This week we travel from the streets of Shanghai to some of our city’s many parks, which are getting a little friendlier by extending their opening hours during the summer. The move isn’t particularly new and comes every year, but still reminds me each time how different Chinese parks are from the big, open spaces that most westerners enjoy in North America and Europe with mostly unlimited access.
This outdoor story did see one additional new wrinkle here in China last week, when the massive Zhongshan Park in Changning District become the latest in the city to stay open 24 hours. That broke with the earlier practice for nearly all parks in China of closing during the night, supposedly for safety reasons. Read Full Post…
A time of year typically known for labor unrest is taking a worrisome twist, with major new strikes occurring at top microwave oven maker Galanz and shoe making giant Yue Yuen (HKEx: 551), whose clients include Nike and Adidas. These latest signs of labor unrest in the important Pearl Delta manufacturing hub come just weeks after workers staged another strike at an IBM (NYSE: IBM) factory being sold to Chinese PC leader Lenovo (HKEx: 992). The fact that these industry leaders are seeing such major problems so early in the year hints at even bigger problems for smaller factories, which are struggling under the weight of soaring costs and sagging export orders. Read Full Post…
