Are you ready Shanghai? It’s ON. The first match is Thursday night at 11pm. Russia versus Saudi Arabia. Feel good match of the century! And then three matches Friday, four on Saturday and three on Sunday. If you’re looking for the exhaustive list of basically every venue in Shanghai screening the World Cup games, click here. We should have just done the listical on where NOT to see this thing. (Hello C’s, keep being your wonderful self). However. All World Cup parties are not created equal. Some are going the extra distance with stadium seating, huge movie screen, and alcohol flowing like… well, a lot of alcohol flowing. Click through for the five biggest World Cup openings for Thursday night. Read on

Suck it, Arsenal, PSG's already opened their bar! ... On the third floor of a mall that isn't open yet. You have to creep in via a door down the service road at the back. But don't let that sell it short; Paris St. Germain's dedicated "fan experience center" has like five cage-match pitches, seven TV screens, a couple Xboxes, a merch store and, naturally, a bar. We stuck our head in. Pics and deets after the jump. Read on

Fans of world class tennis, tickets are now available for the Shanghai Rolex Masters, returning to our fair city October 6 to October 14. Not for a while, sure, but the cheaper categories tend to go pretty quickly. Tickets are starting at 160rmb -- available here -- for China's premier pro tennis event, taking place again at the Qizhong Forest Tennis Center.

There's a big FùTBOL game happening on Saturday night (Sunday morning technically). The "UEFA Champions League Final". Sounds serious. Have you heard of that? Is that something you're invested in? Click through for places around town showing said sporting confrontation. Try to find yourself in front of a screen at 2.30am or so. Read on

Gooooooaaaaaaaal. Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima or 'O Fenômeno', will be live in Shanghai at Kerry Parkside in all his post retirement glory this Saturday from 2-4pm. It'll be a meet and greet, that's free and open to the public. No autographs will be signed, but you'll be free to bask in the presence of a soccer/football deity. Ronaldo's doing the important work, here to promote the World Cup which will kick off mid-June. Check out details and a flyer with Ronaldo's face (circa 2002) on it here. Go, go, go...but if you're going maybe get there like decently early to line up. Boa sorte!

The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics has its Opening Ceremony tomorrow night and then its three glorious weeks (or something like that) of all my relatives wringing their hands about how Canada is doing in the hockey. Sports bars around town will have their TVs tuned in to the Games but cabaret club The Pearl is going the extra mile with it, so we'll pay that information forward. The Pearl is showing the Winter Olympics, in their entirety, starting from 9am daily till late night, on their big 8-meter screen -- with happy hour prices throughout. So that's a tip for you if you want to catch one or several Olympics events on a big screen and get some cheep booze to go with your gauche nationalism. Opening Ceremony is Friday night.

Shanghai just re-elected Ying Yong as its major but that's not important. What's really important is Kris Wu recently became the first Chinese star selected to perform at a Super Bowl event. This Guangzhou-born, Canada-raised 27-year-old singer is probably the hottest Chinese celebrity now, supported in the pocket by an army of fangirls. Wu's career truly took off when he left the K-pop boy band EXO to be a solo artist in 2014 and launched his acting career. He appeared in Chinese hit movies Mr.Six, The Mermaid and also Hollywood blockbusters like xXx: Return of Xander Cage (that really happened) and Valerian. Last year, his song 'Deserve', a collaboration with American rapper Travis Scott has landed at #1 on the U.S. iTunes store. Not a bad tune, especially good if you listen to it with Beats headphones (his brand). Read on

NBA name-about-town Tracy Murray's showing up in Shanghai this week. Let's reel off some achievements? Ex-UCLA Bruins, left as their #5 All Time Top-Scorer, spent 12 years in the NBA, ex-shooting-coach of the Lakers, he once scored 50 points in a game with Washington Wizards. Puts him up there on the Washington honor roll with the likes of Michael Jordan. We caught up with him on the phone as he was stuck in traffic on the way to the Chinese consulate. It was LA traffic, so we spent an easy 20 minutes chatting CBA, NBA, coaching the Lakers, the woes of big feet and Yeezys. Read on

Parents, if you're stuck in Shanghai over the holidays and are looking for something to keep your kids active and occupied during the school break, there's a few sports camps that are going on for that period for your consideration. Details after the jump. Read on

They’re coming. It was only a matter of time. Orangetheory, the it-girl of HIIT franchises is set to open their first Shanghai studio on Maoming Lu mid-November. Apart from the Traceys, Staceys, and Brendas of the world, the New York Times accredited them as having the ‘best one-hour workout in the U.S.’ So what can you expect? Details after the jump. Read on

Muscles! Spandex! Heavy things! These are just a few things to expect at this year’s China Throwdown. Set up at the foot of The Pearl Tower, this multi-sport festival has grown to include more than Crossfit. There'll be 11 competitions, a slew of free work-outs, games, and international guest speakers this weekend from August 26-27. Read on

Like squash? The game where you're locked in a room with another person batting a dense rubber ball at the walls as hard as they can? Good news; the fourth annual China Squash Open is on from Aug 31 to Sep 1 (psst tickets available here). Top-ranking squash players like last year's champ Mohamed El Shorbagy, as well as current World Number 1 Gregory Gaultier, Laura Massaro and Raneem El Welily will be placed in a glass box on the 11th floor of The Peninsula to duke it out in full view of the Pudong skyline. Which is just sort of rad, no matter which sport it is. Last year saw Mohamed El Shorbagy avenge his younger brother's 2015 China Open loss at the hands of long-time rival, Gregory Gaultier. Will he be able to repeat his success? Or will Gregory squash (hah!) his dreams. In the game of squash, you win or you... lose I guess. In a glass box.

Fresh off his Wimbledon win, Roger Federer has confirmed he will be playing at the Shanghai Rolex Masters 2017. The premiere tennis event of Shanghai, it's a week long tournament for the world's best in men's tennis. Tickets now available on SmartTicket. More details after the jump. Read on

Yes, Camel Group has a gym now. Camel Group -- you know the one from The Camel, D.O.C, The Bull & Claw etc -- closing the loop. They feed you the calories, then they charge you to take them away. It's the F&B snake eating its tail. Genius. Read on

Brain meets brawn at Fhiit Lab where you can get a tech savvy work out, complete with a heart monitor. That's the central conceit with this workout: For the course of the session, your heart rate is monitored and projected on to a big screen, along with everyone else's. So that's... something different. Centered around running, lifting, and rowing the "Hiit" in Fhiit stands for high intensity interval training. The work out gets your heart rate up in short intense bursts for optimal calorie burning. Classes are offered in English and Chinese, dependent on the day. Read on for the sweaty details. Read on

Football time again - some great local games coming up in the next week or so. Shanghai Shenhua are at home to Chongqing Lifan this Saturday night at Hongkou. If you heard this match was taking place in the afternoon, or if you get your fixture information from those dodgy betting websites, be assured the match is actually kicking off at 7.35pm. Read on

New cardio boxing gym, KO Basebody had its soft opening this Wednesday and it was a party. The concept for the gym is “fight club meets night club” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Well. Not really "Fight Club" like a bunch of dudes punching each other in a basement to "feel alive" or whatever , but it's a boxing exercise class in the blue-dark pallet of a nightclub with a Top 40 rap-pop playlist, replete with strobe lights flashing during the “push yourself” parts of class. It’s... less stroke-inducing than it sounds. Read on for details. Read on