Public Space is for living, doing business, kissing and playing. Its value can’t be measured with economics or mathematics; it must be felt with the soul. —Enrique Penalosa

Shopping mall turned into commercial complex

The Cloud Nine Shopping Mall has been renamed as Cloud Nine City Life Center to integrated vertical greenery, social networking, entertainment, food, retail, experience and other functions to better serve consumers.

A “city life garden” at the ninth floor of the mall creates a good place for visitors to relax. The commercial complex also upgraded its image, brand and membership and is with its formats actively close to life experience. 

For instance, a newly introduced city fair will be opened at the end of this month. On the B2 floor of the mall, it will feature more than 10 brand stores with their businesses involving catering, home furnishing, daily use, retail, etc.

In the next stage, the center will offer constant stage performances and a car market with more than 20 popular new energy car brands. Shopping experience will be further optimized as the market integrates exhibition, sales and after-sales and test drive. 

More and more retailers will open their first store in the city or even the country here in the future, according to Ding Zhongyun, general manager of the center.

The center launched a mini-program in October, so that consumers can get a “city life card” by applying for the membership. “We define the membership card as the city life card, which includes many benefits. With the use of mini-program, members can experience all-round and high-quality city life here,” Ding said.

New road to improve district traffic

Both ends of Jinzhong Road have met after a section of the road between Jianhe Road and Beidi Road opened to the traffic.

The section of Jinzhong Road between Jianhe Road and Beidi Road is 414 meters long. It is planned to be an east-west two-way three lane road with non-motorized lanes and pedestrian passages on both sides. 

At the same time, the Zhenguang Road Bridge adjacent to Jinzhong Road is also under construction. When the project is completed and opened to traffic, the traffic between Changning and neighboring Putuo district will be further strengthened. 

3 Changningers honored with Magnolia Gold Award for 2022

Three among the 10 expats honored with Shanghai’s Magnolia Gold Awards are from Changning.

Ashish Maskay, 51, is a 2020 Shanghai Magnolia Silver Award recipient. Having spent more than one-third of his life in the city, the Nepalese is famous in the expatriate and local communities partly for blood donation activities.

As a surgeon, Maskay knows the importance of blood in surgeries. Having long been involved in blood donation, he established a team of expatriate blood donation volunteers and launched Bloodline in 2016. It organizes blood donation events regularly in interesting ways and makes it a fashion lifestyle for international families in the city.

By gathering people of different nationalities and different cultural backgrounds together, Maskay wishes to make foreigners feel they are part of the city, instead of outsiders.

He gathered more than 200 foreigners via WeChat during the pandemic to donate blood and help the Shanghai Blood Center cope with the lack of blood.

Xiaoping Shen, 71, was born in Shanghai and went to the US for studies in the 1980s. He came back to join Shanghai Sipo Polytechnic and founded its nursing school, the first such private school in Shanghai, in 2003 and has developed an educational system in line with international standards. He won the Shanghai Magnolia Silver Award in 2008.

After 19 years, Sipo’s nursing school has become a demonstration site for health service education among all vocational schools in China.

More than half of its 10,000-plus graduates in the past 16 years have been recruited by top hospitals in China, boasting a 99 percent annual employment rate on average, much higher than the average rate among vocational schools in the country.

Shen has also been active in promoting international exchanges. The nursing school has hosted several international seminars on topics such as evidence-based nursing education and education of nursing combining medical treatment and elderly care.

Shen also initiated an alliance with seven other privately run nursing schools and promoted coordination in the Yangtze River Delta region to push the development of nursing schools in the region and the whole country.

Daquan Xu, 59, has been working in Shanghai for 17 years and won the Magnolia Silver Award in 2017.

Led by Xu, Bosch China increased its sales volume by five times between 2011 and 2021, with automobile and smart transport technology contributing 70 percent of the total.

Embracing China’s integrated development strategy in the Yangtze River Delta region, Bosch China completed construction of its innovation and software R&D center in Wuxi, neighboring Jiangsu Province, in 2020 and planned to open new branches in Shanghai.

Xu has been leading Bosch China in applying artificial intelligence in manufacturing to improve efficiency and save costs. Its team has helped improve speed and accuracy of polymerase chain reaction tests.

Bosch China is supporting China’s efforts in reaching carbon emission peak in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060. In 2019 and 2020, it invested about 120 million yuan for carbon neutrality and its China headquarters became the first industrial enterprise to realize the target in 2020 and is sharing its experiences with other enterprises.

It now envisions to further reduce carbon emission by 15 percent and support China to reach carbon emission peak in 2028.

Xu also led Bosch China to establish a charity center in 2011, which has made 156 million yuan of donations and operated more than 230 charity programs. Its employees also offer more than 6,000 hours of voluntary services each year.

Footpath gets smart

The first smart footpath in Changning is now open to the public. At 427 Honggu Road, the smart footpath is equipped with large screen to display sports data.

After citizens scan the QR code on the screen and log in, they can get their own sports duration, steps of the day, speed, calories consumed and other data, and they can also participate in ranking.

On one side of the circular footpath is a metasequoia forest, which serves as a barrier between the surrounding neighborhoods and the Middle Ring Road, and the footpath is equipped with lighting, surveillance cameras and other security and network facilities to ensure the safe and comfortable fitness experience of residents.

Umbrellas made from Coke bottles now for share

With the arrival of the most beautiful ginkgo season on the Golden Street 25,000 discarded plastic bottles collected by the residents turned into umbrellas to cover the road with distinctive colors.

In August this year, Hongqiao Community, together with Coca-Cola China and Shanghai Daily, carried out the “Recycle Me • Come Back” co-action on the street, encouraging local residents to actively participate in the recycling of beverage bottles.

It took three months for residents and businesses around the street to recycle 25,000 beverage bottles. Participants also voted to turn the bottles into umbrellas.

After special processing, 25,000 discarded plastic bottles were made into six sunshades and 100 shared umbrellas. The sunshades stand outside the shops on the street for a long time, providing a place for residents to rest. 

The shared umbrellas have also been placed in 10 stores on the street, which not only makes it convenient for residents in need to take it at any time, but also allows the green ecological concept of turning waste into treasure and recycling to flow in the street.

Edited by Shanghai Daily