The unidentified man approached a group of cats at a Shanghai playground. After watching the cats eat for a short time, the man picks up two kittens and slams them into the ground. The man then stares at the cats for a moment before walking off.

After going viral, online commenters were calling for the man’s blood. While the fate of the kittens remains unclear, the man is believed to be a tutor who teaches at the same location as the one where he abused the cats.

This photo of the man was circulated online:

One online commentator wrote, “We have this type of person living in our world. I propose he be killed,” while another asked, “Why hasn’t this person been shot in the face?”

The highest-rated comment on Weibo insisted that animals deserve the same rights as human beings: “My hope is for more people to adopt this stance towards animals: you don’t have to like or love them, but you absolutely can’t harm them. They are the same as people in receiving the gift of life. You don’t have the right to strip them of their lives. Who the hell do you think you are?”

Police are said to be investigating, but it’s not clear what crime they would charge him with. Despite repeated attempts proposed by lawmakers, China does not have any national animal cruelty laws.

You can watch the disturbing video here.

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A Shanghai restaurant that supplied meals for online food outlets has been shut down after sending 20 people to hospital with food poisoning yesterday.

The victims, mostly university students, became ill after ordering meals from a restaurant named “Sister Zhang” located on 1161 Keyuan Road in Zhangjiang area. The victims had all ordered their meals using the online-to-offline (O2O) platforms Ele.me and waimai.koubei.com.

After ordering barbecue and bibimbap from Sister Zhang, the victims came down with food poisoning symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea and fever. The victims were treated at local hospitals and then released. The victims included five students from the Zhangjiang campus of Fudan University, six students from the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and four students from the Zhangjiang campus of China Academy of Art.

Sister Zhang has been removed from both online food providers. The Pudong New Area Market Supervision and Management Bureau is testing samples of food from the restaurant, and is conducting an investigation.

This comes on the same day the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration announced new regulations that make online food providers responsible for the restaurants that supply their clients.

Starting September 1, both parties face fines of up to 200,000 yuan ($31,000) and can have their licenses revoked in the event of food poisoning cases. Online food providers must ensure their restaurants are certified, while restaurants must have valid licenses and health certifications. Complaints from customers are to be fully investigated.

This is not the first time Ele.me has been implicated in providing unsafe food to its clients.

This past March, Ele.me was fined RMB 120,000 (around $19,000) after an investigative news show discovered restaurants serving platform were preparing food in unsanitary conditions, causing five restaurant to be closed. Ele.me’s CEO, Zhang Xuhao, apologized for the violations. “We must admit that Ele.me has not fulfilled its obligations in overseeing food safety. The management and I accept full responsibility in this matter,” said Zhang.

Last November, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration estimated that some 80 percent of online food providers in the city do not comply with health regulations. Ele.me was able to provide catering license details for only 13 percent of restaurants listed on its site.

But despite the many scandals, Ele.me enjoys the support of Alibaba, who invested $1.25 billion into the company last year.

The post People Getting Sick When Ordering Food Online in Shanghai appeared first on The Nanfang.

Twenty-three percent of Shanghai people between 15 and 69 years-old are smokers, the majority of which are men. Some admit to have started smoking as early as 10 years-old.

Even though the smoking rate is declining, it’s coming down too slowly for some. “The smoking rate remained stable in the city for years and we are pushing for non-smoking workplaces to encourage more people to quit smoking and protect non-smokers,” said Chen De of the Shanghai Association on Tobacco Control.

Sixty percent of poll respondents said they were exposed to second-hand smoke at their workplace at least once a week, while 27 percent claim they were exposed daily.

Shanghai’s current anti-smoking regulations only forbid smoking in 13 public spaces such as primary schools, kindergartens and children’s hospitals. Exceptions are allowed for restaurants and businesses, depending on their size.

With cities like Beijing and Guangzhou having already introduced smoking bans, Shanghai residents are overwhelmingly in favor of implementing an indoor smoking ban. A survey of over 25,500 respondents conducted by the Shanghai Health Enhancement Commission found that 93 percent of Shanghai residents want an indoor smoking ban in the city.

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Part of a three-year government program, the bank based out of Shanghai’s Children’s Hospital has the capacity to store 2,000 liters (528 gallons) of breast milk, and it has three separate rooms for donors. Interested mothers who have given birth within six months are encouraged to donate their breast milk to the bank, where it will be disinfected, frozen and stored. Donors will receive a certificate, as well as preferential treatment at the hospital.

The hospital explained that 85 percent of parents in China that gave birth to premature babies are unable to breastfeed their own children. Breast milk is also beneficial to babies born with low birth weights and a number of diseases, such as short bowel syndrome.

“Breast milk is the best food for babies in the first six months, particularly premature infants, whose organ functions are not developed yet,” said Gong Xiaohui, Deputy Director of the hospital’s pediatrics department.

Although breast milk banks have existed in Europe for over 100 years, China’s first breast milk bank was founded just three years ago in Guangzhou, and is currently one of only ten such banks in the entire country. The ten breast milk banks are only able to meet 10 percent of the demand for breast milk nationwide.

Attempts to promote breast milk use in China have ranged from women dressing up in bikinis to a national ban on milk powder advertisements. A recent controversy over public breast feeding has prompted the Beijing Metro to create nursing rooms exclusively for mothers to use.

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According to Shanghai police, there were 81,269 registered drug users in the city last year, a six percent increase over the previous year. The vast majority of registered drug users in Shanghai are male; two-thirds of all users are believed to be locals, while the remaining one-third reside outside of the city.

There were 4,446 drug-related arrests in Shanghai last year. Over the course of several raids, police seized 1,882 kilograms of narcotics, including a record 2.4 tons of methamphetamine.

The good news, however, is that the annual growth rate of new drug users has actually declined. According to Wang Shiping, Director of Shanghai’s Anti-Drug Office, the City has seen an almost 30 percent decrease in newly identified drug users. This decrease is the result of educational campaigns and a crackdown on drug trafficking.

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The Jing’an District People’s Court sentenced the US citizen, named Yan, to three months in prison, a three month suspended sentence, and a 5,000 yuan ($760) fine. The court argued that were the woman not pregnant, the sentence would have been more severe.

At around 3am on April 12, security footage captured Yan driving away from the Yan’an Hotel parking lot in her white SUV where she immediately smashed into a gate, a lamp post, and another car.When given a breathalyzer test by police, Yan blew well over the legal limit. She also didn’t have a valid Chinese driver’s license.

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Rounding out the top ten were Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taipei, Tianjin, Beijing, Suzhou, Macao and Wuxi. The report studied a total of 294 Chinese cities; not one of the top ten cities was located in central or western China.

Being economically competitive does however have its drawbacks such as pollution, traffic congestion, and overcrowding, factors which the report refers to as “urban disease”. And while Shenzhen tops the list of economically competitive cities, it also leads the so-called urban disease list. Close behind Shenzhen are: Beijing, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Guangzhou, Jinan, Shanghai, Xi’an, Foshan and Shijiazhuang.

Shenzhen made news last year after it toppled Hong Kong for the top position as China’s most economically competitive city. The report cited the city’s sky-high per capita GDP and low GDP energy consumption as reasons why it took first place.

Last year, the China Institute of City Competitiveness ranked Hong Kong as 12th out of China’s most competitive cities. Hong Kong’s demotion was due to its reliance on core industries, societal friction, and the ineffectual nature of local government. This was the first time the former British colony had fallen out of the list’s top ten.

The post Shenzhen Tops List As China’s Most “Economically Competitive” and “Urban Diseased” City appeared first on The Nanfang.

A man named Li was recently having lunch with four friends at a Shanghai Wagas restaurant on Huangpi Road North when a rat fell onto his colleague’s neck and landed on the table.

Li took a video of the incident, which later showed up online. The rat can be seen on top of the table while panicked voices can be heard in the background.

“It was the most disgusting dining experience I have ever had,” Li said. “My colleague was very frightened and vomited because she was not aware it was a live rat and used her hands to remove it,” Li told Shanghai Daily.

Li complained to the store’s manager and area manager, both of whom were unhelpful when they finally arrived after three hours. Li also complained that his calls to the Shanghai hotlines for food safety and consumer rights protection were not promptly answered.

Li’s efforts eventually paid off when the Wagas restaurant was temporarily shut down.

The Huangpu District Market Supervision and Management Bureau ordered the restaurant to complete cleaning and pest-control procedures before it could reopen. The Bureau further threatened Wagas with severe penalties if any hygiene deficiencies were found by its inspectors.

Wagas investigated the incident and determined that the rat entered the restaurant after running down a pipe from an adjacent shop that was undergoing renovations.

Wagas waived the bill owed by Li and his colleagues for their meal, but the group is still considering legal action.

Watch the video below:

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Other Asian locales have firmly established themselves as top gastronomical destinations in the Michelin Guide. Japan was first reviewed by Michelin in 2007, and now has 32 three-star restaurants, the most in the world. Hong Kong and Macau restaurants received their first Michelin reviews in 2009. Meanwhile, Beijing has yet to even be considered.

Boasting a flavor profile that features tastes local and abroad, Shanghai restaurants offer a lot of culinary diversity, claims Michelin Guides’ international director Michael Ellis: “The city is an economic and cultural crossroad, and its gastronomy is the result of a strong culinary heritage which makes the dining scene very exciting.”

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The passenger, with the pseudonym Xiaoyan, says that when she told the flight crew what was happening, they failed to help her. According to her, the flight crew explained that they couldn’t move her because there was no other seat available. They also said that when they checked on the man he wasn’t on his phone. The flight crew then escorted Xiaoyan back to her seat and explained that if anything else happened, she should notify them right away.

When the flight finally arrived in Shanghai, Xiaoyan quickly learned that local police did not arrest the man as she had requested. By the time she gave a formal report to airport police, it was too late — the man and his three travel companions had already transferred to another flight, and had left the airport.

Xiaoyan has demanded an apology from China Eastern, compensation, and for the airline to turn over the man’s information to police.

For its part, China Eastern claims it found no evidence of wrongdoing on the flight. The airline has said the flight crew continued to monitor the situation, but found nothing out of the ordinary. They added that the woman did not ask for any further assistance from the flight crew for the rest of the flight.

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