cityweekend.com.cn

Just finished working and don't know where to go in a (relatively) chaotic metropolis such as Shanghai? Or Beijing? Well, if you're an expat like me living in China and not being able to read local entertainment magazines, City Weekend on-line is your choice to avoid being bored in the city: whether you want nightlife, fancy restaurants, special deals, or interesting cultural events -- Cityweekend.com.cn got it.

Initially I had the chance to read City Weekend (the print edition, related to the website) in a nice restaurant in Tianzifang, one of Shanghai's most interesting neighbourhoods. I fell in love with it almost immediately: it's a magazine that takes you on a trip throughout the best of Shanghai's venues, with reliable reviews and comments directly sourced from their website.

After this first encounter, as a newbie "laowai" (foreigner) in the city, I started using their website on a regular basis. This site is now my homepage on Firefox, and not because I'm particularly loyal when it comes to brands etc., but simply because City Weekend has the most accurate and most up-to-date directory of all venues, events, and parties in town. It's undeniably the best way to organise your spare time.

Personally I use all the reviews and the user comments especially when I have to find a nice place to take my friends or dates out for dinner, or for some relaxing times in one of Shanghai's many bars.

City Weekend is very much engaged in the local scene and community, and often rewards its readers with vouchers and many other perks, and their advertisers like to use City Weekend for their special promotions. So the bottom line is that, if you're part of their community, you can gain access to very cool stuff to do. For instance I participated in one of their contests and I won some tickets to a traditional martial arts show - stuff that, if I didn't have such a reliable expat guide, I could had rarely been aware of.

In conclusion, I strongly suggest all of my colleagues and friends to use this extremely useful website. Did I forget to mention that I found my job through one of their classifieds? Sometimes it's incredible how a website can have a dramatic impact in your life - thanks City Weekend for making my life as a laowai much more enjoyable :)