Curated, Opinionated Shanghai Living

News, updates, everything we've got...
- Do a Good Thing: Stepping Stones Seeking Volunteers
  
  Stepping Stones, a charity that teaches English to migrant and disadvantaged children in Shanghai, is seeking new volunteers. Saturday, February 16 at 8am will be their first volunteer recruitment and training session of the year, and there’s still time to sign-up. Can’t come Feb 16? Stepping Stones will hold multiple volunteer sessions over the next several weeks (on February 20, 23, 26, and March 2) and is seeking passionate English speakers who can commit to a minimum of eight teaching days from early March to mid-June. If you’re looking for a way to atone for your sins, then this volunteer opportunity just might help you sleep better at night. Sign up here.
- Lil' Yachty Keeping Arkham Cold Like Minnesota This March
  
  Hot booking off the STD presses. March 8th sees Arkham hosting mumble rapper/self-professed cartoon character Lil' Yachty. Here're the basics you need to get up to speed: One Night, Minnesota. Drippy, dopey, up-pitched vocals and Saturday morning cartoon references, Lil Yachty's been described as post-ironic, serious about not being serious. He's originally part of that Atlanta crop that includes Young Thug, Gucci Mane and 21Savage (or does it). Except via the suburbs of Mableton: his earliest musical obsession was Coldplay, he says he don't drink, he don't smoke, and he's the creative director for Nautica. He's just off the release of not one, but two albums last year (Nuthin 2 Prove and Lil Boat 2). Who says millennials have a bad work ethic. Tickets cost 380rmb on SmartTicket.
- Public Donut Announcement: Tim Hortons Opens on the 26th
  
  Canadian-mega-chain Tim Hortons is about to open in Shanghai. The first Tim Hortons in China, part of a 1,500-store-expansion plan, has been given a Chinese name: Tims Coffee House. It will open on Thursday, February 26th. The Chinese hype on Insta is high for Double-Doubles, Iced Capp and donuts. Sweet circles of life. If you prefer your North American junk food Canadian-tinged, and can't wait until there's one in every mall, airport and metro station, have at them.
  
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- Insta Hotspot and Creperie RAC to Open Second Location
  
  Insta-famous and perennially queued creperie RAC is going to open a second location in downtown this spring, according to the owners. The restaurant, which went gangbusters soon after opening at the tail end of Anfu Lu about a year ago, is constantly packed for what are admittedly some very excellent crepes (and interior design). The second RAC will be on Shaanxi Nan Lu at the intersection of Xinle Lu, in the two-story storefront that used to house Insta-famous coffee shop Paras. Read on
- Living On a Prayer: Cages Is Starting a Weekly Karaoke Night
  
  In the land of private KTV, Cages is launching a weekly night of wholesome Western-style karaoke, the kind involving a hooting, hollering herd of inebriates. Choose any song you want (strictly one Bon Jovi song per night), and belt it out in front of everyone. Since no one should have to do this sober, all entrants get a free BrewDog beer or a glass of wine. Winner gets chosen at 11pm by popular vote, with top three singers getting even more beer or bottles of wine. Every Wednesday, the public hazing starts at 8pm. Free entry, bring your own air guitar.
- [Communities]: Talking to Self-Development Group Motivate Shanghai
  
  Shanghai can be the perfect place to coast through life, with teaching jobs requiring little mental effort, three meals a day delivered to your door, and the "confused laowai stare" that you can use in everyday situations to avoid responsibility for your actions. But what if you actually want to rise above your lowest expat impulses of laziness and debauchery? We sat down with Mila Dorosh of MotivateShanghai to see what they're doing in the self-development arena. Read on
- Rita Ora Bringing Phoenix Tour To Shanghai On March 12
  
  Ticket hotcakes: British singer and chart obliterator (circa 2012) Rita Ora coming to Bandai Namco Dream Hall as part of her world Phoenix Tour. First bursting onto the UK pop charts seven years ago with three consecutive no. 1 singles (all have aged super well), she's spent nearly a decade putting out songs (including For You with Liam Payne off the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack, highlight) and judging on music reality TV shows. She finally dropped her second album in November 2018, Phoenix. The album's single Let Me Love You nabbed her the title of "first British female solo artist" (lot of qualifiers there, Wikipedia) to have thirteen top ten songs in the UK. Pop slash RnB goodness entering our airspace on March 12. Pre-sale tickets start at a positively thrifty 580rmb over on SmartTicket.
- Oxalis Is Officially Closed, Waterhouse Hotel Puts in Placeholder Restaurant
  
  Oxalis, the restaurant at The Waterhouse Hotel, is officially done and dusted, weeks after the hotel claimed the chef was just "on vacation." Word comes today from chef Jonas Noel that his last working day was on January 6. Further, "Oxalis, a restaurant built & based on my concept, has been closed following my departure & the one of the entire kitchen team. So I’m not involved anymore with the culinary operation at The Waterhouse at South Bund." Read on
- Shopping Alert: Scammers in the Buy & Sell Section
  
  We've been getting a lot of feedback about scammers in our Buy & Sell section recently. That sucks. But while scammers are a fact of internet marketplace life, and we are taking the best precautions we can, we have a little advice about the most common scams at the moment and what you can do. "Send it to Guangzhou", they say. "Look at my doctored bank transfer", they say. SCAMS! If you're either a buyer or seller on our marketplace, read this before your next sale or purchase. The scammers are always going to try. It’s what they do. And we'll do our best to blow them the f up.
  
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- [How To]: Skip The Queue At Immigration and Use E-Channel
  
  The lines at immigration are a delectable experience — if you enjoy being treated like cattle. If you prefer expediency over a bovine good time, though, here's a five-minute process at Pudong Airport to register for the E-Channel gates at China's airports, saving you literally hours of precious, precious life. Life hacks! Read on
  
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- .........Aaaannnnnnndd, We're Back!
  
  Mind in the clouds, butt in the office chair... That's right, like you, we are back to work, after a glorious week of traveling as far as Shake Shack and not one kilometer further. Three times. Three. And as soon as we find that damn key to the engine room, and figure out how to get the content machine oiled, gassed and up and running again, we'll be stamping out new events, articles and sweet, sweet photo galleries. Crinkle-cut, FTW. Welcome back!
- SmartShanghai Is Off for the Holidays
  
  Hello Pig Year! SmartShanghai is powering down for the holidays, which means our ticketing platform, editorial content, classifieds listings, and various other odds and ends are taking a break for a little while. Click here for everything we've got related to Chinese New Year and click here for everything, everything, everything. We wish you a very Happy Year of the Pig! See ya next year!
  
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- Incoming: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Courtney Barnett, The Soft Moon, and More?
  
  Modern Sky’s Sound of the Xity, the event promoter and festival organizer that brought us Franz Ferdinand, The Bilinda Butchers, The Album Leaf, Four Tet last year and more recently Chai, just revealed a few clues of their major bookings in 2019 through these blurry press photos. Read on
- Dept of Good News: The Man Has Cut Taxes Again
  
  The State Administration of Taxation is pressing forward with cutting your taxes. This time they’ve announced the tax exemption threshold for small and micro enterprises will be more than tripled to 100,000rmb per month from 30,000rmb per month. On top of that, local authorities will be allowed to reduce or exempt up to 50% of the taxes due. If that wasn’t enough, there’s six other ancillary taxes that are also being cut. Things like urban maintenance or real estate tax. The measures are expected to benefit almost 18m companies, 98% of which are privately owned. Looks like The Man might like you more than you think.
- For Those About to Musical: Get Your School of Rock Tickets Before They Sell Out
  
  You like the rock music? You like the musical? Then maybe you're going to like this one. Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit based on the movie starring Jack Black is going to shred Shanghai Grand Theatre from February 22 into March and we've been selling a lot of tickets through SmartTicket. If you wanna go, you should probably get tickets sooner rather than later, to make sure you get the seats and dates you want. What's it about? The musical follows Dewey Finn, a failed wannabe rock star who decides to earn an extra bit of cash by posing as a supply teacher at a prestigious prep school. There he turns a class of straight-A students into a guitar-shredding, bass-slapping mind-blowing rock band. With a new score from Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Julian Fellowes and a cast of kids shredding guitars, pounding drums and rocking out live, it's for rockers of all ages. Click here to get your tickets.
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Russian Movie Night: The Fool

The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old...

Community | The Pearl

Meditation Practice

Join a community to practice asana, prana and meditation in Pudong. 180rmb per person. Book by QR code on the flyer.

Wellbeing | Divine Body And Mind

PPAR Cat Adoption Day

PPAR and Shanghai Adoption Day (SAD) organize an adoption event to give their lovely rescued cats one more chance to be adopted by animal loving families. Free.

Community | Global Harbor
Double Double

Monday is Double Double at Beef & Liberty, when their superior, purist patties on a bun (no lettuce or tomato here) come two-for-one from 3pm to close.

Dining | Beef & Liberty (Xiangyang Bei Lu)

Burger Burger

Buy one, get one free on burgers at long-time favorite Blue Frog, the Shanghai-born chain that's now spread far and wide across China.

Dining | Blue Frog (Super Brand Mall)

Burger and a Beer

Mondays, Little Creatures gives a free pale ale with your burger order.

Dining | Little Creatures
Burger Tuesday

Must Grill picks the second night of the workweek to unleash their burger deal on Shanghai: ten choices of XL size burgers with fresh French fries. Buy one, get one free ...

Dining | Must Grill

Taco Tuesday

All you can eat tacos for 100rmb!. From 5pm to 10.30pm at one of Shanghai's most established taco shops (well, one of its only taco shops, but hey...).

Dining | Cantina Agave (Fumin Lu)

DJ Ozone’s 80s Disco

Ozone's approach is to the let the songs play, house party style -- not making elaborate mixes or using too many effects. In a time of trendy computer DJs with automatic ...

Nightlife | Dada
Kodaline: Live in Shanghai 2019

Formed in 2012 in the amazingly named town of Swords, north of Dublin, this four-piece Irish pop-rock band was catapulted to fame by their 2013 debut album, "Perfect Worl...

Nightlife | Bandai Namco Dream Hall

Craft Sake Pairing Dinner

Xime's third craft sake pairing dinner sees a four-course dinner inspired by Japanese New Year celebration food. Each course is paired with Kariho Shozo brand sake, hoste...

Dining | Xime

Candor pres. 'Black Mirror'

A brand new Cabaret show with Dark Circus Experience — 'Black Mirror" — a tantalizing stage show about the demons that devour us. Don't miss out on this exciting ne...

Arts, Nightlife | Candor
Candor pres. 'Black Mirror'

A brand new Cabaret show with Dark Circus Experience — 'Black Mirror" — a tantalizing stage show about the demons that devour us. Don't miss out on this exciting ne...

Arts, Nightlife | Candor

Attack of the B-Movies: Jason X

Attack of the B-Movies is a live interactive event where comedians Kade Moore, Kurt Dunsing, and Nate Johns toast and roast the best worst movies ever made. This month th...

Community, Nightlife | Cages (Jiangning Lu)

Faux Fighter w/ Dave Reffett

A tribute to the Foo Fighters celebrate the year of the pig with a big show at Mao Livehouse Shanghai. Well-known American heavy metal shredder Dave Reffett opens.

Nightlife | MAO Livehouse
Valentine's Day Dinner

Do the five-star Italian thing at the Four Seasons in Pudong for 988rmb per person plus 15%. On the menu: scampi, foie gras terrine, lobster bisque, beef tenderloin, plus...

Dining | Camelia

Valentine’s Aroma Essential Oil M...

Discount on a couple's essential oil massage for the special Valentines weekend. One hour for 498rmb per couple.

Wellbeing | DVA Boutique Spa (Garden House)

ALL EVENTS

GALLERIES

- February 4, 2019
  
  MVP Chinese New Year
  
  @ Park Hyatt Shanghai
- January 30, 2019
  
  Chromeo Show
  
  @ Arkham
- January 26, 2019
  
  Mvp First Class
  
  @ M1NT
- January 19, 2019
  
  MVP Secret Party
  
  @ The Pearl
- December 22, 2018
  
  Menace II
  
  @ Arkham
- November 23, 2018
  
  Wellington Winter Christmas Bazaar
  
  @ Wellington College International Shanghai
- October 22, 2018
  
  Summer Camp
  
  @ Freesoul Montessori Kindergarten
- October 22, 2018
  
  Montessori Time
  
  @ Freesoul Montessori Kindergarten
- October 22, 2018
  
  Charity
  
  @ Freesoul Montessori Kindergarten
- October 18, 2018
  
  Graduation Ceremony
  
  @ Freesoul Montessori Kindergarten

SMARTREVIEWS

15 Feb 2019

And now for something completely different

globaltraveller on Anthologia

I was led to an alleyway by my regular dining partner that separates Panyu Lu and Fahuazhen Lu and entered into what I thought to be a Japanese restaurant, with hostesses wearing masks and dressed in Kimono’s, which I thought to be most bizarre, but hey, I am game for anything these days... Read more
11 Feb 2019

A Shanghai Stalwart

globaltraveller on M on the Bund

I have lost count of the number of times that I have dined at M on the Bund which was one of the few places that offered consistency back in the closing days of 1999 when M first opened, fast forward to 2019 and still going strong in my opinion.

I was invited to dine a... Read more
11 Feb 2019

Worth the wait

globaltraveller on RAC (Anfu Lu)

I live not far from the corner of Wukang Lu and Anfu Lu and have always intrigued when I pass by and see hordes of people queuing up for a table at RAC Bar, once they have a table then they just sit posing for a selfie after selfie, fiddling with their food.

I thought I would take adva... Read more