A worker walking past renovation work on a street in Beijing. (Fred Dufour / AFP) BEIJING (AFP) – It took Zhang Zhimin a decade to cultivate a loyal clientele at his imported shoe shop facing one of central Beijing’s busiest streets. Yet it took authorities no time at all to make his life’s work disappear behind a wall of bricks. Just two days after receiving a government notice,…

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BEIJING (AFP) – China has ordered the country’s internet platforms to verify users’ true identity before letting them post online content, the latest step by authorities to tighten policing of the web. All social networking sites and discussion forums must “check the real identity” of their users before they can post online content and comments, under new regulations published Friday by the Cyberspace Administration of China. The platforms…

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BEIJING (AFP) – China’s commerce ministry has banned North Korean nationals from setting up new businesses in the country, enforcing recent UN sanctions as Washington urges Beijing to do more to curb its ally’s nuclear ambitions. The ban, effective immediately, came as Pyongyang launched three short-range missiles on Saturday according to the US military, reviving tensions days after President Donald Trump said the isolated regime was starting to…

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Photo by Jakob Montrasio Few colonial mansions in Shanghai epitomize the romance of the roaring 20s the way the almost century-old three-floor French style villa that today houses Sasha’s does, so if you still haven’t found a place to take your special someone to this Chinese Valentine’s, you might want to consider this one. Feast under the roof of what used to to be the Shanghai home of…

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The French restaurant was closed and renamed earlier this year following the Farine bakery scandal.

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Where to go and what to eat on Chinese Valentine’s Day.

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A student demonstrating teetotum skills to celebrate the upcoming Summer Universiade in Taipei. The biennial Summer Universiade will draw more than 7,000 student athletes to Taipei for two weeks from August 19, to compete in sports from basketball to swimming to Chinese martial arts.(Sam Yeh / AFP) TAIPEI (AFP) – China boycotted the opening ceremony of the World University Games hosted by Taiwan on Saturday in the latest…

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BEIJING (AFP) – China is to restrict foreign investments in sports clubs, real estate and entertainment and is banning investment in pornography and “unauthorised” military technology. The new rules were announced Friday by the government which had previously encouraged overseas spending sprees, but then warned late last year of “irrational” acquisitions amid fears that powerful conglomerates were racking up dangerous debt levels. The announcement came days after British…

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Learn a character a day with Mandarin Blueprint right here at Shanghaiist! 体- tǐ- body, system, form, state I like the character 体 right off the bat, because its visual meaning is very clear. The left side of the character 亻has the meaning of “person”, and the right side is the character we talked about in a previous article 本 that means “origin” or “basis”. So the “base” for…

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BEIJING (AFP) – The widow of late Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has resurfaced in an online video, weeks after her friends raised concerns about her fate at the hands of the authorities. Liu Xia was last seen in government-released images of her dissident husband’s sea burial on July 15, and China has been under international pressure to free her and let her travel abroad. Liu Xia, 56,…

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