InsideGFW

Walk into Southern Belle on a Wednesday night and you’ll probably see 28-year-old Tom Pang sitting alone on the terrace smoking. He doesn’t have a band, there’s no upright bass or banjo in his set, but Pang strums Shanghai’s best bluegrass. (more…)

Published in the Nov issue of That’s Shanghai. Click on the link to see a much better layout and pictures of this article.

Welcome to the White Collar Hotel

Where Shanghai’s newest job hunters check-in

“A new feature illustrating how people from outside Shanghai make this city their home”

The grimy staircase leading up to the White Collar Hotel is plastered with giant ads for online fantasy games. Busty women wearing tiaras and carrying long-handled axes are the gatekeepers for a world that’s residents have one mission: Find a job. (more…)

#That’s the full length feature story of That’s Shanghai ‘s Oct cover story.

Those who have been keeping an eye on my blog may find this article similar to the Interview Of the Homeless People. Yes, they are both in the bottle picking business, they both cannot afford a home here in Shanghai, and they both live at the very bottom of society. But there are some key differences between the homeless people from Anhui and the pocket Hukou owners who were born and grew up in Shanghai. This is where Cai’s story begins.

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#That’s the full length feature story of That’s Shanghai ‘s Oct cover story.

I met Zha in front of the Chinese Club 88 on my way to have dinner with a friend of mine. He was on his handicap motorcycle, and in front of him was a big wooden box. Inside the box, I saw several small bike models made out of electrical wires. They were well-made and looked very appealing to a semi-pro cyclist like me. (more…)

If you’re hanging out late at night on Xingfu Rd (or “happy street” as I like to call it), you may run into an old lady named Mrs. Huang. Unlike the other beggars and flower sellers waiting for you outside bars and restaurants in Shanghai, Huang is not aggressive or dishonest. Although she has had much experience begging in Shanghai, it is certainly not her chosen profession. She is just trying to survive and provide for her family. (more…)

I met Feng on Wu Jiang Rd, formerly the famous street food street before the EXPO. You could access all kinds of food even in the middle of the night, BBQ, noodles, rice, sea food, beer…every thing, cheap, quick, good, casual. But earlier this year it was completely demolished, the old street food street is gone. It became a big trash heap full of rubble and surrounded by walls covered with EXPO printings of beautiful, successful business women/man, happy child/seiner citizens, and weirdo foreigners with a photoshopped helmet for no reason. One block away, Wu Jiang Rd becomes a place full of expensive, up-scale, foreign-looking restaurants, cafes, dessert shops, candy shops, Nike, big malls, etc. It has security guards wondering around 24/7, and Feng was sleeping on a well designed wooden chair in the middle of the pedestrian area. (more…)

Yesterday I was cycling to The Camel to watch the America VS Ghana football game. While biking through Ju lu road, I saw a Cheng Guan vehicle parked beside the street. Some Cheng Guan were driving some homeless people away from their camping spot.

These homeless people were kind of different from the normal ones. They had bikes with three super big bags on the rear axle of each bike. It seemed like they were doing some kind of garbage recycling for a living.

After evicting them from their spot, the Cheng Guan got into their vehicle and left. I followed, waited until they found another place and settled in, then I went forward to have an interview with one of them. (more…)