Shanghai Street View

Shanghai Street View: Self Serve Markets 沪经动向:自助市场

I remember the pride that I felt around a decade ago the first time I used a self-serve cashier at a US grocery store, where shoppers can scan their own food items and then pay for them using a credit card. The whole system was very advanced and made me feel quite high-tech; but equally important was the sense of pride I felt at the trust that such a system implied, since there was nobody there to verify that I actually scanned all my items and paid for them. Now Shanghai is looking to copy the self-service check-out concept, though in a decidedly low-tech way with very Chinese characteristics as it introduces a new string of self-serve vegetable stalls at the city’s wet markets.

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Shanghai Street View: Taxi Tales 沪经动向:打车的故事

Everyone has their own favorite tales about taking taxis in China, and I’m certainly no different from the rest. Some tales are funny and involve colorful cab drivers, but more often the talk these days involves frustration at hailing a taxi in major Chinese cities, especially during peak hours. Now the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has done a formal survey of major cities on taxi satisfaction, and not surprisingly Shanghai ranks near the top of the list for its relatively reliable service.

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Shanghai Street View: Taxi Tales 沪经动向:打车的故事

Everyone has their own favorite tales about taking taxis in China, and I’m certainly no different from the rest. Some tales are funny and involve colorful cab drivers, but more often the talk these days involves frustration at hailing a taxi in major Chinese cities, especially during peak hours. Now the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has done a formal survey of major cities on taxi satisfaction, and not surprisingly Shanghai ranks near the top of the list for its relatively reliable service.

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Shanghai Street View: Reality Microblogging 沪经动向:现实微博秀

Shanghai is once again showing off its status as China’s premier mixing ground between east and west, staging a recent microblogging event that combines the Chinese love of Internet chatter with the broader global explosion of reality TV. The origins of this creative new story began last week, when a distressed migrant took a worker hostage in a Shanghai hotel and held her in one of the guest rooms for more than 6 hours as police tried to negotiate his surrender. The man was desperate after failing to find work in the city, and was hoping that police would shoot him to death during the drama. The situation finally ended after negotiations failed and police stormed the room and rescued the hostage.

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Shanghai Street View: Architectural Angst 沪经动向:建筑的烦恼

Shanghai and the surrounding Yangtze river delta are becoming home to some of the world’s tallest and most distinctive new skyscrapers as China races to construct new office towers to house the many companies powering its economic boom. But the region is also quickly gaining notoriety for a new generation of glittering towers that often become the subject of local ridicule for their sometimes strange and daring designs. I personally find many of these new designs interesting and even appealing, adding individuality to emerging urban skylines that might otherwise look homogenous and lacking in individuality. But many locals feel differently.

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Shanghai Street View: Going Duty Free 沪经动向:开启免税时代

One of my biggest memories from my first trip to Hong Kong in the 1980s was the Duty Free Shoppers stores and the thrill I got from thinking about the massive savings they could offer on cameras, watches and other electronic gadgets for someone like me on a modest budget. Now Shanghai is taking steps to challenge Hong Kong’s decades-long stranglehold on the market with word that China’s commercial capital will soon open its own first duty-free store sometime next year.

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Shanghai Street View: Gaguing Air Quality 沪经动向:检测空气质量

When is a cold, wet autumn day something to smile about? The answer: When you’re the Shanghai government, and you’re rolling out a new state-of-the-art air quality tracking system for the city’s millions of pollution-wary residents. After flawless, clear weather for much of October, a near non-stop series of hazy days settled on Shanghai in November, sending pollution levels to unhealthy levels just as the city was preparing to launch its highly anticipated new air quality monitoring system. The smoggy weather was creating serious headaches not only for city residents but also for government officials, who were hoping for a positive reading on the system’s launch day last week.

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Shanghai Street View: Love of Convenience 沪经动向:钟爱便利

If there’s one thing that Shanghai people love, it’s convenience. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the city’s growing love affair with convenience stores, which have multiplied like weeds in the last few years. As a longtime China resident, I can say without hesitation that Shanghai has easily become the Chinese epicenter for expansion by the world’s top convenience store chains. Those chains, including FamilyMart, Lawson and 7-Eleven, are quickly crowding out a host of colorful but less slick local names in what often feels more like an infestation as hundreds of new stores pop up in nearly any location imagineable.

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Shanghai Street View: Revolutionizing Breakfast 沪经动向:早餐革新

Shanghai’s historical place as a mixing point between east and west has burnished the city’s reputation as a hub of revolution and experimentation, which is appearing now on the breakfast table as a leading local food group tries to sell Shanghainese on western-style breakfast cereal. Shanghai watchers will know of course that I’m talking about local food superstar Bright Food Group, which has just closed its purchase of a controlling stake of British breakfast cereal giant Weetabix for more than $1 billion.

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Shanghai Street View: Filial Turning Point 沪经动向:孝道转折点

This week I want to look at an interesting trend that has seen a growing number of foreign firms look to Shanghai as a test bed for assisted living communities, a popular western concept for elderly people who want to continue living independently despite limitations brought on by age. The idea of letting one’s parents spend their golden years living with other elderly people while under the care of strangers is strange and unfamiliar for most Chinese, whose culture counts filial piety as one of its most basic tenets.

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Shanghai Street View: Tuning Up Traffic 沪经动向:调整改善交通

This edition of Shanghai Street View takes a real turn onto the streets of Shanghai, where the local government is on a drive to clean up the unruly traffic in China’s biggest city. Talk to any foreigner living in Shanghai, and he will gush excitedly about the rich history, cultural life and abundance of entertainment options that the city has to offer. But when the subject turns to the city’s darker sides, traffic inevitably comes up as one of the biggest complaints for most Shanghai expatriates. Nearly everyone has tales to tell of how they were nearly run over by a bus charging through a red light, or of being stuck for an hour in a traffic jam on one of the city’s elevated expressways.

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