After Shanghai Daily wrapped up its soccer league with a fourth place finish last month, the news room today faced a table tennis tournament organized by our parent company Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group.

"It's a pity that we lost in the first round." said Summer Xia, editor of the Metro Department and the leader of Shanghai Daily's ping pong team.

"We got a very bad draw, as bad as our national soccer team. We played last year's runner-up in the first round, the Wenhui Press, which was said to have several professional players," she said.

Even though the team lost, it generated attention among others teams. Shanghai Daily's three-member team consisted of a Scottish player, a young woman and a veteran about 50 years old.

As ping pong is regarded as China's national game (we are proud of our national table tennis team), when a foreigner appeared, all people become very curious.

But for Douglas Williams, our feature writer, ping pong is a long-known sport. "I learned to play table tennis when I was little. My grandfather taught me the game," said Douglas. "I used to play once a week before I came to Shanghai."

Though he lost his game against a tough opponent, Douglas said he still enjoyed the game. "It's a good experience," he said.

The only game that we won in the best of three sets was by our female player and night-shift chief Yin Junlan. "She played surprisingly well," Xia said.

And Chen Shuigen, who is in his 50s and a member of the newspaper's administrative office, also did his best. "He said he hadn't played for 10 years," Summer said. "But even his opponent said he's still a very good player."

P.S. We searched the history of table tennis on Wikipedia, and found: "Although many people believe that table tennis originated in China, the game actually has its origins in England as an after dinner amusement for upper class Victorians in the 1880s."

So, it shouldn't be a surprise that Douglas is such a good player.

Tags: sports

It has been almost five days after the Shanghai Daily online team released a trial period for our 2.0 version of Live in Shanghai. () So how is everything going wi...

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Tags: Live in Shanghai Web 2.0

The tireless members of the Shanghai Daily online team have been working many long, overtime shifts these past months, and we’re getting close to revealing the result!

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

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 .

We hope you enjoy working with us at this exciting stage!

Martin Guo, our online editor, has been busy these past few weeks, and not just with updating the website. Last Sunday, November 18th, was the day of his long anticipated wedding to Maggie Zhang, another Shanghai Daily colleague in the Business department.

"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.

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Shanghai Yue Opera gained more than a measure of revenge against its nemesis of the last two years when it romped past Shanghai Daily 6-2 to snatch third place in the annual Wenxin Cup today.

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.

Profligacy in front of goal in regulation proved costly for Shanghai Daily as the team went out of the Wenxin Cup for the second straight year in the semifinals, this time losing 1-2 on penalties to oriental Morning Post today.

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.

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Shanghai Daily extended its winning streak in the annual Wenxin Cup 10-team tournament with its fourth straight win at Jing’an Stadium today.

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.