Shanghai

Michael Schumacher’s 2005 finale was a dismal ending to a season he’d rather forget. The seven-time world champion’s Shanghai woes resurfaced at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday when he was forced to start from the pit lane after a pre-race collision. Then, 22 laps into the race, he spun out and calmly walked off the track.

Kimi Raikkonen wrapped up his preparations for the Chinese Grand Prix by posting the fastest time in final practice in Shanghai on Saturday, handing McLaren a boost in their push for the constructors’ title. The Finn powered round the Shanghai International Circuit in 1:33,212.

Seven lions attacked a cleaner on his first day at work after he took a short cut through their enclosure, state press said on Friday. Zhang Huabang was in a critical condition after mistakenly walking on Tuesday through the unlocked gate of the enclosure at Shanghai Wildlife Park to get to the other side, the <i>China Daily</i> said.

Can’t seem to navigate China’s mammoth city of Shanghai? Check your map, it’s probably counterfeit. An increasing number of drivers in Shanghai are having trouble getting to their destinations when they rely on their car’s global positioning system because many electronic maps installed are fake.

In Buddhist teachings, making money is an unlikely path to nirvana, but in increasingly iconoclastic China it just may well be a leap of faith. Taking a page from their Communist Party brethren, 18 monks in Shanghai have signed up for master of business administration classes in hopes of better managing their temple.

China could move ahead the launch of its next manned space mission to as early as this month, a state newspaper reported on Wednesday. ”The launch time for the Shenzhou VI is around September or October,” Zhang Qingwei, president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, told the Shanghai Morning Post.

Fourteen people died and 15 were missing on Friday after Typhoon Talim’s whipping rain and winds walloped China’s east coast and Taiwan, causing widespread damage. Meanwhile, an extremely strong typhoon is churning towards Japan and is on course to hit the nation’s main southern island next week.

A Chinese researcher has warned of a new threat to public health and morality — naked internet chatting. Up to 20 000 Chinese log on to chat rooms each night in various states of undress and communicate using web cams, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said on Tuesday.

Chinese sports fans are hailing the man they call ”Flying Spectacles Man” as their newest star. Hu Kai, nicknamed for his ever-present gold rimmed glasses, has dominated the front pages of Chinese sports newspapers since winning the men’s 100m sprint at the University Games in Izmir, Turkey, on Sunday.

The death toll from Typhoon Matsa that ripped through eastern China rose to 10 on Monday with seven of the casualties reported in Shanghai, state media said. Matsa slammed into coastal areas over the weekend, tearing up roads, reservoirs and houses, causing -million of damage in China’s glitziest city, Shanghai, alone.

Taxis with "unlucky" number plates in Shanghai will stop operating during university entrance exams this week to appease superstitious parents, state media said on Monday. "Lots of parents refuse to use cabs with number plates they consider unlucky," said Zhao Leping, head of the Shanghai Dazhong taxi company.

Philandering communist-party officials in China’s eastern city of Nanjing will have to confess their extramarital affairs in a bid to stop corruption, according to a new regulation published on Friday. The regulation stems from concerns about declining morality among party ranks, and fears about the link between illicit affairs and corruption.

The sky’s the limit for the development of golf in China, according to world number three Ernie Els. The ”Big Easy”, speaking ahead of Thursday’s start of the ,5-million BMW Asian Open in Shanghai, said the understanding and appreciation of golf in the Middle Kingdom has grown in leaps and bounds over the past decade.

Surging demand for toilet paper in China has some of the nation’s suppliers in a flush, state press said on Tuesday. The vice-director of the Shanghai Paper Trade Association said he is "beginning to worry about the large wood consumption", and the industry needs to consider other technologies and uses.

A south-western Chinese town has spent nearly -million on a replica of the country’s most famous monument, the Great Wall, in a bid to draw more tourist dollars, state press said on Friday. The 1 680m wall erected near Chengdu city in China’s Sichuan province is a fraction of the mammoth original structure.

Police in Shanghai have smashed an illegal gambling ring betting on fights between pet crickets and confiscated 1,8-million yuan ($220&nbsp;000), state media said on Tuesday. Cricket fighting, a hobby of the ancient Chinese, dates back to as early as the Tang dynasty of 618 to 907 AD.

A Chinese court has ruled against two students who sued their high school in Shanghai for breach of privacy after authorities broadcast a video of them kissing, state press reported on Tuesday. The court decided that Fuxing High School had the right to monitor student behaviour with hidden cameras.