Three awesome things about Shanghai.

Leo Li is taking the Three awesome things about your city challenge.

Leo, please tell us more about Shanghai.

Well… Shanghai is well-known…
but I still don’t feel that
people outside of Shanghai
know much about it.

Yes, I would think so too.

I saw a question on Zhihu website.
The question was: “Why do you love Shanghai?”
One of the most popular answers was:
“Shanghai is a city when you talk about your dreams,
and people won’t laugh at you, they will believe you”.
This is very true.
Most of the people come here with dreams.
No matter where they come from.
No matter what kind of background they have.
No matter when they came here and what they want to be.
It is all about dreams.

So, what are three things that make Shanghai awesome?

OK… first, living in Shanghai is convenient.
Shanghai has a large transportation system.
In total, there are more than 400km of subway lines,
35 long distance bus stations
with 1611 long distance bus lines,
1000 plus public bus stations,
180,000 buses, 43,000 taxis.
Many people live in Pudong new district
but work in Puxi district.
You can live in Shanghai without a private car.
Even at midnight, you can get a taxi.

Yes, sounds impressive.

There is a “Long Yang Rd.” subway station close to my home
and a train line called “The Maglev train”.
This is the world’s first Maglev train.
The highest speed can be 500 to 580 km per hour.
The train ride of 30km to the airport
can take just 7 minutes 20 seconds,
but it costs a lot.
I prefer to take a subway if I have time.

I see…
What about shopping?

Shanghai has many shopping malls
with a lot of stores open 24 hours.
This is nothing special,
just same as big cities in other countries.
One of the most interesting things is that
you could use your smartphone app
to order anything you need.
You even can arrange a massage specialist
to come to your home and a chef to cook for you.

Yes, this is really convenient.

I like to go outside to get something I need,
I still think this is awesome.
The technology is changing our lives.

So, what is the second thing about Shanghai?

The people of Shanghai are awesome.
Shanghai has 25 million people living here,
including local people,
Chinese from other regions and foreigners.
I have to say that most of them have dreams.
Even though Shanghai has lots of job opportunities,
but they also want to build their own business，
Many new companies start their own business here everyday.

Interesting…

People in Shanghai love studying.
You can see people read books everywhere…
in a coffee shop, at the hairdressers,
subways and buses.
Libraries are always full of people,
from 9am to 5pm.
Yes, and also people in Shanghai, they are very polite.
You can hear “Thank you”, “Excuse me” and “Sorry” all the time.

And, the third one…

The culture in Shanghai is awesome.
People in Shanghai, they come from all the world.
This is why it is a multi-cultural city.
It’s not only Chinese culture,
there is a lot of Western cultural influence as well.
This is pretty cool.

Yes, I agree.
So, what are the challenges of living in Shanghai?

Like with any other big city,
I think Shanghai’s biggest problem is the cost of living.
It’s not easy for a young person to start a career here.
Many young people leave Shanghai
because of the high prices of accommodation.
An apartment in Shanghai need at least 3 to 4 million RMB,
and the location may not be always good.
If the location is good,
the price of the apartment will be more than 5 million RMB.
That is crazy.
Supporting a family is getting harder and harder
for the middle-aged people.

I see…

Yes, I don’t know if this is good or not,
but I think this is one thing that should be improved.

Thanks again, Leo Li, for your insights on life in Shanghai.

You are very welcome.
Welcome to Shanghai,
and don’t hesitate to ask me if you need help.

Illustrations: Gonzalo Pineda Zuniga and Francisco Anzola at Flickr, CC-BY license and Pixabay.