SHANGHAI — China's biggest city and financial hub is known for designer boutiques and fine dining. Yet wallet-draining Shanghai also offers activities that cost nothing, from walking on the riverfront Bund to sculpture parks and historic sites. Here are five of them.

BOULDER, Colo. — Ethan Welty is thinking ahead to harvest time as he cycles through tidy Boulder streets pointing out apple, plum and mulberry trees on public and private land.

Gilbert teen Danielle Fisher, 17, has been named a finalist in the National American Miss Arizona pageant, and will compete June 30 at the DoubleTree Resort in Scottsdale for the national crown.

You wouldn’t know it from all the parking lots and shopping centers in our immediate vicinity, but out on the fringe of suburbia, acres of peaches are growing fat and juicy in the warm spring sunshine.

The placemat is a favorite at many dinner tables: The often-whimsical plastic version catches the slip of spaghetti from a youngster's fork, while a nice cotton placemat elevates the dining experience just a little without having to set down a whole tablecloth.

The Valley sports media has been tripping over itself in lauding the hiring of new Phoenix Suns general manager Ryan McDonough, calling it a turning point and a ray of light for a franchise that has been in a death spiral during these past couple years of the Robert Sarver era.

NEW YORK — Bodies tensed and noses twitching, the dogs sniff the hunting ground before them: a lower Manhattan alley, grimy, dim and perfect for rats. With a terse command — "Now!" — the chase is on.

FLAGSTAFF — Teeth-chattering. Axle-busting. Head-pounding.

‘Had I known about the crime problems around Arizona State University I would have never let Kyleigh move to Tempe.” Those are the words of Karen Montenegro, the mother of murdered ASU student Kyleigh Sousa.

"Mud" has the feel of a classic, although it's perhaps not enthralling enough to be one. The third and most elaborate feature to date from writer-director Jeff Nichols seems to have been adapted from a novel that doesn't exist -- something by James Lee Burke, perhaps, or Cormac McCarthy, or some other specialist in frequently violent tales about the challenges to masculinity and the forging of new identities that face rural people who belong to a sprawling modern world -- who might be hanging out in a supermarket parking lot one moment and falling into a creek full of deadly cottonmouths the next.

With rakes and shovels in hand, 40 volunteers with DMB Associates turned a once vacant lot in Mesa into a community garden last week.

I recently moved to a home with acreage, but quickly realized that even large lots have small or quirky outdoor spaces that must be designed carefully and thoughtfully.

“The Four Seasons,” a set of four 15-foot fiberglass sculptures by American artist and filmmaker Philip Haas, are on display at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix until April 28.

The silky petals of a fragrant pink shrub rose; the crunchy texture of a gravel path; a nook where grass rustles and a stream runs. What we smell, see, hear, touch and taste can make a garden walk a wonderful sensory experience.

Agritopia, an agriculturally-focused, multi-use community in Gilbert, is planning what’s shaping to be its largest project since its establishment. Epicenter at Agritopia will be a food-based shopping center established over an estimated 25 acres that aims to showcase local farmers and retailers in an innovative way.

She may have grown up in Michigan, but Jana Kramer is country at heart. The former “One Tree Hill” actress entered into the music scene in 2012 with the release of her self-titled debut album. She has since been enjoying success in the genre — gearing up for a tour with Blake Shelton, planning her wedding with fellow country music star Brantley Gilbert, and heading to Arizona for a performance at Country Thunder, the annual music festival in Florence. In between it all, she chatted briefly with the Tribune about her career and what fans will experience this weekend at her show.

Powerful winds raked much of California on Monday, toppling trees, spreading wildfires, causing scattered power outages, whipping up blinding dust storms, and sending waves crashing ashore as a vigorous spring weather system swept through the state on its way across the West.