eno is one of th

The Happy Farm game on Chinese social networking sites is one of the most popular and particularly among white-collar workers. Some Happy Farm enthusiasts enjoy virtual farming so much that they have decided to try out the real thing. One Shanghai farm is planning to jump on the trend and put up 100 cabins for city farmers to use during extended holidays.

“Can we get more people to choose the stairs by making it fun to do?” This is the question posed by a group in Stockholm, Sweden who converted the stairs of a subway exit into a giant piano.

DIY inventors in Africa have developed innovative solutions to practical problems with old plastic containers.

Located near the former city wall of Beijing, Steven Holl’s “Linked Hybrid” complex is completely self-contained, and features one of the largest geothermal heating and cooling systems in the world.

Adlens adjustable-focus glasses change prescription with the turn of a dial.

Walking through the Shanghai subway recently, we noticed a rack of “Coqui” (小青蛙) shoes which looked incredibly similar to Crocs, which have been popular in Shanghai for the past few years.

Anyone working long hours outdoors knows the burden that a glaring sun can take on the body. In Africa, Dominic Wanjihia has proposed a flexible, wearable solar panel vest to harness this energy for productive purposes.

We’ve been following the shared workspace trend globally for a few years now and have been noticing a uptick in the number of co-working spaces in China lately. We’ve been particularly impressed by the efforts of the newly-opened Xindanwei (新单位) in downtown Shanghai, who joins a few other shared workspaces sprinkled throughout the city.

Anybody who visits IKEA on a weekend in China will be sure to find the familiar scene of customers napping on the couches and beds. And if you stop by the popular IKEA cafeteria, you almost certainly will have to wait around before a table opens up. Following up on our previous coverage, we now take a deeper look at Chinese consumers reaction to IKEA.
Opening their first store ten years ago, IKEA has become a popular place for the rising middle class to spend their freetime, but they are not necessarily buying the furniture. In our experience, Chinese customers are [...]

The Sing For China Tour will bring three of the top Chinese indie bands through 15 U.S. cities over 22 days.

In the latest report to track China’s wealthiest people, we learn that Beijing has the most multimillionaires in China. The Hurun Report’s newest publication titled “China’s New Aristocrat Consumption Threshold Report” lays out the details on Beijing’s estimated 143,000 multimillionaires and 8,800 billionaires. In comparison, Shanghai has 116,000 multimillionaires and 7,000 billionaires.
The typical rich Beijing family profile is that of a couple in their 40s with a teenager. Annual spending for Beijing’s rich is roughly USD 850,000, including an estimated one-fifth of that going to charity. Tokyo and Osaka are top travel destinations, while BMW and Mercedes Benz are the [...]

We’ve covered previous marketing efforts from China’s leading sportswear and shoe company Li Ning, who seems to be willing to push the envelope in terms of innovative ways to reach the local youth market. The company recently released an eco-friendly shoe called the “Green 001″ for the Spring 2009 line. The  shoe is constructed from eco-friendly materials, including ample use of hemp. In their marketing campaign (see above poster), Li Ning is promoting a simple theme: “Environmental Protection = Trendy.”
Interestingly, the tongue of the shoe is embroidered with the image of Wangari Muta Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement [...]

Image credit: Getty Images, Miko Walczuk Photography/Flickr
The main tank at Okinawa’s Churaumi Aquarium in Japan holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water behind the world’s second largest acrylic glass pane (8.2 meters by 22.5 meters). Known as the ‘Kuroshio Sea,’ the tank houses whale sharks and manta rays among a plethora of fish. Jon Rawlinson recorded a mesmerizing video of the tank, set to the music of Barcelona.

Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world – (song is Please don’t go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.
[via 70percent.org]

One of the major ways that the Chinese government has been pushing forward creative industry in China is through the development of creative industry parks or zones. According to Eugenie Birch, chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of City and Regional Planning, “China’s investing heavily in the knowledge worker writ large, and this has become another part of that investment…And when China does something, it does it at full force.”
The most common creative industry zones consists of an old factory or warehouse converted into an area designed for art galleries, entertainment venues and offices for designers, architects, artists and [...]