When creative people gather together, it attracts other young creative people. If you look at demographics, the downtown area is much younger than it was a few years ago. There’s this competition that’s good. It isn’t about making art anymore. It’s about making good art. —Courtney Hammond

Shopping malls open their doors 

Major retailers in Changning have resumed offline businesses since the beginning of the month when the city was going back to normal after a two-month lockdown.

Eleven shopping malls such as L’ Avenue, Arch Walk, The Place, Raffles City Changning, Cloud Nine Shopping Mall, Art Park Changning, King88, Printemps Tianshan outlet, Parkson Newcore, Huijin Department Store Hongqiao outlet and Metro Town are with most of their stores open while the shelves of 14 local supermarkets including the outlets of Carrefour, Freshippo, ALDI and Century Mart are full again.

Institute protects spaceship with latest technology

Scientists with Changning-based Shanghai Institute of Ceramics Chinese Academy of Sciences developed thermal protection for China’s manned spacecraft Shenzhou-14.

In this mission, the institute developed more than 10 kinds of coatings and components, such as the heat resistant antenna window of the return capsule, the long-life and low ratio inorganic thermal control coating, high-temperature insulation materials and components, the anti-ablation and pollution coating for the return cabin porthole, the thermal protection material for the attitude control engine, the cabin channel lighting, instruments and meters and other load surface high radiation thermal control coating, porthole glass and optical coating, anti-stray light coating, stainless steel gray chemical conversion thermal control coating for the Shenzho-14 manned spacecraft. 

Parks reopen but not at night

Fourteen parks in Changning and the greenway to the west of the Outer Ring Road were reopened on June 1. Meanwhile, Changning Greenery and Sanitation Bureau takes pandemic prevention and control measures to ensure a safe visit.

Zhongshan Park, Huashan Children’s Park, Tianshan Park, Tianyuan Park, Hongqiao Park, shuixia Park, New Hongqiao Central Garden, Huashan Green Space, Haisu Green Space, Xinjing Park, Yanhong Green Space, Hami Park, Zhongxinjing Park, Hongqiao Sports Park, the greenway to the west of the Outer Ring Road are now open to the public from 8am to 5pm. Indoor venues such as restaurants and exhibition halls, amusement and fitness facilities in the park have been suspended from opening temporarily.

New center on the way with iconic stores

The East Hongqiao Center, or the first project in the Changning area of the Hongqiao International Opening-up Hub, is expected to open in the fourth quarter of this year.

The Freshippo X membership store occupies three floors in the center. The total size of the flagship store is nearly 16,000 square meters.  

In addition to the familiar fresh food, bakery and grocer, there is a private brand “Freshippo max series” with larger specifications, better quality and higher performance. 

Customers can also enjoy a one-stop shopping experience here, such as cross-border purchase, sports, elderly care, home, washing and nursing, beauty and skin care, pregnancy and baby, X flower shop, pet services, and all sorts of interesting membership activities.

The Las scuba diving runs through the ground floor to the underground floor of building 6 of the center. The first 10m deep diving pool in Shanghai is where services such as scuba diving teaching, equipment display, scuba diving trips and underwater photography available.

Digital solutions for a smart city

The smart large screen allows real time monitoring of construction sites, road traffic, and water quality while the mobile app can follow up and handle various tasks anytime and anywhere... Such a scenario with a strong sense of technology will soon be presented in Changning.

In combination with digital transformation, Changning is striving to create a new paradigm of scientific, refined and intelligent “digital governance” for super cities, making the district management more “smart.”

Changning has mapped out a three-year action plan for digital transformation (2022-2024) earlier this year, clearly focusing on the construction of digital twin cities, and plans to build the digital transformation in three years, that is, to build “one digital foundation base, one display platform for ‘one screen viewing urban construction,’ four business platforms (municipal, transportation, water, construction management) and 16 key benchmark application scenarios,” so as to realize overall coordination of municipal transportation, water affairs, construction management and other industry management.

Edited by Shanghai Daily