious items such as Olympic medals and souvenirs from previous years.

There were also pieces of attire that China’s athletes wore in Olympic competition. An example is Zhu Jianhua’s golden shoes, which he wore when he broke the world’s high-jump record with a leap of 2.38 meters in 1983.

Of course, such an exhibition would not be complete without Yao Ming. The basketball star’s humongous pair of shoes was on display, as is his big jersey and his towering full body picture.

“I think the highlight of this exhibition has got to be Yao Ming,” the other Singapore intern Tabitha Ang concluded.

The Singaporean interns enjoyed their time at the exhibition so much, one of them is even thinking of visiting Beijing in the coming weeks. “This is a once in a lifetime experience to visit Beijing when the Olympics is nearing. I want to feel the vibe there!” Tiffany Goh said.

All in all, it was a very good trip to the Shanghai Library and the Singaporean interns would like to thank Martin, their supervisor, for generously allowing them to visit the exhibition (and escape from work). Thanks Martin!

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Auto, Macro Economy, Finance, Real Estate, Pharmaceutical, Logistics, Energy and Opinion, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

Shanghai Daily’s “Best Story” and “Best Page” Awards for March have been announced.

The Best Story of the month went to metro reporter Dong Zhen for her article “Pudong International Airport T2 Serial,” because it was rather helpful to readers.

“The reporter kept a close eye on the new terminal and gave a series of detailed stories including a special half page on its function and services,” our Metro department said in its nomination form. “She also joined an early morning interview at 4:30am to take a look at the first day of operations at the new terminal.”

Business reporter Zhu Shenshen won for his “exclusive, timely report” that was headlined “City users first to get hands on 3G phones.” It was published on March 23.

Li Xinran, our Web department reporter, was awarded the Best Web Article for his “good use of legal knowledge and professional writing” on the story “Ex-Party chief Chen tried on three counts.”

The Best Page Layout was awarded for the Business page B5 published on March 3. Designed by Chen Jie with text by Sam Riley and Wang Yanlin, this page was picked because it had a creative design and ample graphics.

Li Xiaoyin and Su Yanxian also received an award for the supplement page C2-3 that was headlined “Walk in fields of gold” and published on March 24.

The committee also praised the journalists with the biggest output for the month. Tan Weiyun wrote 1,195 centimeters, Fu Chenghao 1,177 centimeters and Aubrey Buckingham 1,104 centimeters.

Now you can also reach the site through the simpler url: live.shanghaidaily.com, and clicking on City Guide on the Shanghai Daily home page will take you directly to the new Live in Shanghai.

The new site features much more interactivity and information. You can add your own listings of places and events around Shanghai and write comments about existing listings.

Recently we've added many more articles on shopping areas around Shanghai, many more travel routes and sightseeing itinaries, plus useful maps to download. Discover the delights of Qipu Road, Taikang Road, Shanghai's Old City and more with Live in Shanghai.

Shanghai Daily has won two prestigious Asia Media Awards which honor the best newspapers in the region in categories such as print, design and online media.

The paper's Website won the Gold Award while a Silver Award was given to recognize the paper's Olympic torch front page design.

Shanghai Daily was the only newspaper on China's mainland to win any awards.

The awards, organized by IFRA, an organization supporting news publications to achieve higher standards of quality and creativity, were announced last week in Macau.

Shanghai Daily's Website, www.shanghaidaily.com, became the inaugural winner in the Best in Newspaper Online Media category, an award created for the first time in the competition's seven-year history.

"I am surprised to find many innovative approaches used in this Website," said Stig Nordqvist, IFRA's director for digital media research and also a jury member.

He said the award was created this year to recognize publishers who adopted digital media as part of their total product to meet the major changes in how people consumed news and information.

A Shanghai Daily front page featuring the Beijing 2008 Olympic torch's design, published on the day after Beijing announced it, won the Silver Award in the Best in Newspaper Front Page category.

A record number of more than 520 entries for all categories was received from the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East. organizers said the entry numbers were a sign that newspapers were aiming at increasingly higher standards of print quality and journalism.

Nearly 50 trophies were handed out at a gala dinner held as part of IFRA's Publish Asia 2008 conference and expo, the biggest event for publishers and print industry in the Asia Pacific region.

Other winners were South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, Asahi Shimbun, Hong Kong Economic Times and Ming Pao.

The issue has 10 sections: Cover story, Finance, Real Estate, Auto, Retail, Textile, Energy, Technology, Profile and Opinion, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

(Left) A worker operates a high-tech vacuum cleaner in the swank Terminal 2 of Pudong International Airport yesterday morning. The impressive machine is priced at more than 100,000 yuan. The airport bought four to ensure the 120,000-square-meter carpet in the terminal remains spotless.

(Right) Yao Mei (right), a Chinese businessman, becomes the first passenger to check in at the Shanghai Airlines counter at 6:15am yesterday when Terminal 2 of Pudong International Airport officially began operation yesterday.

REPORTS about Pudong airport’s new Terminal 2 has dominated the focus of our Website and newspaper in recent weeks, not only for its splendid high-tech outlook, but because it’s an issue very close to our readers, most of whom are frequent travelers.

Huge, sparkling new and state-of-the-art, the magnificent architecture attracted hundreds of reporters to experience one of the city’s most striking new wonders. Among them was our Metro reporter Dong Zhen and photographer Dong Jun.

Dong Zhen, who has been following the construction of the terminal closely, shuttled between our press room and the airport last week to keep our readers posted.

But she described the moment of the terminal’s grand opening as magnificent.

“I didn’t sleep much because I was busy working on another story the night before,” she said. Excited reporters gathered at the Jing’an Temple airport shuttle bus center at 4am yesterday.

A bleary-eyed Dong Jun, whose baby refused to sleep during the night, also found he couldn’t close his eyes for even for a few seconds.

However, the two Dongs still found much to remember from the early interview.

Dong Zhen said she was very excited thanks to the festival-like environment at the airport during the ceremony. “Crew members were all smiles at the airport,” she said.

Dong Zhen, who joked that she knew the new terminal and its facilities even better than her house, waited for the highlight of the day — the arrival of Yao Mei — the first passenger to enter the new Terminal 2.

Dong Zhen later wrote in her story — the front-page story of our newspaper today — “Yao became a rather bewildered celebrity as he was the first passenger to check in at the Shanghai Airlines’ counter at 6:15am. Yao was surrounded by a media throng of flashing cameras and microphones.”

Dong Jun used his Nikon to shoot plenty of great pictures — you can see his work on the front page of today’s newspaper.

Our online department also managed to get two of his pictures that didn’t make the way into the newspaper but are certainly worth sharing with our readers.

Shanghai Daily’s award winning stories for the month of February featured topics such as the color red and stinky tofu.

The best stories went to “Red: The color of success, joy, love” (C3, Feb. 6), written by features writer Michelle Zhang and “Let there be chaos, bustle and ‘stinking tofu’” (A6, Feb.27), by opinion writer Wan Lixin.

Michelle Zhang proposed her story idea on the “red” topic as the Chinese Lunar New year approached and gave a detailed and interesting say of how Chinese view the color.

Opinion writer Wan Lixin started his story with a paragraph from well-known Chinese histories Zizhi Tongjian to contrast today’s government on “effectively” managing street vendors. 

The best online story went to the series of Edison Chen stories by reporter Chen Li, who gave thorough coverage of the nude photo scandal that had the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong abuzz.

“I am happy to win the monthly prize and bonus, which I can use to plan a trip to Hangzhou”, said Chen.

She is expected to collect a 500-yuan (US$70.82) bonus.

Best page goes to World/Tinseltown page (A9, Feb.26), designed by Chen Jie and Yin Junlan.

“It’s not easy for night desk editors to work out such a splendid page with Oscar beauties in the new and tough computer system”, said JJ, our deputy editor-in-chief. 

The outstanding Website design went to the up-to-date metro map on Live in Shanghai 2.0.

The new metro lines and extensions were added to the map, thanks to our ever-diligent intern Shen Xinyi, nightshift colleague Zhang Shunyi and online designer Zhu Moqing.

Zhang was singled out for special praise as he broke one of his arms some time ago. Still, he visited 61 newly open Metro stations while off work and took pictures of official station maps.

Pudong Airport's new terminal 2 will open next Wednesday (March 26). A completely updated guide to the airport and its two terminals is now online at Live in Shanghai. Check out Pudong International Airport (PVG) and Pudong Airport Airlines and Terminals Information.

The new articles contain plenty of tools, maps, timetables and downloads to make your journeys easier.

One of the perks of being on the online team is that there is an unrivalled sense of team spirit. Maybe this has something to do with the team building effects of our yearly spring outings.

We decided to go far afield this year to a peaceful city called Ningbo. Known for its seafood, Ningbo is a relatively undiscovered spot for tourists. Its location three and half hours out of Shanghai on the southern tip of the Yangtze Delta makes the city a perfect getaway from the concrete jungle.

The trip started with a crowded train journey last weekend. At 14 members the Shanghai Daily band was the largest and most merry one on the train. We took up three booths and played cards and ate snacks for most of the journey – much to the amusement of the other standing passengers on the train.

Arriving in Ningbo we found a city of spacious streets lined with trees and a leisurely pace of life uncluttered by maddening crowds. Winding along the streets is a slow flowing river with affluent high rises on both sides. Turning down alleyways you can find vignettes of traditional life full of Zhejiang character.

On our first day in the comfort of the mid afternoon sun we explored the Tianyi Pavilion – China's oldest library with its romantic ponds, rockeries and of course library housing Ming Dynasty books. This was followed by dinner where we sampled the famously strong flavours of Ningbo cuisines including "stinky melon" and a variety of seafood. This was all washed down with a loud and raucous drinking game at the end.

At the end of our first night we explored Ningbo's neon-lit nightlife, even stumbling across an area called "Ningbo Bund" which turned out to be more like Xintiandi in Shanghai.

The next day refreshed by a night of rest we battled our way through the chaotic local bus stop for a trip out to the local hills, passing by scenic farms and rice paddies along the way.

In the leafy hills we visited the Tiantong temple and Yang Jian, one of our new news writers, made sure of future good fortune by doing a thorough tour of the temple burning incense for each god. We then went to the adjacent forest park to climb its hills and do some exercises. It is at this point that many of us found out how unfit our desk-bound lifestyles are, and only five of 14 made it to the top. The one charging ahead both on the way up and the way down was of course Martin Guo, our online editor, leading our foreign expert Marc to comment that "Martin is just like a mountain goat!"

At the top of the mountain however apart from an endorphin rush from the exercise, plenty of fresh air, and a sense of achievement, we found not much of a view.

Such is life: it's more about the journey than the destination.

This painstaking work is thanks to our ever-diligent intern Shen Xinyi and nightshift colleague Zhang Shunyi. Zhang, who broke one of his arms some time ago, made use of his sick leave shuttling between Metro stations and taking pictures of official station maps displayed there. Then Shen used these photos to prepare all the maps in Adobe Illustrator.

"Live in Shanghai" now provides detailed maps of all the Metro stations except for three stations on Line 6, which, according to Zhang's on-the-spot investigation, have entirely wrong maps.

Metro Overview on "Live in Shanghai"

The issue has 11 sections: Cover Story, Finance, Real Estate, Auto, Venture Capital, Retail, Logistics, Energy, Technology, Profile and Opinion, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

The map has been drawn according to the latest version of the official metro map from its management company and includes the new lines 6, 8, 9 and complete station information in both Chinese and English.It's available for download in color or black and white and fits onto A4. Best of all it's completely free.

Click the links below to download:

Color version  |  Black and white version

You can find more information on Shanghai Metro lines here:

http://live2.shanghaidaily.com/detail.asp?type=editor&id=46

To start the process, a focus group was held this afternoon with six staff members from different departments at Shanghai Daily. The opinions and comments expressed will be used to further construct a survey questionnaire.

As we are still in the process of carrying out the research at this point, we are unfortunately unable to divulge any information that was obtained during the focus group.

But one thing we can reveal is possibly the most interesting question of the session:  If ShanghaiDaily.com were a person, what would this person be in terms of gender, appearance, age, personality and hobbies?

So what do you think?

Below is the full text of the questions that were asked during the focus group. You are more than welcome to send us your feedback. Please send it to: online@shanghaidaily.com. Thank you for your support.

Shanghai Daily Focus Group Questionnaire

Introductory Question (2 minutes)

1. Introduce yourself and what you do at Shanghai Daily.
(请自我介绍, 然后说一说你在上海日报的工作范围.)

Opening Questions (20 minutes)

Activities:
(Each participant is given a piece of paper and a pen. After they are done, each person is to explain what he/she has written down.)

2. Write down 5 qualities that you think an ideal news Website should possess.
(请写下你认为最佳的新闻网站应该具有哪五大要素.)

3. If ShanghaiDaily.com were a person, describe this person in full detail, in terms of gender, appearance, age, personality and hobbies.
(如果ShanghaiDaily.com 是个人, 请写出你认为他会有什么样的外表, 是什么性别, 年龄多大, 什么个性, 以及有什么样的爱好.)

Transition Questions (10 minutes)

4. If 10 is very good, and 0 is very bad, how much do you think ShanghaiDaily.com will score, and why?
(如果10分代表非常好, 0 分代表非常不好, 你认为ShanghaiDaily.com 会打几分? 为什么?)

Key Questions (60 minutes)

5. What do you think of the homepage of ShanghaiDaily.com?
(你对ShanghaiDaily.com 的主页有什么看法?)

a. What do you like/dislike about the homepage of ShanghaiDaily.com?
(请说出你对ShanghaiDaily.com 喜欢与不喜欢的地方)

b. What do you think of the layout (width)?
（你对网站的宽度有什么看法？）

6. What do you think of the amount of information available on the homepage of ShanghaiDaily.com?
(你对ShanghaiDaily.com 主页上的信息量有什么看法?)

a. What do you think of the number of news stories?
(你认为主页上的新闻数量如何?)

b. What do you think of the number of advertisements?
(你认为主页上的广告数量如何?)

7. What functions do you think are missing at the bottom-level article page of ShanghaiDaily.com?
(你认为底层页面应该多具备什么样的功能?)

8. What do you think of the search function on ShanghaiDaily.com?
(你对主页上的搜索功能有什么看法?)

a. How do you rate your experiences with the search function?
(你和主页上的搜索功能的经验如何?)

b. How easy is it to find the information you want?
（你认为用主页上的搜索功能找资料容易吗？）

9. How well do you think “Live in Shanghai” is incorporated into ShanghaiDaily.com? （你认为“Live in Shanghai” 的网站整合入 “ShanghaiDaily.com” 的程度如何？）

a. What do you think of live2.ShanghaiDaily.com?
（你对 “Live in Shanghai”  的网站有什么看法？）

b. What do you think of the information on live2.ShanghaiDaily.com?
（你认为 “Live in Shanghai” 网站上的信息数量如何？）

c. How easy do you think it is to find the information you want on live2.ShanghaiDaily.com?
（你觉得在 “Live in Shanghai” 的网站上容易找到你要的资料吗？）

10. What do you think of the four blogs on ShanghaiDaily.com? Do you read/comment? Why?
(你对 ShanghaiDaily.com 网上的四个博客有什么看法？你有读或留下评论吗？)

11. If you were given the task to improve ShanghaiDaily.com, what would you do?
（如果你的任务是修改ShanghaiDaily.com， 以及改进它，你会做些什么样的改进？）

Conclusion (5 minutes)

12. All things considered, is there anything else to add? （还有什么要补充吗？）

The “User profiles” section for Live in Shanghai was completed today. Now you can check out your and other user’s profiles, which show how many points they have collected, when they registered, and the last 20 items they’ve posted.

Check it out at http://live2.shanghaidaily.com

Yesterday was the 24th birthday of Chen Yiqing, or Kelly Chen, one of our online department journalists.

In the afternoon, some members in the office received her delicious birthday cake and sent sincere blessings to her.

“I am 24 years old, but according to the Chinese nominal age, I’m 25. It sounds like I am rather old now,” Kelly said with a smile.

Kelly has been busy covering Shanghai Expo 2010 since last year. She always runs between different press conferences and interviews during the day and works overtime in the evening to write articles for Expo Insight, a special page in Shanghai Daily newspaper. She sent back a story on Haibao, the Expo’s mascot, when it was first revealed to the public and also helped with the launch of the new English-version of Shanghai Expo’s official Website last month.

“I like my job here. The busy work enriches my life, and I have so many nice colleagues in the office, so I feel happy to work with them,” said Kelly.

While she enjoys her work at Shanghai Daily, Kelly said another event was even more memorable last year.

“The most memorable and important thing is certainly my engagement with my fiancé,” Kelly said, showing her engagement ring, as she beamed with happiness.

Kelly’s fiancé is studying in France now, so they have to communicate with each other on the Internet and on the phone. However, long distance separates no sincere lovers.

He will return to Shanghai later this year, Kelly said.

Kelly has a “green plums and a bamboo horse” experience with her fiancé. They became lovers when they were classmates in senior high school.

“We have gone through more than seven years, and now I am looking forward to him returning,” Kelly said.

When asked how she would celebrate her birthday, Kelly said she watched a good episode of her favorite TV drama “Prison Break.”

Last Friday amidst freezing temperatures and relentless snow fall, the online team could be seen trekking across the icy streets of Shanghai. Not even the heaviest snow storm to hit China in the last 50 years could keep us from our departmental Chinese New Year dinner. In a tiny Japanese all-you-can-eat/drink place we whiled away the evening with dozens of plates of sushi, sashimi, tempura and sake.

Exactly how much sake we consumed that night is unknown – but two memories surface from that blurry night. One was a dish the restaurant gave its hapless patrons for free – a fish still alive and wriggling amidst a bed of its own flesh which had just been sliced off its belly. Another memory is Martin, our Website editor, who became (almost) as red as on his wedding day after multiple toasts from all the faithful members of his team.

Anyway after these merry escapades the serious business of the Chinese New Year begins. Here's how some members of the team are celebrating this year.

Deng Kajia, Website journalist

"I come from Changsha City in Hunan Province so I really want to go home to be with family. I had train tickets for Saturday, February 2 but it was cancelled because of the snow. Changsha is one of the worst effected areas and even premier Wen has visited twice to encourage locals to battle the snow. Still Chinese people feel strongly about being with family at Spring Festival so I’m not giving up.

I've got a full refund of my train ticket and I've bought a plane ticket. I'm just praying that the flight won't get cancelled as well because of snow or fog.

If I can get home our families will eat out at restaurants. We have a tradition of eating with the maternal side for lunch, and the paternal side for dinner. If I don't make it back to Changsha, I'll go to church in Shanghai and attend their youth group services which is designed for people who don't have family here."

Lydia Chen, Website journalist

"My spring festival is all about eating. Just eating and eating until I feel sick usually. There will be three to four families to see and we always make home cooked food. Restaurants are so busy at this time eating there is very rushed and there's no family atmosphere, so much better to cook at home.

It takes about a week to prepare and we have fish, meat, chicken etc. One must-have dish for us is `Lion Head' a typical Shanghai dish that is really just big meatballs. The round shape just means that we hope the family will be together every year.

I have to say I don't really feel that excited about New Year anymore. I did when I was little because there was much longer holidays with more anticipation. This holiday I think I'll also learn how to play cards and mahjong – it's a social skill – and I usually always lose so it's embarrassing."

Wang Xi, Website designer

"A lot of our family is in other cities, spread all over China from Shandong to Beijing. Still we have four families to see in Shanghai. Apart from visiting relatives I'm also going to indulge my love for photography this holiday. I'm going to take my camera and take pictures all over Shanghai and the city's outskirts. I want to take photos of landscapes and people. With the people centered photos I want to capture the festive atmosphere, and with the landscapes I want to show winter scenes in the city."

Tabitha, Elaine, Tiffany, Singaporean interns

"We're doing different things this Spring Festival. Tabitha is going to Beijing with a guided tour, me and Tiffany will be stay in Shanghai. " says Elaine.

"We're very excited about fireworks, they're illegal in Singapore, I have never even seen one so we want to set off some fireworks in Shanghai! We also plan to take a camera and film a one day documentary around Shanghai, and maybe even try selling Metro maps to see what it's like."

"I miss home but I don't want to go back," says Tabitha. "My time in China is so short I want to make the most of it so I want to see how people celebrate in Beijing. In some ways I think celebrations in Singapore are more traditional. For example, every family you visit you have to bring two oranges and give them blessings when presenting the oranges, and you must get two oranges back from them."

That's all for now as the Shanghai Daily office will be closed during the festivities, this will be the last editor's desk until the new (lunar) year. Meanwhile we wish you a happy holiday and a wealthy, healthy Year of the Mouse!

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, Live in Shanghai is getting some plastic surgery – a complete face-lift in fact with a new skin. It is now a warm and cozy orange color with splashes of red. As the snow continues to fall and the temperature plummets outside, check out the new Live in Shanghai for some Chinese festive cheer.

On another note, the Live in Shanghai film competition also closed this Thursday and the three winners have now been decided. Go to http: live2.shanghaidaily.com to find out if you've won!

Wang Zijing (left), a member of the technicial support department of Wenhui-Xinmin United Group, which publishes Shanghai Daily, cleans snow off a satellite dish on the roof of the group's building on Weihai Road.

This morning, Shanghai woke to a city transformed by snow.

When snow fell on Saturday, people jumped with joy at the sight of snow gently spiraling down. Some may have even wished for more snow.

But on the journey to work today, second thoughts about having a white winter must have crossed minds of these people – the “snow” was more like sleet, melting quicker than usual. Snow once pure and white was now a dirty grey and well trodden by people rushing to work.

Nothing like this has been seen for years, and the people of Shanghai walked through the garden of slush finding it a nuisance.

“For every step I took, the snow came up to my ankle. I left a trail of black holes behind me,” said Xiao Bai, who lives in the Meichuan area in northwest Shanghai.

The long and slippery obstacle course proved to be too daunting for Xiao Bai, who proceeded to get a cab. A quick glance to his side saw a long row of like-minded people, all hoping to get to work on time despite slow traffic.

While waiting for the public bus, he saw at least four cyclists lose control and fall.

He might as well have been speaking for Marc, the Website's copy editor, who cycles to work, and who took more time than usual to get to work today.

“Cars and bikes are moving slower than usual, which is a good thing. But people in Shanghai are not used to the snow. It is dangerous without the necessary equipment to clear the snow and inexperienced drivers,” said Marc, a native of Canada, where people are very familiar with snowstorms.

The people of Shanghai are not prepared for it. Photographs and movies of snow usually record the beautiful aspect of it, but do not reflect the larger reality, much less prepare people for it.

“In England, people usually scatter salt on the roads to dissolve the snow. But here, they can only shove it aside, some even without a shovel,” said Nancy Zhang, who went back home to change out of her heeled boots.

Even a modest snowfall may cause much inconvenience to the lives of Shanghaiese.

However, nothing disrupts Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group, publisher of Shanghai Daily, more than the failure of its satellite dish, which becomes a big concern in snowy weather.

A three person technician support team has been clearing snow from the group's two main satellite dishes since yesterday. Snow and ice interfere with the dish's transmission signals, causing a break in communications.

“As a news agency, the group needs the dish at all times be it to send or receive news stories and pictures efficiently. So, we have to make sure that the transmission is not interfered with at all times,” said Wang Zijing, a member of the technician support department.

“It is worse today because the snow is more icy than powdery. It is harder to scrape away and also more slippery.”

The team has to climb up a perilously perched ladder with icy steps to the rooftop and trudge past snow before coming to the satellite dishes. Then, they climb up the portable ladder onto the dishes to scrape away the snow and ice with whatever they could get their hands on for about two hours each time the satellite dishes are affected.

The first time they had to clean snow off the dishes was in 2006 where one of the team members slipped and fell. The person missed work for a month due to the injury sustained in the fall.

Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group held its 10th annual tug-of-war this afternoon outside its office tower. It was a rowdy affair that included eager spectators standing on the steps cheering, excited photographers squirming through the crowds snapping, and of course, determined participants tugging with all their might.

Eight teams participated in the knock-out system. Each match was a best two out of three with the winner advancing to the next round.

Shanghai Daily sent out its best muscle men and women to the frontline. We were pitted against the group’s printing center in the first round. We lost the first battle (which we insist was merely a warm-up), but pulled up our socks and held the Shanghai Daily flag high, winning the next two wars to advance to the semi-final.

Our second opponent was a formidable team composed of cooks and security guards from the building, who were representing the Wenxin Property Management Company. They seemed to exhibit a stronger sense of unity as a team than us because they all had uniforms. But we were not intimidated.

However, we soon learnt that the absence of intimidation was not enough to get us through the next round. Shanghai Daily’s muscle men and women lost two quick battles to bow out of the event.

Give the cooks some credit, after stirring their huge pots of broth and tossing large woks of fried rice to feed hundreds of office workers every day, they were well prepared. It is very probable that the security guards also sported strong and buffed bodies under their clothes too because well, they are security guards.

The final showdown saw the Property Management team against Xinmin Hotel. It was two smooth and fast matches later that Xinmin Hotel emerged as this year’s champion.

Shanghai Daily won third prize and was awarded 800 yuan. We are planning to buy some snacks for everyone in the newsroom to celebrate the first-round win, but more importantly, to start beefing up for next year’s competition.

As part of the university's Global Immersion Program, Tiffany Goh, Elaine Ng and Tabitha Ang will be working with us for about 22 weeks. The Editor's Desk blog will run a three-part series to introduce the three young and energetic girls to the users of our blog. Hope their introduction and future work will be helpful to our readers to understand them as well as our city.

Below is Part 3 in the series written by Elaine Ng.

There comes a time in a girl’s life when she must put aside the things she loves in order that they may return with a passion stronger than ever. And now, that time is mine.

When I applied for the overseas attachment in Shanghai six months back, I was secretly hoping that something might go wrong so I need not leave the comforts of home and delve right into independence just yet. The thought of leaving my mahjong buddies with one “leg” short seems somewhat cruel too.

On top of that, the infamous “they” said that favorite Websites of mine like Google and Flickr has a bad relationship with China, as well as many other sites I am sure are important, at the very least to me.

Alas, all administrative procedures went slow but smoothly. The opportunity of working on the official English paper of Shanghai was too good to be missed. So six months later, I clung on to dear life and left feeling ironically shanghaied to the Paris of the East.

I love to backpack, rock-climb and dive. I am also a photojournalist wannabe. But Shanghai seems hardly the place to do all these. Backpacking in countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Laos allows me to discover world cultures, rock-climb, go diving and take photographs at the same time. Being in a country often described as “metropolitan” and by established guidebook Lonely Planet as “lacking a certain substance despite its good looks”, I have serious doubts about having my idea of a fulfilling life here.

I was so wrong. To start it off, well, it has been both frustrating and fantastic. Frustrating more on my part for not taking my mother tongue, Chinese, seriously back home. Frustrating too because by a twist of fate, our housing agent made us wait three days at home without the Internet and anything to do.

Fantastic because I discovered that contrary to my previous and obviously wrongly painted picture of Shanghai, there is more to it here! There are at least two rock-climbing gyms here, an indoor diving center (man-made but surely better than nothing), photography clubs with organized trips and so much more! Exclamation marks appear when I’m really excited.

What’s better, when I started work, I realized to my amusement, my job was to update the Live In Shanghai section of Shanghai Daily, specifically on Backpacking. It is almost scandalous how much one can enjoy work while researching her hobby at the same time! Not that I am complaining.

Also, the friendly and helpful Shanghai people I’ve met in the one week I’ve been here pleasantly surprised me. 坏事传千里，好事不出门, I suppose? The snowfall I witnessed a few nights ago was definitely a highlight.

And… I found out that Chinese here play mahjong more fervently than Singaporean Chinese. There are ways to get to my favorite sites too. 

To date, I’ve found several more reasons why I will enjoy my sojourn here such as more time for personal development, a newfound love for Sichuan food, eavesdropping on what foreigners are saying and many more.

And before I forget to introduce myself, I’m Elaine Ng, the last of the Singaporean trio. One of my greatest beliefs is that whether our journeys bring highs or lows, or as a result of personal choices or forced circumstances, we can always through them learn valuable new lessons about life and about ourselves. With that mindset, I am sure I will live in Shanghai (daily) in a very fulfilling manner for the next six months. On top of that, as a big kaypo (Singapore slang for busybody and a tag particularly pinned on journalists), I am definitely looking forward to knowing more people, be it from Shanghai Daily or anywhere in Shanghai, or learning more things.

*According to www.dictionary.com, the definition of shanghaied is “To induce or compel (someone) to do something, especially by fraud or force: We were shanghaied into buying worthless securities”.

The issue has 11 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Real Estate, Auto, Franchising, Logistics, Energy, Technology, Profile and Opinion, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

As part of the university's Global Immersion Program, Tiffany Goh, Elaine Ng and Tabitha Ang will be working with us for about 22 weeks. The Editor's Desk blog will run a three-part series to introduce the three young and energetic girls to the users of our blog. Hope their introduction and future work will be helpful to our readers to understand them as well as our city.

Below is Part 2 in the series written by Tabitha Ang.

Nong Haw!

As a tradition in the Shanghai Daily newsroom, it is customary for all new interns to give a brief introduction of ourselves and where we were before starting at Shanghai Daily. I come from Singapore, a small country in Southeast Asia also known as the “Little Red Dot” and I am currently an undergraduate at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore. It really is a great privilege to be able to come to Shanghai and to intern at Shanghai’s premier English news institution, Shanghai Daily.

As an overseas intern, one particular question cannot be evaded and can be commonly heard, as a conversational “ice-breaker” with most Shanghainese we talk to. True enough, on the first day a friendly colleague asked: “Why did you come to Shanghai for your internship?”

If you ask me, I would share with you what a professor at my university once said. He said: “Throughout your life you are presented with many opportunities. It’s up to you if you take them or not.” It was these words that ignited my desire to travel the world and challenged me to step out of my comfort zone.

Yet, it took me one year to master up enough courage. Earlier this year, I packed my bags and left hot and sunny Singapore for the vibrant cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, China. Although my heart was overflowing with excitement and anticipation, it was also filled with the same drive and determination as a sprinter at the start line. I was hungry for experience and eager to immerse myself into the rich Chinese culture and my heritage. Secretly, I was also hoping to improve my Mandarin.

Before I came to Shanghai, my friends from Singapore, in what is known better as “Singlish” (Singaporean English slang), said: “Shanghai? You can shop, shop, shop till you drop, drop, drop man!”

Despite competition from Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Bangkok, Shanghai is still amazing in a unique way. Shanghai boasts a great number of shopping malls and department stores as well as a good array and variety of items in every size and color.

You are also spoiled for choice when it comes to food. Dining is simply a pleasure in Shanghai for any palate and budget. For me, eating out is usually the highlight of the day! Rice, soya milk, noodles, mantous, jiaozi and xiao long baos are a common staple and you can get it at almost every food stall you go to. If you are a big fan of Crystal Jade and Imperial Treasure in Singapore, then you would turn green with envy to know that one basket has 10-16 Xiao long baos and dumplings, all at a very reasonable price. However, if rice, noodles and dumplings bore you in the long run, there are Italian, French, Thai, Vietnamese and even Greek cuisines available. Most of them a couple of Metro stops apart. As a Singaporean, nothing makes me happier than a good hearty meal. And there really is a lot of food, glorious food here in Shanghai!

Yet apart from the food and shopping, there is something else that makes Shanghai so captivating. Amidst the hustle and bustle of people, noisy traffic and rising urban cityscape, the architecture of the restored buildings that have weathered the storms of time stand magnificently amidst the towering skyscrapers that loom above. Even in a city, there are these traditional gardens, temples, churches and statues – some built back in the 1920s. All these to me, reflect Shanghai’s rich cultural heritage. Old buildings are torn down and newer and higher ones are built in place, but still, Shanghai’s Chinese cultural roots remain firm.

So, which part of the city really represents Shanghai? This is a question I am unable to answer now. But I hope to discover it as I live, work and study her for the next 22 weeks.

Tiffany Goh

In these freezing days of Shanghai, the ShanghaiDaily.com team was more than happy to welcome three interns from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

As part of the university's Global Immersion Program, Tiffany Goh, Elaine Ng and Tabitha Ang will be working with us for about 22 weeks. The Editor's Desk blog will run a three-part series to introduce the three young and energetic girls to the users of our blog. Hope their introduction and future work will be helpful to our readers to understand them as well as our city.

Below is Part 1 in the series.

Shanghai charms another newcomer

It was with much excitement and anticipation in the early morning of  January 7, 2008 that a young Singaporean woman left her homeland and boarded a plane for the vibrant city of Shanghai.

One week later, after ecstatically experiencing the city's first snowfall of the year, she sits in the newsroom of Shanghai Daily, eyebrows as knitted as the turquoise scarf around her neck as she tries her hardest to put together a flamboyant self-introduction that would impress the socks/stockings/leg-warmers off her readers.

But from the 38th floor of Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Tower, she has been brought back down to reality with the fact that regardless of how good an impression she paints of herself, it will not equate to handsome rewards like increased pay or longer lunch breaks. Not even a free flow of yummy xiao long baos.

She has since concluded that it is far better to just write about herself, just as she is.

So, here goes.

********

Hello everyone,

My name is Tiffany and I am a Singaporean undergraduate from Nanyang Technological University doing a 6-month internship at Shanghai Daily.

I am a communications studies student, and I feel truly honored to be able to work for the biggest English daily in Shanghai. It really is my privilege to intern at Shanghai Daily.

I chose to come here not because the city starts with the same letter as Singapore (which maybe in a weird way could reduce homesickness a teeny-weeny bit), not because I wanted to wear knee-high boots with my skinny jeans like the Shanghainese (ok maybe just a bit), but because I have heard so much about the up and rising city of Shanghai and wanted to be here to see it for myself.

Truth be told, I have not been disappointed.

In fact, I have thoroughly enjoyed my seven days in Shanghai, and am looking forward to exploring more of what this city has to offer.

I came to Shanghai wanting to experience the urbanization and development of this city. But what has captured my attention and interest is the complete opposite.

I have instead been drawn by the very simple things like the little winding back-alleys where people lay out colorful vegetables on ground-mats, the sight of a man riding on the road with a cart full of fresh flowers, and how the leafless branches of trees in winter look like veins reaching towards the sky.

Bicycles are a very common sight on the roads here and locals might not think twice about seeing them. But recently while walking through a market in a back-lane I saw a bicycle laid against an aged brick wall, right beside a door that looked just as timeworn. I stopped and took a picture because the entire sight was just so beautifully framed. This was when the fog did some good (for once) by adding an extra misty charm to it all.

Perhaps I sound silly by being so enraptured about a dilapidated brick wall and an old bicycle, but I am enjoying the rich culture that Shanghai has to offer. There is a certain fusion of modernity and ancient tradition about this place that my country does not have.

So in the end, it is not the advanced development or cutting-edge technology that impresses me about Shanghai, but the quiet and subtle undertones of this place.

I am definitely looking forward to uncovering more treasures in this city.

The online team has finished some preliminary updates on the new Metro lines that began service two weeks ago. The new pages for Lines 6, 8 and 9 and the amended pages of Lines 1 and 4 can now be viewed on "Live in Shanghai."

The team is still busy preparing detailed maps of each new station.

This promotion package was initiated last November and has been warmly welcomed by our readers.

We will continue to give Shanghai Daily umbrellas and "Shanghai Daily Intensive Reading Course" by WEB International English as a bonus. But these are also subject to availabity. Gift cards for a Carris shirt are now out of stock.

The online team has slightly adjusted the layout of ShanghaiDaily.com's Web pages in the news sections by moving the body of the page to the middle of the screen.

As high-resolution monitors are increasingly used by our readers, the original layout, which was left-aligned, is now considered obsolete and inconvenient, especially for those with 20 to 22 inch monitors.

The solution is to put the page in the middle of the screen and fill in the left and right sides with ads. This, of course, is still a makeshift decision for the time being and a more thorough revamp of the Website's user interface, including expanding the page width to 1,024 pixels, is being planned. We hope the new design will be ready by May.

 The new "Live in Shanghai" has an extensive section on Shanghai's Metro system, featuring an interactive map on all the lines - those currently in operation and those that are scheduled, detailed timetables and prices for each line. Thanks to our intern Shen Xinyi's painstaking work, we also managed to provide a detailed map for each of the Metro station currently in use. Shen returned to school after she finished her internship with us this summer with high praises from all the team.

To our surprise, she popped up recently and joined us again for the preparation of the new Metro info. However, the whole set of inforamtion may still take a short while to reach our Website users as the official information has not been released yet and we need confirmation of details. Hopefully you will be able to find basic facts on these new lines and extensions on "Live in Shanghai" next week.

Every month Shanghai Daily editors honour our hardworking journalists and graphic designers with special awards in three categories: best newspaper article, Web news story, and page layout.

This November there was also a new award specially created for the Traditional Chinese Medicine series that has been running in Scope since March. This is to reward Feature’s newcomer Zhang Qian for her hard work in creating and persevering with this new series that is often hard to write due to its technical nature. It does, however, reveal important aspects of Chinese culture and as such has enjoyed a very good response from readers.

The award for best newspaper article went to opinion columnist Wan Lixin for his mature and complex understanding of the issues involved in the article, “Powerful Interest Groups Undercut Social Harmony” published on November 30th.

There were two winners for best page layout. One of these was for the Metro page A5 published on November 22nd. Designed by Huang Jifang with text by Yan Zhen, this page was picked because it was packed with relevant info presented in a clear way. The other winner was the supplement page D6 published on November 8th. This was picked for its imaginative and interesting portrayal of information.

Of course the awards would not be complete without an award for Best Web Article. This month it went again to Lydia Chen for her article “80% agree with new holiday” published on November 16th. Editors noted that Lydia went out of her way to monitor new developments on this topic and that this article was published on her recommendation.

“Actually I’m just personally interested in this new law,” Lydia said. “Because we have so few holidays so of course it’s interesting!” For modest Lydia though she has won awards for many other articles already this year.

This time she has promised that she will take everyone out for lunch to celebrate.

Fei Lai, our Queen of the Party, receives the trophy from Madame Miao Guoqin, the Party Secretary of the Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group.

Our night editor Chen Qin (female) performs with page maker Chen Yin for the song 'I will marry you today.' Chen Yin is going to get married soon, but not with this beautiful colleauge.

Christmas work dos in the West may bring to mind the boss getting drunk, photocopying pranks and mischief under the mistletoe. At Shanghai Daily though, our big annual Christmas event was done with typical "Chinese characteristics" – and what could be more Asian than a karaoke contest!

The final of the Karaoke contest formed the main event of our Christmas party. On Saturday, 22nd December, we all gathered at the Renaissance Hotel in Shanghai’s old town to cheer on members from our departments. Usually Shanghai Daily journalists are a mild mannered lot, but once onstage and under those spotlights a surprise outburst of superstar personas emerged.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was Leo Zhang, our usually superlatively shy and retiring business editor. Contrary to all expectations, at the qualifying round on December 14, only was Leo right at home as the centre of attention, he was also a consummate crowd pleaser – even winning a rose from a married lady who shall remain unnamed. Unfortunately he could not join us for the final round, but thereafter Leo gained for himself the title of "Lang man wang zi" or the Prince of Romance.

Other distinguished contestants were Fei Lai, from features, who earned the first prize, and the runner-up Aubrey Buckingham, the only foreign expert to enter the contest.

"It was really nice to take part," says Fei Lai. "There hasn't been an event like this before so as a newcomer to Shanghai Daily it's nice to have a chance to show my talents." A little birdie tells us that the owner of this angelic voice is no stranger to Karaoke contests -- it turns out that even in High School Fei Lai had already won first place at the Fengxian District singing competition. And the secret to her success? "I'm not nervous when I get up there onstage," she reveals. "I just enjoy it. It's like I'm going back to my youth and my High School days."

For Aubrey his unabashed reasons for signing up to the competition was, "For love of fame and glory, after all I've been practicing in the shower for years." Our British/Singaporean foreign expert also courageously took on those mandarin songs. "Actually it wasn't difficult, it was through love of Karaoke that I first learned Chinese," he says. Not content with being commonly known as the most shuai (or handsome) guy to grace our offices, Aubrey has now gained a reputation for having the air of a star. But it turns out that this also has its roots in his High School days. "It’s like acting since I did a lot of drama back then, plus I was front man of a band. It's all about the natural charisma that one assumes."

Several members of the online team also put in a brave challenge to the contestants at the final. These included our technicians Xiao Bai and Lao Zhu, and Kelly Chen who persevered despite being voted out at the first round.

Though our attention for the lunch was mostly riveted by the contest, there were also lots of raffle prizes to keep us happy and a hot buffet of dishes that, for better or worse, didn’t include turkey. From the raffle most of us received Starbucks vouchers, but this paled in comparison to lucky Li Xinran – who was the real star of the night with his prize of a Nintendo Wii.

Now we all know whose house we should go round to for New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas to you, our dearest readers!

As journalists we are accustomed to interviewing and photographing others. However, today was quite different. It was our turn to be filmed and be told what to do in front of a camera. A film team was in the office this afternoon to make a promotional video for Shanghai Daily, bringing our busy office into laughter and happiness.

One by one, each department had several seconds to say their slogans and make a show in front of the camera. After one group ended filming, the chief of the next shouted cheerfully, “Brothers and sisters, come on, it’s our turn.” Some women, with lipstick and mirror in hand, replied: “Wait a second, I’m dressing up!”

The online department had a creative, yet effective segment. The Chinese colleagues said the slogan “Your Website, your say” in English, then, the leading actor Marc, our Canadian colleague and Website editor, repeated the slogan in Chinese.

“It was fun and I just tried not to make too many mistakes,” said Marc, who has studied a little bit of Chinese a few years ago, after the filming. “I want to see how we look on television.”

The online department finished its segment after only three attempts.

The advertising team, composed of one man and eight women, rehearsed its part several times and chose a simple slogan “Choose Shanghai, choose Shanghai Daily.” They added a cheerful “yeah!” at the end.

The filming was also a good motivator for some to clean up their desks, said Xiao Bai, our Website designer. He said his desk “cannot be any cleaner” after throwing out three bags of trash.

However, after the filming, everyone returned to a bigger workload. Now, we can only hear the clicks of keyboards and muffled telephone conversations. It was as if nothing had even happened.

It’s the long awaited, much anticipated, new and improved version of Live in Shanghai, and we’re currently releasing it for a trial period. It can be found at http://218.1.64.174:5002/default.asp

Old fans of our current Live in Shanghai sections will know that though it’s very useful and lovable in its own way, there’s limited interactivity. So a new “Web 2.0” version of Live has been developed to address this issue. 

“Web 2.0” has been defined as a second generation of Web-based communities and hosted services. Its aim is to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users.

So in keeping with the spirit of ‘web 2.0’ the second version of Live in Shanghai is all about your participation and your contributions. It is a completely new experience.  Almost every aspect of it is interactive. You can post new shops, restaurants, events, and tips to other expats. You can also post comments and reviews of existing places.

We’re inviting you to have a look and try using the new site. Register for an account to make use of the full range of its functions. However, since it is still in a trial stage, please be patient with any bugs or problems that come up. Plus we welcome your feedback and suggestions. Just use the Website’s feedback form in your account or email online@shanghaidaily.com.

We hope you enjoy working with us at this exciting stage!

"I want my wedding to be special," he said on how he planned his wedding. "I've been to many other weddings, and they were all pretty similar, so I wanted something different."

On the night there was a red carpet down which the happy couple walked. But it was not in a church, it was instead at the Xianqiangfang Restaurant on Nanjing Road East, a place specially chosen for its old Shanghai style.

The restaurant was found after a painstaking search in the hottest days of August. "We remembered another friend's wedding at the Shanghai Club which was very impressive, and we both love 1930's, Shanghai architecture so this was perfect," he said. On the night the restaurant was charmingly decorated with flowers and strewn with rose petals, and the bride was in a beautiful white and glittering gown.

As a truly DIY wedding, Martin asked many friends and colleagues to be part of the team behind the scene.

Kelly Chen, from the online team, played host to the whole evening. Performances includes speeches by the couple and their parents, speech by Peter Zhang, our editor-in-chief, and Champaign pouring and cake cutting. The highlight though was Martin's star performance of "Next to You" a popular Chinese love song.

More than anything thought the night was characterised by the term "re nao," in English it roughly means a "hot" or warm atmosphere made of lots of people, celebrations, and happiness. Certainly there was a lot of people present with the bride and bridegroom both claiming 13 – 15 uncles and aunties each. Certainly it was also merry, with both the bride and bridegroom going home tipsy from numerous toasts.

The most memorable moment of the night for Martin was when he first walked out onto that red carpet. "All that I could see was the spotlight lighting up the darkness, and the smiling, happy faces of the relatives, and rose petals that guests showered us with," he recalled.

Having been beaten by 0-5 (in last year's third-fourth place clash) and 2-5 in the group stages this year, the musicians played the right tune beginning 2pm today, especially in the second half, as they ran rampant against a tiring and under-staffed Daily team.

The Daily was missing key personnel, including striker Zhu Shenshen and defender Fu Chenghao due to work commitments, and its bench was also depleted with just two players on stand-by -- Tom Qian and Zhang Shunyi. This probably took its toll on the players on the field, who battled manfully in the first half, catching the Yue players in offside position on many occasions.

With the opponents dominating possession, it was but a matter of time before the deadlock was broken and Opera opened up a 2-0 lead before striker Chen Yin scored an opportunistic goal following a scramble in the box just before the half-time whistle.

The second half saw the same one-way traffic, with the musicians playing with a fluidity that is their hallmark. Though the Daily defended well, the lack of fresh legs was always going to be a problem. And it showed in the three-goal burst by the operamen, who by now were running rampant.

The Daily did manage to pull a goal back with a wonderful free-kick by Yang Shengshuo just outside the Opera box, striker Zhou Nan doing the initial spadework by leaving the ball for Yang to blast it past the goalkeeper.

There was, however, still time for the rivals to score one more. Despite the scoreline, Zhang Liuhao in the Daily goal had a good game, and played on despite having injured his wrist while keeping out a rasping shot on goal in the first half.

The trophy went to the oriental Sports Daily, which edged Shanghai oriental Morning Post 2-0 in the final. Shanghai Daily finished fourth, a step down from its best performance last year, when it ended third.

In China there is such a thing as a National Journalist's Day. It falls on November 8th, and this is the 8th year that it has been “celebrated.”

Nancy Zhang and Han Jing went to a city-level journalism award ceremony this afternoon as representives of the online department to mark the special day.

Being a newcomer to China, Nancy Zhang was somewhat surprised by the local Children's Day, and Old People's Day, though these can be likened to the Mother's and Father's Day of the West. A festival dedicated to a profession, however, is a new concept to her.

What are we celebrating exactly? Journalism requires sacrifice and dedication sure, but then so do any profession and every profession contribute to society. The answer could be found at the Annual Journalism Awards.

In the plush, red draperies of the Broadcasting and TV Center Building was staged today this award ceremony/celebration of journalism, and the central theme was “Responsibility.” Four short dramas illustrated different aspects of this profession’s responsibilities. From a young intern who learns how to connect with local life, to a mature journalist who reminisces on her most memorable interviews, it was almost uncanny to see the specific joys and hardships of this profession reflected onstage.

Usually we are the ones in the shadows, shining a spotlight on the most interesting people and events in this city. Today, however, we had our few minutes of fame. Along with 6 other Newspapers, Shanghai Daily won 2006-2007 Innovative Media Award and Wu Zheng, our deputy editor-in-chief, was there to collect it.

Post will meet the winner between oriental Sports Daily and Shanghai Yue Opera in the other semifinal, whose official result hasn't been announced.

In a game played at a tentative pace, it always felt like spot-kicks would decide the outcome. Having missed a hatful of chances, including two by star striker Chen Bo and an easy shot by Chen Yin, luck seem to elude Daily in the shootout after the game ended goalless in regulation time.

While Post's first player took the lead, Chen Bo's kick hit the side bar. Goalkeeper Zhang Liuhao proved equal to the task, easily gathering the rival's second penalty. The side bar again denied Daily as Jiang Yuan's penalty clattered the pole. The score was still 1-0 after four kicks. Then the opposite team missed with its kick and Yang Shengshuo brought Daily on level terms with a stinging shot.

Sudden death beckoned.

The rival player managed to elude Zhang to make the score 2-1, leaving Chen Yin to bring Daily back on level terms. His tame effort was saved by the goalkeeper and the Daily players trudged back to the dugout, defeated but not without pride and certainly not before providing a glimpse of the scintillating soccer, which had made them the surprise favorites.

Shanghai Daily will go for its second third-place final in its history on Wednesday.

The annual soccer tournament has 10 teams divided into two groups with the top two teams from each advancing to the semifinal. Shanghai Daily finished third place last year, its highest in history.

It was the newspaper's last group round match, and having already qualified for the semifinals, it was expected to play easy but even its second-string team proved to be tough opponents as it emerged 3-2 victors over Xinmin Hotel, clinching first place in the group.

Next up is the oriental Morning Post on Monday in the first semifinal. The Post won Wenxin Property Management in their group by 4-2 to advance to the semifinals.
 
Captain Chen Bo was still at the helm, like good `ol Steven Gerrad Liverpool keeps falling back on. The skipper led from the front with two goals to boost his tally in the tournament to 5.

The daily's online department's intern Dino Sun scored the opener. The scoreline should have read better but for a controversial disallowed goal from Martin Guo.

In the other semifinal, Shanghai Yue Opera will take on defending champion oriental Sports Daily.

Shanghai Daily finished third last year and seems confident of bettering it this year. With a host of goals -- a 5-2 triumph over Shanghai Yue Opera; 1-0 against Xinmin Evening News, last year’s runner-up; and 4-0 past Wenhui Daily in the opener – the journos confidence is at an all-time high.

Watch out oriental Post, here we come.

The issue has eleven sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Real Estate, Logistics, Auto, Energy, Retail, Technology, Profile and Opinion, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers, mainly based on the topics that have been discussed or published in the Business Insight pages of the Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). If you like, you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your email address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be emailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

The result was clearly the upset of the day.

The musicians, tipped as favorites ahead of the tournament, had justified the tag with a 4-1 mauling of Xinmin Evening News and a 7-1 whitewash of Xinmin Hotel 7-1.

The scribes were understandably apprehensive of another blowout but stuck well together that would even have had Arsenal Wenger and his young Gunners sit up and take notice.

They defended well against the early Opera raids with Eric Yang in central defense complimented well on either side by Jiang Yuan and Fu Chenghao. As the initial hesitation eased slowly, the midfield duo of Chen Bo and Chen Yin got their acts together and took the musicians by surprise by regular darts straight down the middle.

The Daily's lone shark upfront Zhou Nan ensured that it would be no walkover as the Opera stood muffled and taken by surprise.

In less than 15 minutes the Daily was up 3-0 on goals from Chen Yin, Zhou Nan and Jiang Yuan and threw the opera out of their stride.

The scoreline for the daily could have read higher with Chen Yin guilty of missing couple of sitters.

The panicked Opera made three substitutions under the bar but it had little effect as Shanghai Daily, their self-belief growing, came up with a grinding performance that stifled the Opera movement in the center of the field.

It was a virtuoso performance that was music to the ears for the Daily's army of young cheerleaders, with keeper Zhang Liuhao impressive once again as the last line of defense.

In the only sour note of the day, hardworking Zhou took a hit on his leg when he scored the fourth goal for the Daily and is a doubtful starter in the next match.

Jiang added the fifth after breezing past the Opera defenders and finding the net from a tight angle.

With the win, Shanghai Daily has sealed a spot in the semifinals with Xinmin Hotel next up on Friday, November 2.

In the semifinals, Group A toppers take on Group B runner-up and Group B leader playing against Group B second-placer.

In another match of the group, Wenhui Daily forfeited the match against Xinmin Hotel with Hotel likely to be awarded the match 3-0.

The annual soccer tournament has 10 teams divided into two groups with the top two teams from each advancing to the semifinal. Shanghai Daily finished third place last year, its highest in history.

Shanghai Daily kept up the early round momentum with a second straight win in the annual Wenxin Cup this afternoon with skipper Chen Bo once again on target -- sealing the game from the spot.

The scoreline should have read higher but for some brilliant keeping by the Xinmin Evening News keeper who palmed away at least three sureshot goals.

But the keeper was lucky to escape with a warning -- instead of seeing red -- after he rushed out of his box to parry the ball with Chen Bo poised to score.

Shanghai Daily keeper Zhang Liuhao had one big save for the day but otherwise had little to do with much of the game being played out on the rival territory.

The English-language newspaper won its opening game with a convincing 4-0 victory over Wenhui Daily on Wednesday.

Xinmin was mauled by Shanghai Yue Opera 4-1 in its opener and was hoping to make amends but clearly lacked ideas with noticeable internal bickerings.

The eveninger pressed on despite the early first-half setback but was unable to get past a midfield manned by Chen Bo and Xiao Sha with regular defenders Eric Yang and Jiang Yuan playing out their role to near perfection.

Xinmin soon ran out of depth and had their keeper to thank for the thin 1-0 scoreline.

Striker Chen Yin went down in the first half and needed medical attention but was back in the second to keep Shanghai Daily on course for a berth in the semifinals.

In the other match of the group, Yue Opera thrashed former winner Xinmin Hotel 7-1.

Wenhui Daily had no game today.

Shanghai Daily plays Cup favorite Yue Opera next on Monday and will be happy to walk away with at least a point.

The annual soccer tournament has 10 teams divided into two groups with the top two teams from each advancing to the semifinal. Shanghai Daily finished third place last year, its highest in history.

Shanghai Daily striker Chen Bo (center) runs for the ball as Wenhui Daily players try to close in during their Wenxin Cup match today. The captain scored twice as Shanghai Daily eased to a 4-0 victory. -- Zhang Suoqing

Shanghai Daily won the opening game of the annual Wenxin Cup, with a convincing 4-0 victory over Wenhui Daily today.

Captain Chen Bo, our veteran business editor, was the player of the game, running tirelessly and causing all sorts of problems for the opponents with his speed and guile. His Fabregas-style performance -- two goals and an assist -- was the key that unlocked the rivals' defense, bringing a seemingly easy victory.

The Shanghai Daily team pressed the Wenhui team from the first second, making it difficult for them to enter their part of the turf, let alone the box.

After several tentative raids, striker Chen Yin broke the stalemate in the 10th minute. Chen Bo and Ma Jun, our opinion writer, wreaked havoc in the box, and Chen Yin seized on the opportunity to smash in the opening goal amid a scramble in front of the goalkeeper.

Five minutes later it was Chen Bo time -- his corner kick finding central defender Eric Yang, who finished it with an amazing header.

Down 0-2, the Wenhui team tried to salvage the situation in the second half, but their aggression in search of that elusive goal gave Shanghai Daily strikers more space. Despite several offside decisions, Chen Bo, Chen Yin and substitute Qian Tong kept the Wenhui goalkeeper busy.

Chen Bo locked the victory with two close-range shots, after clearing the Wenhui defense and dribbling down into the box.

He nearly wrapped up a hat-trick before the final whistle only to be denied by a superb save by the Wenhui goalkeeper on a stinging shot.

While the strikers were doing there job upfront, it could have been a different story for Shanghai Daily but for its solid defense, well marshalled by Eric Yang, Jiang Yuan and Martin Guo.

Mention should also be made of Zhu Shenshen, Zhang Shunyi, Yi Zuowei and goalie Zhang Liuhao, who was barely troubled but who may need to be at his sharpest when Shanghai Daily takes on last year's runner-up Xinmin Evening News on Friday.

Xinmin Evening News surprisingly lost to Shanghai Yue Opera 1-4 in its opener. Xinmin had humiliated the same opponents 5-0 in the semifinal last year, when Shanghai Daily finished third.

After reading the story "No such thing as a cheap lunch" in today's paper, we all nodded and agreed.

Lunching is always a problem, not huge, but big enough to be called a headache. It's true that we have a canteen in our building, the Wenhui Xinmin United Press Tower, but the canteen isn't known for its delicious food.

The cafeteria is open from 11:30am to 1:30pm, but that doesn't tell the full story. If we get there later than 12:30pm, there are very few choices and the ayis in the canteen start to drive us away at about 12:45pm.

The food there also very greasy, which isn't very healthy. "They only have two tastes. The first taste is salty, and the second is too salty," commented Kat Jiang, a reporter with our online department.

The "bad" canteen forces our colleagues to find food outside the building. But our office is near Nanjing Road W. within one of the most expensive areas in town.

We often have several options, including mifen (rice noodles), gaijiaofan (set course with rice), wontons, jiaozi, junk food and bento (Japanese lunch box) from 24h stores.

 Bento from 24h store Lawson

Lunch in the canteen normally costs 5 yuan (66 US cents) to 7 yuan, which is relatively cheaper than mifen (8 yuan), gaijiaofan (9-11 yuan) and bento (6-10 yuan) and much less expensive than going to a restaurant such as the online department's favorite Itoya (28 yuan at least).

And it is easy to get bored by the lack of choice.

"We spend more than half an hour to think about where to eat every day," said Fei Lai, a reporter with our supplement department. "And we have been to all the restaurants near the office.

"It's hard to decide as the cheap places are limited, but the ones having delicious food are really expensive," she said.

So, unfortunately, we always spend large amounts of time talking about what to have during lunch, but usually we make do with in the canteen.

orange Zhou from our marketing department expressed her admiration for several of her classmates who work at companies with a nice canteen that provide food to employers free of charge. "For me, during lunch time, I have to hunt around, it's very time consuming."

ordering food to the office is always slow during the lunch time rush hour. Nancy Zhang, a newcomer in our online department, once tried a restaurant's delivery service and waited almost three hours to get food.

But our foreign expert Stu seems quite satisfied with the restaurants and said he has many choices. He often orders delivery and sometimes brings lunch to the office himself.

Well, as it is getting cold, maybe we should all try to bring food to the office.

The story goes like this:

Posted: 2007-10-8 18:02:31
Name: Roger
Age: 40-59
Nationality: France
I came back yesterday evening to Hongqiao airport and had a small problem with a taxi :

As it was overcrowded, we waited patiently for one hour to get a taxi and when we finally got one, he drove us for a few hundred meters, found out that our house was not far enough (maybe around a 20 yuan drive) for him and dropped us (my exhausted four years old kid, I and our heavy luggage) outside the airport!

I took a picture of the license plate (E V0920) of this driver and I wanted to complain to the Shanghai Public Transportation Management Bureau but they do not speak English. One of my Chinese friend called them and they started to ask if the driver charged us some fees and if we had a receipt !!?? As he drove us a few hundred meters, he did not have the nerve to charge us (obviously) so this efficient public servant told us that there is nothing they can do! When my friend asked them how one should get back home from Hongqiao Airport if they live close to the airport like Gubei or Fthe rench/German school (which means a lot of expats and probably one million Chinese), he replied that we have to find a nice driver!!!!

Where can we SERIOUSLY complain?

After reading the story, we couldn't help asking ourselves: What has gone wrong with Shanghai's taxi industry?

The city's taxi service used to be considered the best in China, not only because the cabbies are honest and always use the meter, but also because the city has a good management system to hear complaints and make sure that anyone who breaks the rules will be heavily punished.

However, the recent rising number of foreigners' complaints has almost washed away that impression. Our Chinese British member Nancy Zhang said: "Almost every foreign friend has been cheated by cabbies. I'm luckier because I can speak mandarin and I have standard pronunciation.

"The moment they know you are a foreigner, you'll be ripped off," she said.

Maybe that's an exaggeration, but to some extent, it demonstrates our expats' general feeling towards the city's taxi service.

Well, we've informed our colleagues in the Metro department of this complaint and they promised to look into this issue.

Besides that, we'd like to offer some more tips for expats to avoid being ripped off.

*    Generally speaking, cabbies from big companies are reliable and less likely to cheat passengers, even foreigners. So be a little picky and hail cabs from big companies, such as Dazhong, Qiangsheng, Jinjiang, Bashi, Lanse Lianmeng or Haibo. Details about cab companies can be found at Live in Shanghai by clicking here. Try to avoid hailing cabs from small companies or run by self-employed cabbies, whose cars are dark red. Well, by saying that we're not being fair to those honest cabbies in such cars. But we are here to cut expats' RISKS of being ripped off. So, sorry guys.

* If possible, take airport shuttle buses, or use the Metro or Maglev instead of taxis. Shuttle buses, especially those at Pudong International Airport, have good facilities and are comfortable. They also have extensive lines reaching many key parts of the city where expats are prone to go. You can hail a taxi after you get off a shuttle bus or at Metro station. You will find more taxis are available and the chances of being ripped off will be smaller. For more airport shuttle bus information, click here.

* If you take a Maglev, use Metro Line No.2 after you get off the Maglev. That’s the best way to avoid being cheated by cabbies hoarding at the Maglev terminal, hunting naive first-timers to the city. Shanghai's Metro network is extensive enough for you to reach most of your destinations. We hear more cabbie-cheating cases at the Maglev terminal than any other places in town. Some cabbies there are even running fake cabs.

* All Shanghai cabbies must give passengers receipts printed out from meters. If a cabbie gives you a handwritten receipt, then the cabbie is cheating.

* Shanghai cabbies are not allowed to pick up a passenger, ask the destination, and then kick them out of their cars. The actions in such order are defined as “refusal to serve” and will be punished. So if you sit into a cab, the driver has no reason whatsoever to drive you out of the car until he finishes the trip. Of course, it's okay if the drivers don't pull over to let you into their vehicle if they don't ask your destination. You can complain to the local taxi authority by calling 962000-0 (press * to wait if the operator is busy). If things turn really bad, call police at 110.

*      If you want to lodge a serious complaint, collect as much evidence as possible, such as taking a picture of the cabbie and car plate, and getting a receipt.

We'll continue to pay attention to local the taxi authority's response towards this complaint and keep informing our readers how to deal with local cabbies.

For a happy experience with a Shanghai taxi driver, click here.

The issue has eleven sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Real Estate, Logistics, Auto, Energy, Retail, Technology, Profile and Opinion, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers, mainly based on the topics that have been discussed or published in the Business Insight pages of the Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). If you like, you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your email address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be emailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

The show hosted all sorts of businesses and services catering to the expat community. An exploratory walk around the site revealed foreign medical centers, international schools, and adult mandarin courses all vying for attention. Several stalls also featured luxury food and wines. A few foreign restaurants, ranging from burgers to curry, catered for lunch.

Shanghai Daily had a relatively large stall, and it was tastefully decorated with flowers, posters, and seating areas. Most importantly, the center of the stall was set aside for laptops on which visitors could experience the wonders of our website, and particularly Live in Shanghai.

Though there was quite a few of us manning the stand (including marketing staff, plus two journalists from the online department), we had a lot to accomplish between us. Not only were we there to attract new readers, the online team had the special task of spreading the word about Live in Shanghai and recruiting volunteers for the trial run of its new, web 2.0 version in mid October.

Despite being located quite far inside the show space, Shanghai Daily managed to attract a sizeable chunk of visitor attention. Two hundred copies of the paper were rapidly given away, and many new readers subscribed on the spot. Meanwhile many of our regular readers kindly filled out feedback forms and gave us their opinions of the paper and Website.

Some readers liked the paper but thought there weren't enough articles, many readers used our Website but had not noticed Live in Shanghai, and a few readers thought there should be more comics. Many businesses also took the opportunity to ask about advertising with us, which was an unexpected bonus of being in the show.

As for Live in Shanghai, recruiting volunteers turned out to be surprisingly easy, but detaining time-strapped visitors long enough for a demonstration of our lovely Website was more difficult.

The show continues tomorrow and on Sunday, and we will be there with even more free newspapers, free gifts and information about our Website. Please drop by and let us know what you think.

The exhibition is open Saturday 22nd September from 10am to 8pm; Sunday 23rd September 10am to 5pm. There will be a special charity gala on Saturday.
Address: 1000 Yan'An Rd M.
Transport: Nanjing Rd West Metro station or Jing'An Temple Metro station, both Metro Line 2.   

Along with hairy crabs, mooncakes are another dining must during the Middle Autumn Festival, or the Moon Festival, which falls on September 25 this year.

Family members will have a get-together on that day, enjoying sumptuous dinners and appreciating the big, round, bright moon.

Mooncakes are round to imitate the full moon during the festival.

Three kinds of traditional mooncakes can be found in Shanghai, Suzhou style, Guangzhou style and Chaozhou style. Ice cream companies like Hagen-Daz have also created their own take on the traditional treat.

The filings in the three traditional styles of mooncake differ greatly.

Suzhou style mooncake is filled with fresh pork and should be eaten while they are still warm. Reheated cakes just don’t taste nearly as good.

Winny Wang, a female writer with the online depart