The 5th issue of e-magazine is out now!
Date:2007-05-29
ShanghaiDaily.com has brought out the fifth issue of its e-magazine.
The issue has nine sections: Cover Story, Finance, Real Estate, Logistics, Auto, Home Appliance, Steel, Profile, Technology 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 (). 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.
Stupidity sometimes gets rewarded
Date:2007-05-28
Elegant Rhythms from the East
Date:2007-05-25
The Shanghai oriental Art Center is now presenting a series of concerts entitled, “Elegant Rhythms from the East,” a weekly recital of traditional Chinese music. To maintain and revive this traditional Chinese music, ShanghaiDaily.com has recently published a new column on traditional Chinese music and instruments.
If you are interested in Traditional Chinese folk music and instruments, our Website will be your best way to have a closer look.
We will discuss history, legends, masterpieces, and ShanghaiDaily.com will provide up-to-date information on concerts, books and CDs that are related to Chinese folk music and instruments. Through our Website , you can listen to the timbre of the instrument and gain a better understanding of traditional Chinese music.
The introduction about the Pipa has been completed. For the concerts of other folk music performances in the Shanghai oriental Art Center, we will update the information in time. The next instrument will be the Gu Qin.
If you have any questions about Chinese folk music and instruments, you are welcome to contact . Join us, you may have the chance to win free tickets.
Slow Paypal.com connection causes payment hiccups
Date:2007-05-25
ShanghaiDaily.com has recently received an increasing number of complaints via e-mail from subscribers, telling us that they have successfully paid via PayPal.com, but our system didn’t activate their account the way it was supposed to do.
After a check with a technician of our supporting company, we found out that Paypal.com has recently issued a Chinese edition. The move is believed to have caused a slow connection from the system to our Website.
The system should create a Shanghai Daily account automatically right after a valid subscription. But the slow connection might cause the loss of the data transmitting from the Paypal server to ours.
If the slow connection unfortunately has affected your subscription attempt, please take the trouble to send us an email, along with the electronic Paypal invoice, to .
We can open an account for you manually as soon as possible.
A day among Mastiffs – Tibetan masterpieces
Date:2007-05-24
Readers might have been attracted by a story in yesterday’s newspaper about the Tibetan Mastiff, the world’s “most powerful canine” originating in the Himalayas. For this story, the author Dong Zhen, one of our Metro reporters experienced a different sort of day during her visit to the breeder and Mastiff lover with several other local media reporters.
The breeder Zhu Mingdi welcomed Dong and the others by presenting them to 21 of his beloved snarling “Mastiff kids,” whose barking almost deafened Dong.
Worried about her personal safety, Dong chose to take the longest way – far from the cages – to enter the kennel. However, at the end of road, she was shocked again, not by the roaring monsters, but by two ever-so-friendly Mastiff puppies.
Unlike their elder brothers and sisters, the two puppies were so lovely and seemed to be willing to share everything with the strangers, Dong said.
She was completely confused by the two thoroughly different treatments and couldn’t help playing with the two cubs, both of which were younger than three months.
At that moment, a female adult Mastiff, called “Meili” or “Beautiful” in English, came out from her cage and lay down in front of Dong. To Dong’s astonishment, the mother dog had the same good temper and never cared to breed cubs from other mothers.
Zhu told Dong when the little puppies became more sophisticated, they would become more offensive to “intruders,” but they still have their own characteristics and are always loyal to their owners.
When Dong and other reporters relaxed their nerves, the Mastiff "Monroe" taught them a lesson that not all the female adult Mastiffs are good tempered. At first, Monroe, a very strong female, showed respect for the strangers and their visit even when some of them made faces in front of her. But when she met Yang Jie, a reporter from the oriental Morning Post, she began to bark and showed her shackles and she ready to kick off a battle with the lovely female reporter.
Shanghai Daily awards for April
Date:2007-05-23
Best Page goes to the Business page (B5, April 19), and the opinion page (A6, April 20).
It’s the first tie for winners in both best page and best story awards.
The Best Online Story of the Month goes to "Crocodile eats 9-year-old boy" (April 23): reporter: Zhang Liuhao
Below is the comment on why they were awarded:
Best story winner:
Zhang Fengming
The new Gold Rush
This news story was hailed for its originality, as few media had covered the news and for its remarkable presentation. Readers can easily follow the news and get a clear idea on the different angles of the whole picture that the reporter aimed to unveil.
Best story winner:
Wan Lixin
Looking behind ‘isms’ labels in Western thought
The article written by Wan Lixin featured profound thought and in-depth analysis on the topic. Wan’s good command of Western thought may well meet the demands of those who are interested in the topic.
Best online story winner:
Zhang Liuhao
Crocodile eats 9-year-old boy
Zhang Liuhao is one of the most nominated and awarded reporters for our Best Online Story Awards. His “Crocodile eats 9-year-old boy” gave him the crown this month. The title is eye-catching and his vivid presentation glitters the story.
Best page winner:
April 19, B5, Business
Creative and fresh design, together with supporting tools for easy reading such as the graphics, all allowed the page to stand out.
Best page winner:
April 20, A6, Opinion
Novel and vivid pictures on the page that perfectly matched the article are the biggest selling point, making the usually serious page and topic interesting.
As the judges pointed out, good news stories should display different sides of the news as various angles make the story worth reading and help it stand out, just like a diamond needs various cuts to make it shine. Also, the first paragraph should be within the limitation of 25 words, because too many words and long sentences can easily confuse our readers and reduce the level of understanding.
New therapy for pain in the neck
Date:2007-05-18
If you happen to be suffering from unbearable neck pains because of long office work in front of a screen, ShanghaiDaily.com happens to have a cure for you.
Claiming to be suffering from neck pain for some while, our editor Guo Min, who sits right at the gate of our office, one day clicked onto an idea to find relief for his pain when he found an idle liquid crystal display screen somewhere in the office.
The screen belongs to Zhu Shenshen, a business reporter who’s now on an out-of-town business trip for couple of days.
“I just use it for a few days till Zhu’s back,” Guo said. “And I really found the therapy quite effective after these days.”
His therapy is as follows: put the screen on top of a box which is at least 60 centimeters higher than the desk and more importantly, at an angle of about 30° from the horizontal.
“I used to feel pain when I kept my head at a lower angle,” he said. “But now I just feel fine and at ease.”
Though the monitor is now farther away, he has configured his Maxthon Internet explorer so that with every two left mouse clicks, the Web pages will be enlarged by 20 percent. That easily made viewing Web pages as easy as from a lower and closer CRT monitor.
He also enlarged every Word document by 50 percent to make them easier to read.
The therapy has not only brought him ease, but also unprecedented attention from fellow workers in the office — together with uncountable questions and doubts about his creative therapy.
“What the hell are you doing?” was the first greeting from Andy Morton, a foreign polisher, when he saw Guo looking upward at the screen beside a pile of newspapers.
Some others are more friendly and caring. “Do you really feel comfortable keeping your head up all the time?” or “Can you see clearly with the screen so far away?”
Or simply “hahaha.”
Now after two days of detailed explanations, almost everyone in the office knows about Guo’s therapy for his neck.
However, the screen had another unexpected function yesterday when a group of foreign visitors came to our office.
As the visitors were just standing beside the high-positioned screen, JJ Jiang, the deputy editor in chief of the Shanghai Daily, spotted the monitor easily and turned it around to the visitors to introduce ShanghaiDaily.com.
The guests seemed satisfied about our Website. So did Guo.
“See? My idea can be both beneficial to my neck and also our Website,” said Guo with a big smile on his face.
Shanghai Daily is locked onto wheels
Date:2007-05-16
Media reports said China has replaced Japan as the world’s second biggest auto market for the first time last year when strong buying pushed sales soaring over 25 percent year on year. We, staff members of Shanghai Daily thought that is true at least in our press room, because people in the office can easily feel the strong desire for driving and car purchasing, which many people think might allow them to lead a more comfortable and convenient daily life.
More and more Shanghai Daily reporters, editors or executive staff have bought or are planning to buy a car as a useful vehicle for coping with the traffic every day while several of them have evolved to become veteran drivers, so frequently do they ride on and off duty.
Dai Qian, a business reporter and two-year-old female driver, said her Buick HRV was a gift from parents for her being recruited by the newspaper. “I don’t take the Metro when on or off duty anymore, since I got the car,” she said. “It changed my life since I can drive it to restaurants or hypermarkets in suburbs – it has set me free. Now I go where I want to go whenever I want,” she added.
Dai has been to Metro and Outlet — two hypermarkets far from downtown and her home — several times. “I usually drive the car myself, but when I stay with my boyfriend, especially at weekends and Friday nights, he is the driver and always escorts me home, she said with a smile.
Jin Jing, an auto industry reporter and auto expert on the Shanghai Daily, has just completed her training at driving school and will obtain her driver’s license next Thursday. As a news reporter who has written a dozen inside stories about China’s auto industry, Jin is good at picking vehicles of high quality. “I planned to buy a Ford Focus for its nice appearance and powerful engine,” she said. “But my dream car is Benz S600.
“I used to be in the passenger seat when auto makers invited us to try their new cars, so I decided to learn how to drive. It might also help me know more useful knowledge about the industry and will improve my quality of life,” the young auto expert said.
Zhang Yi, who married in February, now lives in the northeastern corner of the city, which means he has to wake up earlier than a rooster to tackle the city’s crowded public transport system. “I’ll buy a car not a very expensive one,” he said.
“Chevrolet Lova fits me well, but the fuel price is so high,” the securities reporter said worriedly. “Since I will be spending hours on the road, I plan to listen to music -- light music -- on the car radio.
