Why Is Shanghai so Popular?
Shanghai is mainly convenient and barrier-free for foreigners, with a high degree of internationalization and a strong group of foreigners. If you don’t want to get in touch with Chinese people, you can even feel the same as living abroad!
Another city with a large number of foreigners is Beijing, which is contrary to Shanghai. What you feel in Beijing is localization and Chinese culture, but if you don’t have a Chinese foundation, you will live a bad life.
Shanghai is the most developed and largest city in China. High international reputation, side by side with Beijing and Hong Kong. Prices are lower than those in Hong Kong, the degree of overcrowding is lower than that in Hong Kong, and life is not oppressive. There are many foreign enterprises and many expatriates. Direct international routes cover a wide range of routes. Shanghai is the earliest city in China that is most influenced by the western trend until now. All foreign stores and activities in China will open in Shanghai. Shanghai is the fashion capital of China. Every year, luxury shows and fashion magazine events invite many well-known foreign designers, models and bloggers to like them as soon as they come. The way of life is close. I usually go out and have a Cafe on the street of brunch,. Open terrace restaurant, Xintiandi open restaurant block. Bars and nightclubs are everywhere, roadside late-night pubs, clear night view of Lujiazui on the Bund. Ride under the plane tree in Xuhui District. Riverside skateboarding ground. There are many international schools. The place where Chinese and Western cultures merge can directly experience the history with Chinese characteristics, and at the same time experience convenience, modernization and the future. The city with the most delicious food in the world. It is very convenient to eat, drink and play, with many activities, music festivals, concerts and exhibitions. Law and order is very good. There are many people who speak English, so it is easy to communicate. There is a great sense of the future, and there are a lot of foreigners who think so on youtube. Lujiazui skyline, LED decoration, developed viaduct. Shanghai’s unique century-old heritage and history.
Suppose you are a foreigner who wants to come to China, your knowledge of China is limited, and your level of Chinese is relatively low (or you don’t even know how to say hello). The most reasonable choice is to go to a first-tier city in China, learning Chinese and enjoying international cities at the same time. If you want to go to first-tier cities, there are not many choices: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, one of them. For many foreigners, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen all speak Cantonese, so they can only choose to go to Beijing or Shanghai. As for these two cities, there is an interesting trend. If you look at the home country of a foreigner, you can guess which city ta will go to. For example, there are more Americans in Beijing and more Europeans in Shanghai (with the largest number of Germans and French).
Suppose you are a foreigner who is good at Chinese, come to study for an undergraduate or master’s degree or come to work, you have a better understanding of the current situation in China, there is no problem in communication, and you can go anywhere in China, so why come to Shanghai? In fact, the reason is very similar to the above, the best schools are in first-tier cities, and so are the best job opportunities. It is good to go to Beijing, Shenzhen or Shanghai, because foreigners who are good at Chinese are often people who have been to China several times and usually choose to go to the places they are most familiar with.
Take me, for example, when I was an exchange student a few years ago, my school asked me to choose: Beijing, Shanghai or Kunming? I thought at that time, “the pollution in Beijing is too serious, and I don’t know anything about Kunming, so let’s go to Shanghai.” After a few years, I decided to come back to China for a master’s degree, and then I thought, “both Beijing and Shanghai have very good universities, but I am most familiar with Shanghai, so I’d better go to Shanghai.” In the end, the longer I stay in Shanghai, the more I like it, it is big and lively, and the pace is extremely fast; I can get to know Chinese people and people from all over the world, and local governments also know what abstinence and management is. Generally speaking, it is a good city.
Why Is Shanghai so Popular with Foreigners?
- 1. Once I went to the telecom business hall to do broadband. In the queue, a foreigner in front of me had difficulty communicating with the salesperson. At the counter next door, an old lady in her 70s asked politely if the foreigner needed help with an interpreter, and then helped both sides to communicate with each other in Shanghainese and fluent English.
- 2. In Changning, the company often sees Japanese courtesy there for so long in the elevator that it blocks the elevator door; a group of Japanese young people waiting for a red light in the street scream and play, just like the scene in a Japanese TV series; when you enter a Japanese restaurant on the street at random, you can hear the watchwoman or chef greeting the guests there.
- 3. Watching the Premier League on weekends, and friends preferred a The Camel (bar on Yueyang Road, mainly watching football.), the inside and outside were almost full of foreigners. Once they happened to go in the afternoon. A group of foreigners were carrying various sports bags. They probably just finished playing football and had dinner in the bar. In the evening, many Premier League games started at the same time, and more than a dozen screens in the bar played different games, similar to the unpopular game played at Crystal Palace in Southampton. There are also quite a lot of foreigners to see. The overall consumption is also very cheap, and it is estimated that it can be done by ordering some beer and snacks per capita, so sometimes there are little fans who will find a corner and order a drink to secretly watch blond young fresh meat show off their bodies.
- 4. I prefer to rent a house on Hengshan Road, so I can often see young foreigners coming out of the old-fashioned lane of Hunan Road on Gao’an Road. There are also many foreigners running in the morning, and the streets are very quiet. It was interesting to see foreigners living in the same small environment as their parents-in-law in Shanghai. At that time, when they were looking at the house, another intermediary brought a little sister from Latin America to look at the house. It is also introduced there in English. Foreigners are quite interested in this kind of culture, and they don’t care about the high rent.
