We asked, you answered: Shanghai is averagely exciting
How do you find life zai Shanghai? Are you a Shanghai veteran who knows the metro lines like the back of their hand? Or are you a newbie who is still making the usual rookie mistakes? Well, you had your say as part of the second annual Time Out City Life Index and the results are in.
So here’s how the Time Out City Life Index worked. We polled 15,000 people from 32 cities around the world. We asked them questions related to their lifestyle habits and their feelings about life in their city, ranging from how often they go out for dinner to how they’d rate their city for affordability, safety and friendliness. Then, we assessed their answers across seven different categories:
Food & Drink – whether the city offers a good range of eating options
Culture – how often people engage with arts and culture, and how highly they rate it
Relationships & Community – whether it’s easy to make friends and fall in love, and how welcoming the city feels
Neighbourhoods – whether locals love their local communities and which neighbourhoods are overrated
Affordability – whether people can get by OK
Happiness – how satisfied or stressed locals are in their city
Liveability – whether it’s easy to get around and find something to do and see.
Shanghai came in at a (semi) respectable number 16 – slap bang in the middle of the poll (or in the top half if you're an optimist). Notably, we ranked above the likes of Berlin (18th), Tokyo (19th) and Los Angeles (20th), as well as our friends up north in Beijing (22nd). The top spot went to Chicago for the second year running, with Porto, New York, Melbourne and London also making the top five. See the full list here:
Residents of Shanghai seemed somewhat conflicted, with contrasting views on the city's level of pollution and how crowded it is, while lots of us are agreed on the fact that it ain't cheap here. Another thing that a lot more people seemed to be on the same wavelength about is that their favourite tipple is wine (with cocktails coming a close second) – with 57 percent of respondents having been to a bar in the last week of being surveyed.
People overwhelmingly agreed that it's pretty easy to find something to do in Shanghai, with only 1 percent of people under the impression that there's literally nothing to do after nightfall, and only 2 percent truly bemoaning the city's culture and live music options. 5 percent of respondents thought it was really easy to find love, while 8 percent claimed it was virtually impossible. 79 percent of us said it was fairly easy to get laid here, but whoever said sex and love are related?
See the graphic below for more insights and results from other cities on the index: