News from Baidu (BIDU) is that the Chinese search engine is recruiting staff and making preparations to establish a R&D center in Shanghai.

William I. Chang, chief scientist of Baidu.com, has told local media that Baidu is preparing for the Shanghai R&D Center and the Center will be led by the company's existing backbone technicians with newly graduated college students as a complement.

As part of the preparation, Baidu is organizing a large scale recruitment at 25 universities in 15 cities across China. However, the company has not disclosed how many people it will recruit.

Apart from the Shanghai R&D Center, Baidu is reportedly preparing to also construct an R&D center in Tokyo.