Jules A.

It's like ebay but better because it's in China, so think "cheap" "huge", and "variety". Watch out for the knock-offs. The payment platform is a bit complicated but very safe (even overzealous: you have to double confirm your card details tons of times).

It's really bad. It's supposed to be the Chinese twitter but it sucks and you need to register with your passport for even reading other people's feeds. Boo.

If you want to understand what's going on in China (and what the official mainstream media will never tell you) then you definitely need to check this out because it's an endless source of bewildering stories and photos.

Are you an expat in Shanghai? Can't go wrong with this one, it has so much first hand information about what to do and how to do things in the city... that it's very easy to find yourself spending an entire evening reading stories from local characters. It also has a lively offline community with weekly events and so on. Very recommended.

Site for expats in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou. It's very good for knowing events and business listings but the articles and the feature stories are not great (boring, so-so written).

This is where you download the international version of QQ, which is basically the preferred instant messenger in China. It's a pretty good alteranative to MSN or Skype, to be honest. The site packs information for foreigners in China and for anyone interested in the country. Highly recommended if you live in Shanghai or Beijing because it has tons of local information about events places etc.