When my friends asked me which city I like the best in China, I would say Shanghai is my all-time favorite.
Many people seem to fall under its spell, which often makes me wonder: what exactly makes this city so enchanting? After returning to this question time and again, I have found several possible answers.
Part of Shanghai’s charm lies in its diversity. Walking through its streets, you encounter people from all over the world, each absorbed in the rhythm of everyday life. Some are on their way to work; others are catching up with friends, walking their dogs, or hurrying to catch the metro home. At pavement cafés, people linger over coffee and conversation. Around the next corner, someone impeccably dressed pauses for a cigarette, casually watching the passers-by. Somehow, even the most ordinary moments seem to acquire a certain elegance here. Shanghai wears its glamour lightly, as though it comes naturally.
Yet diversity alone does not define the city. What truly makes Shanghai one of a kind is its people. I have been fortunate to meet fascinating and accomplished individuals of different ages, backgrounds, and professions. In many of them, I have found qualities that inspire me and offer glimpses of the person I hope to become.
The girls I play football with are determined, tenacious, strong, and resilient. Unconcerned with how others think girls should behave, they return to the pitch week after week, challenging stereotypes through courage, discipline, and sweat. My football coaches, concert conductors, friends, and sister have inspired me in different ways, opening my eyes to new possibilities and encouraging me to explore parts of myself I might never otherwise have discovered.
There is also a distinctive energy in the way people build their lives here. Shanghai attracts people who arrive with ambition and the determination to carve out a place for themselves in this vast metropolis. They rely on their own hands and minds to create better lives, find the courage to forge their own paths, and use their resourcefulness to turn ideas into opportunities. Their drive gives the city its extraordinary vitality.
Perhaps that is what I love most about Shanghai. It is not simply beautiful or cosmopolitan. It is a city alive with possibility—a place where different lives intersect, where ambition is visible, and where people are constantly becoming something more.
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