more locals marrying foreigners

NEARLY 3,000 Shanghainese tied the knot with people from 55 overseas countries and regions last year, growing 22.97 percent from a year earlier, Wenhui Daily reported today.

The average age gap between Shanghai women and their foreign husbands is 10.5, and 13 percent of the foreign husbands are 20 years older than their local brides, the report said. (source)

Shanghai call center

The Shanghai Call Center is a free 24-7 hotline - 962-288 - a super-friendly customer service hub run by the Shanghai Municipal Government in English and Chinese. Agents can talk to your taxi driver, your ayi, book entertainment tickets and tell you where to buy rabbit food. (article)

DFS Launches Luxury Shopping Website With Shanghai Difusi

Galleria.com.cn has launched to compete in China's online luxury shopping sector. (article).

Whoo hoo! Hopefully this will be a big step towards increasing online shopping in China.

Shanghai on course to sail past HK in box handling

Shanghai is on course to surpass Hong Kong as well this year, after the first phase of a new US$16 billion (US$1 = RM3.52) deepwater port helped boost its container volume 21 per cent in 2006. (article)

China approves law that protects private property

After more than a quarter-century of market-oriented economic policies and record-setting growth, China on Friday approved its first law to protect private property explicitly. (article)

Avril Lavigne in Chinese

When even angry teenage rockstars start singing parts of their songs in Chinese to appeal to the Asian market it is the sign of a changing times. The world is shifting eastwards.

Shanghai's Seven Commandments

(From Shanghaiist)

Subways: Beijing vs Shanghai

Another interesting article from Shanghaiist:



We don't know honestly. We ride Shanghai's metro every day and have only used Beijing's a couple times back in 2004. Still, seeing Beijing ranked No. 9 (and Shanghai unranked) in this list of the top 11 underground transit systems in the world surprised us a bit — because all the China subway hype we hear is about Shanghai's fast-growing system (or maybe that's just because we live in Shanghai?). Here's what the list, from Virgin Vacations, said about Beijing's system (which ranked one spot ahead of Hong Kong's):

The Beijing Subway is a relatively new subway system that opened in 1969 and serves Beijing and the surrounding suburbs. It is currently being expanded upon in a 7.69 billion USD (63.8 billion yuan) project to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games. The expansion project is expected to bring the current length of the subway station from approximately 71 miles to nearly 300 miles.

Highlights: Fairly easy subway to navigate (especially if you're a foreigner). Cheap fare (3 yen for most trips). Interesting architecture on the newer subway lines. A very ambitious expansion project is in the works.

OK, aside from the obvious oddities of that write-up (the subway is somehow easier to use for foreigners? they take Japanese currency?) it seems the main reason Beijing makes the list is because of its plans for future growth. But if we're not mistaken, Shanghai's is the longest China metro system now ... and in the future — it's supposed to be the third longest system in the world by the time the 2010 World Expo arrives.

Maybe we're missing something — or maybe Virgin is just trying to sell tickets to Beijing for the Olympics. Anyway, you should check out the list. Lots of cool videos and photos, and now we really want to visit Moscow for some reason. Here's the top 11, in abbreviated form:

1. London, England
2. Paris, France
3. Moscow, Russia
4. Madrid, Spain
5. Tokyo, Japan
6. Seoul, Korea
7. New York City, USA
8. Montreal, Canada
9. Beijing, China
10. Hong Kong
11. Sao Paulo, Brazil

The Virgin list has been "dugg" nearly 600 times over at DIGG.com. There are more than 100 comments on that page. Also at DIGG, we found this very helpful site with subway maps from all over the world. (Source: Shanghaiist)

(Quite frankly I cannot take any list seriously that puts Beijing subway ahead of Hong Kong's; having personally taken subways at all of the listed 11 cities with the exception of Moscow, in my opionion HK is a clear #1 above all the rest).

Nanjing: The happiest city in China

Who are the happiest citizens in China? Not us — although we're close to the top. At least that's the conclusion of a recent survey (story in Chinese) conducted in 31 China cities by Oriental Outlook and University of Chicago professor Xi Kaiyuan from December 2006 to January 2007. Xi, also known by the English name Christopher K. Hsee, is a professor of Hedonomics (related to "hedonics"), the "science of happiness", which operates at the crossroads of psychology (quantitative measures of subjective well-being) and economics (aspects of consumer behavior).

The survey was conducted through random phone interviews in four municipal cities, 22 provincial cities and five autonomous regions to obtain 7,000 samples (what kind of person agrees to a random phone interview?). One of its main conclusions was that Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shanghai are the three happiest cities in China (thus Shanghai retains its title as the happiest major city in China). The survey questions focused on human relationships, transportation, opportunities, convenience, entertainment, environment, public security, civilization and city development in recent years.

The survey revealed that public safety is one of the factors relating to overall happiness, as is economic opportunity, where surprisingly Lhasa ranked first. Shanghai was tops in terms of convenience and urban architecture. And while Lhasa, Nanning and Changchun were the best in terms of human relationships, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou couldn’t even squeeze into the first 20. The report also shows that the higher the level of education, the lower the hedonomics rate. Other findings: Females are generally happier than males (especially in Harbin, if you remember), the longer you live in a city the happier you feel about living in there, and of course citizens who own apartments are happier than those who don't. The happiest people of all? Those with the shortest commutes between home and office.

(source: Shanghaiist)