Jing'an Moments in September
Coffee festival
Sparkling wine festival
Beer festival
The party season
Jing’an has organized a variety of lavish events to mark the annual Shanghai Tourism Festival, a September-October extravaganza that has become a popular event.
Between September 10 and 15, a beer festival was held in the Shibei High Technology Park, offering locals a respite from their busy routines. Local white-collar workers drank German beer, tasted world delicacies and enjoyed electronic music.
The four-day sparkling wine festival kicked off on September 13 in Jing’an Park. Visitors were able to sample hundreds of Old World and New World wines, with music and dance performances on the side.
On the rooftop garden of the HKRI Taikoo Hui, the annual coffee cultural festival was held from September 14 to 16. It has become a popular rendezvous spot for younger people.
Renowned cafes from chain stores to individual coffee shops, such as Starbucks Roastery, Manner and APE, brewed coffee for visitors to taste. But coffee wasn’t the only thing on the menu. Pancakes from Serbia, ice cream from the Internet celebrity store Bonus and other delicacies were also available.
Water lily palette
Jing’an Park downtown is awash with 54 water lilies in 14 species now in full bloom. The purple, pink, white and yellow colors are a colorful palette on the pond. They include five victoria amazonica flowers, with large green leaves that lie flat on the water's surface.
September is the best season to enjoy water lily blossoms, but they will bloom through mid-October. Morning is the best time for viewing because most species of the lilies close in mid-afternoon.
Wall artistry
Children and their parents painted empty walls in the Huaqiyuan residential complex in the Beizhan subdistrict to add a splash of color to the neighborhood.
The amateur artists drew some of the subdistrict’s iconic features, such as trains leaving the Shanghai Railway Station and the huge Ferris wheel at the top of Joy City. They also drew everyday scenes from their neighborhood.
According to subdistrict officials, the wall project offered a chance for parents to do something meaningful with their children and provided a platform for children to express their feelings.
Good-bye decrepitude
Nearly 900 families living in Pengsan, a typical old residential warren without elevators or private toilets, will be saying farewell to cramped living conditions.
Under a major renovation, seven apartment buildings of between five and 18 floors will be built to replace 11 ramshackle buildings in the next three years. More than 96 percent of residents have agreed with the plan and will start relocating to temporary residences.
Currently, two or three families share one kitchen, and as many as 10 share a single toilet. Some families lived more or less without any natural light. When it rains, water leaks in from the roof to the top floor, and ground pumps are regularly used on the ground floor during flooding.
The new buildings will be built with elevators, terraces and underground garages. All the apartments will be entirely self-contained.
Water at no charge
Summer hasn’t quite ended, with some scorching days persisting in Shanghai.
To offer refreshment to sanitation workers, deliverymen, taxi drivers and other outdoor workers, the Daning subdistrict has placed five fridges filled with bottled water on roadsides to provide free drinks.
Subdistrict officials said the fridges have been so popular that they have had to refill the fridges every afternoon. More than 30 boxes of bottled water have been consumer every week.
The fridges will remain until September 30, when cooler weather is expected to move in.
