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Great ideas other cities should steal from Shanghai

2016-12-03 ShanghaiWOWeng




Shanghai is a modern marvel and other cities around the world should be taking notes, especially when it comes to some of the following incredible selling points.

 

1. MAGLEV

 


Sure, not all cities can afford these incredible structures, but they should find a way to. The Shanghai Maglev train, opened in 2004, hits speeds up to 430 km/h (267 mph) and takes riders to and from Pudong  airport extremely fast. It’s the sort of thing that, oh I don’t know, may make people actually enjoy an otherwise miserable commute white visiting the city.

 

2. ENORMOUS SUBWAY


It’s easy to take it for granted, but the Shanghai Metro system is unreal. It has a total length of 588 km (365.4 mi), which means if it were stretched out it could go almost halfway to Beijing.  It has over 3 billion riders a year, averaging about 8.4 million each day, and is somehow always perfectly on sceduel and clean as a whistle.

 

3. JUST DO IT

 


You get the sense watching the city being built that they don’t spend a lot of time messing around. Whether it be an underground pipe that needs to be dug up in the middle of a busy intersection, or an entire building, they just go do it. Those of us that have spent time in western countries know that this is certainly not always the case.

 

4. LICENSE PLATE RESTRICTIONS


 

If you don’t have the right license plate, you can’t come into the city with your car. And if you do you’ll be fined. What a marvelous idea, and one that other congested cities outside China can and should adopt.

 

5. ZERO TOLERANCE FOR DRINKING AND DRIVING

 


It’s a slippery slope when you do what America and some other western countries do; tell drivers they are allowed to legally drink up to a specific blood alcohol amount (which of course is impossible to know while drinking unless you somehow manage to blood test yourself or use your own, often unreliable, breathalyzer). Shanghai fixes this problem, don’t drink anything and drive. Even one beer, you’re screwed. Strict, maybe, but this policy would save countless lives if other cities took it up.

 

6. PUBLIC DRINKING: NO PROBLEM

 


So you may not be able to drink and drive in Shanghai, but you can certainly drink and walk. Nice weather? Grab a cold brew and go for a stroll around the city, why wouldn’t this be legal? In most of Europe it’s also no big deal, but America for example, strictly prohibits open alcohol containers in public spaces. You can be fined or even arrested.

 

7.  BOOTLEGS

 


From the fake market to the corner DVD shop, fake/bootleg/questionable items are for sale everywhere. While every now and then they sort of crack down on it, it mostly goes unmolested (either that or the police don’t know that Dr. Strange just came out in theatres and therefore shouldn’t be out on DVD already). Sure, it’s not exactly fair to the brands, but we the consumers are the real winners.

 

8. BRAND COPY CATS

 


It’d be nice if other cities allowed blatant copycats, not just when it comes to bags, watches and shoes, but when it comes to entire brands. The Jordan rip-off, Uncle Martian, the dozens of weird Mccdonalds, Starbucks and KFC copies. They’re so funny it’s hard not to hope they expand outside of China.

 

9. PHOTOSHOP FAILS

 


It’s probably an unrealistic dream, but it would be great if other cities relaxed their Photoshop standards on advertisements, helping us all get a good chuckle on our way to work.


10. BIKE LANES EVERYWHERE

 

Sounds simple but it’s amazing how many major cities have an awful (or even non-existent) infrastructure for bikers. Is Shanghai perfect in this regard, no, but they’re way ahead of most of the world when it comes to big cities accommodating bikes and scooters.

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