I was so worried about the bad pollution that I had bought us all masks before we left. But we are either here at the right time or it’s changing for the better. We haven’t used the masks. The streets are so much cleaner. You see the street sweeper out all the time, even under the underpasses there isn’t the garbage. Less poo too. I still see some people not picking up after their dog, but most are now and I’m not seeing much from the 2 legged variety either. Or maybe it was just down the street to the preschool, we only rode by it not walked the street this time.
The bikes are seeming to make a come back. Not as many private pedal bikes, but tons of bike rentals that you can leave anywhere. A lot more bike delivery vehicles. I feel less people are riding the buses too. Maybe we are just traveling at different times since the kids aren’t in school we are more free to choose our own schedule. But I feel more people start off at the bus station and then call a DiDi(China’s Uber) and are whisked away. You can even do ride shares.
Less cash. Everything is pay with the phone app. WeChat or Alipay primarily. WeChat is like Facebook 100.0. You can call, send voice message, text message, share pictures, pay all through this app. It’s kind of nerve wrecking not carring cash around, just in case. All the little carts and sellers all allow payment with one or the other. My father-in-law says he never carries cash and if he needs money he will find someone who will give him the money by using their personal WeChat to scan. Even beggars have a WeChat!
Things cost more now than what they used to. Especially the haw on the stick is now 10-15 yuan, 5 years ago it was 3-5 yuan. Clothing isn’t as cheap. Most people buy everything and anything on-line. It helps my mother-in-law she doesn’t have to leave the appartment. But it’s a bit ridiculous. Because of every restaurant allowing on-line to-go orders sometimes the people dinning in suffer as they wait while the one floor worker deals with all the to-go orders before the in-store people.
What I noticed the first day is the change in cleaner. I only smelled the toxic cleaner once or twice over the 5 weeks I’ve been here. It used to be a constant smell that made me feel sick. My guess it really was toxic and they finally figured it out.
They also have some smoking laws, I’m not sure what they are, but there is a lot less smoking. None in restaurants except for the workers smoking in a back room or back doorway. People sneak a smoke in the bathrooms wherever they are.
The driving has gotten better due to the metal divides creating lanes for bikes on both sides and 2 way traffic. This keeps traffic moving. They still drive a bit more crazy in Beijing than in Shanghai. But as my father-in-law’s brother-in-law told me today Beijing is a city with a lot of poor people still living in terrible conditions. Shanghai has less poor people and better living conditions.
In Shanghai I didn’t see any guards with machine guns outside banks. My first time here almost 15 years ago everyone wore their backpacks on their fronts. The crime must be better, only a few people wore them on their fronts and I really had to look for people doing this over the few days we visited.
The poor housing development, Hutong, shanty towns are disappearing as the need for sky rises are needed for the ever growing population.
They got rid of all the poor country people coming into town selling their wares in the subway tunnels and in the under street cross walks.
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