[A Look Back] A Message From CNS About 2025

Is it just us, or did 2025 fly past us?

Anyway, welcome to this year's edition of A Look Back. Our annual piece where we reflect candidly on the year past. We cover the things we did, the things we need to work on, and the things we're working on.

We had messages from our last one, which took note of the usual candor of the piece, and this one will be no different. A rare moment, when we peel back the curtain and talk to our readers directly about our journey. Hope you stick through this, there will be some interesting bits inside, and perhaps you might be surprised about a few things you might have missed along the way.

In this edition, we'll be covering these sections (handy, in case you want to skip down to one of immediate interest):

- Popular Articles and New Columns Launched in 2025

- 2025 by The Numbers

- New Writers on CNS

- Milestones

- Final Thoughts & A Look to 2026

Popular Articles for 2025

Hai Lights

This is by far our most popular column series. It was in 2024 and remained so in 2025. It's where we put all our listicles, but with a supremely clever column name! Here are our top 3 best performers for the year.

1) [Hai Lights] 23 Outdoor Pools in Shanghai for 2025 was our top article for the entire year, with 630 shares! This is likely due in part to the painful lesson learned in 2024, when we published later in the summer, and that pool listicle only garnered around 80 shares.

This was also a labor of love, because we literally combed the city with Google Maps satellite looking for little blue rectangles on the map (pools, we assumed).

2) [Hai Lights] Get Naked! 10 Bathhouses for a Good Soak in SH: So, together with the popularity of the Bikini Swimwear store and our pool's article, it's safe to say that Shanghai denizens don't like wearing clothes, or at least... as little as possible. We think that's great! In this piece, Zhu Yile explores both traditional and modern bathhouses in Shanghai. This one comes in at 249 shares.

3) [Hai Lights] Top 10 Places to Enjoy Cherry Blossoms in Shanghai

This one is pretty self-explanatory! A seasonal piece that details where to go see Shanghai's cherry blossom trees. 204 shares!

Shanghai's Top 3 Chefs and Their Tables:

Continuing from last year, our Chef's Table series has continued to be a hit. If you're new here, it's our take on going beyond a usual Q&A interview. We actually sit with the Chefs, while they wine and dine us with their own dishes.

Here are the top three Chef's Table in the series by number of shares:

Jason Oakley (of Substandard) - 92 shares.

Jason Oakley's path from teenage punk skater in South Carolina to one of Shanghai's most intriguingly omnipresent chefs reads like a great city story: Michelin-stage stints in Asia and the Middle East, a stint running fine dining, and then a thrillingly sideways move into a 19.5 square meter sandwich shop that somehow feels totally right for this town.

In his own words, simplicity is deceptive – Oakley makes sandwiches the hard way, in small spaces, without freezers, and with a wink at secret underground menus and Shanghai's endlessly curious food tribe.

Craig Willis (of Mr. Willis and many others) – 89 shares.

Craig Willis is the kind of chef Shanghai myths are built on, an Aussie who landed here in 2000, promptly developed an incurable case of Shanghai withdrawal, and came back to help build the Wagas empire before striking out on his own with Mr Willis, Something, Apollo, and more. His food is unabashedly simple, think roast chicken at the core, but it's the way he's rooted Western comfort in Shanghai's fabric, winning the city over table by table, neighborhood by neighborhood. From tiny early struggles to becoming a mainstay on Anfu Road, Willis's story is as much about enduring love for this city as it is about the food he cooks.

Hardeep Somal (of KLAY) – 79 shares.

Hardeep Somal's journey from stirring trouble in London to stirring pots in Shanghai reads like a proper city tale: kid in trouble, saved by a job washing dishes in a pizzeria, then discovering a real passion for cooking that pulled him out of the rough stuff and into the kitchen. After years of climbing kitchens across Europe and London, he landed in Shanghai and eventually opened KLAY, where he's been redefining Indian cuisine with serious technique, unapologetic spice, and dishes like his signature chicken reshmi kebab that people can't stop talking about. What's clear is that food didn't just build his career, it quite literally kept him out of jail and gave him a story worth telling.

And, an honorable mention for our Top Lady in the series this year:

Atina Kuo (of Xibo and Cilan) – 37 shares

Atina Kuo, the founder of Xibo, left a corporate hotel career in 2009 to open what would become one of Shanghai's most respected Xinjiang cuisine restaurants. Driven by a desire to present her ethnic heritage with intention and care, she built Xibo into a benchmark for regional Chinese dining, navigating early challenges while staying grounded in authenticity. Today, her work continues to evolve through new projects, all rooted in the same commitment to culture, craft, and thoughtful hospitality.

Note: We hope to do more Chef's Table of our sisterly persuasion. If you know a great lady boss in the kitchen that we should feature, drop their name in the comments (and which restaurant!).

Shanghai Secrets:

This was another popular series that we started last year. It chronicles the hidden places, the "if you know you know" mantra of the city's hidden corners, back alleys, or, in some cases, treasures found in random office buildings.

Here are the top 3 performers in that series this year.

Edwin Zhao's Shanghai Secret is being the owner of The Pawon, a really hard-to-find restaurant in a mall basement. But it's the best place in Shanghai to find authentic Indonesian food. This piece took the cake with the most shares in the series.

Coming in at number two... well, readers seem to love places that are hard to find. GioGio is an Italian joint specializing in the unique Italian cuisine of the Puglia region (also famous for wines). You have to go through a world-famous brand Giollitti (a gelato store) on the first floor, to find a nondescript door that leads to the second floor.

Our third most popular piece in the series saw Tima Fei pay a visit to a family-owned swimwear brick-and-mortar store. Owned by Emily Zheng, this place has become a beloved local destination for perfectly fitting bikinis, trunks, and resort wear, with personalized fittings, inclusive sizing, and expert styling that turns what is usually an anxiety-inducing chore into a confidence-boosting, joyously human experience. Also, we learned this year that residents of Shanghai love to strip down (we'll get into that later).

New Series Stand-Outs

Current Trends is a column series we started with the intent of quickly highlighting trends, or trends to be. We haven't defined it too specifically, so it's quite broad at the moment. We only produced two in the series this year, but they both performed above the 100 share mark.

A Spicy Take: Remember the whole #TikTok refugee phenomenon, when Americans thought TikTok was about to be banned, so they migrated in the millions over to Red Note? We had a look at the deeper implications of what this meant. To summarize, a LOT of Americans were shocked to discover a China that is portrayed very differently overseas.

Shanghai Stories

Is another series we launched this year that proved popular. Now, full disclosure, this is not and easy column to produce. Because you have to go beyond a person, product, and location, to knowing someone deeply enough to unearth stories about their lives and how it relates to Shanghai.

We know there are a ton of stories out there. So if you have one, please reach out!

[Deep Reads] Pt 2: Having a Heart Attack in My 30s, Journey 2 SH, this article is part 2, of a long read. Initially, it was classified as a "Deep Read," but we shifted it to Shanghai Stories once we converted it into a video. A deeply personal and excruciatingly difficult piece to write, it chronicles my own journey of having a heart attack in my 30s and how I eventually brought my treatment here. The second part of this article had 91 shares, detailing the more gruesome aspects of having open heart surgery.

[Shanghai Stories] I lost my MacBook, and Shanghai returned it

On the surface, this article seems to be a simple "lost and found" victory piece, but it goes much deeper than that. Our guess is the reason why people found this piece interesting is... well... it begs the question "how do you lose a MacBook... and actually get it back in a city this size?"

Promethee Spathis, an NYU professor, gives us a lot of subtle takeaways in the article, about cameras, about social cohesiveness, and values, and... creating connection through a lost artifact. It's a good read, and probably one that's good to bookmark (in case you lose something).

City News Service 2025 BY THE NUMBERS

2025 was a year of progress and surprises in the area of numbers. As we did last year, we're sharing some data on how some of our columns did, drill downs into our most popular series, Hai Lights, as well as a snapshot of our web analytics.

Above, you'll see the full layout of all of our columns this year that have tracking data. Some, we don't have data for yet, for example, She Power, Neighborhood Essentials, Home In Shanghai, and a few others.

This is due to some slight data organizational issues that we will try to resolve next year. However, we've captured data for all the rest!

Several of the standout column series have a lower volume of published works, meaning we publish fewer stories in those columns, but so far their performance has been quite strong (and this is a consistent mark of each of those columns. It isn't a situation where one article goes column and carries extra weight for the others).

Communities is a Column series featuring various communities in Shanghai. We'd love to do more, so if you have a community and Shanghai and want to be featured, reach out!

Top 10 Columns Ranked by Average Number of Shares

One thing to notice, is that last year when we published these figures, we only had 4 Column series had got on average above 100 shares. This year, that number expands to 7! Last Call is a new series we created this year to highlight things readers might want to be aware of, or take action on right before they end/expire. Job fairs did really well in this category. Body of Work is also new this year, a series we started to showcase the city's talent in art and music. Again, if you know someone fabulous within the arts that you thhink should be covered, send us a message, we'd love your recommendations!

Top 10 Hai Lights Ranked by Unique Readers

Aside from the top two, which involved taking your clothes off, the other eight most popular Hai Lights were all about food. Written by Sophie Steiner, they were the result of countless hours spent eating for everyone else's benefit. Thank you, Sophie!

This is new for this year. We are still trying to get our data organized because of how abysmal the newest version of Google Analytics is. But we've done a lot of the prep work, meaning that in 2026, we should be able to have a full year of data organized in a drill-down fashion (for those marketers out there).

In terms of our web traffic, this was City News Service's breakout year. This is how we began the year in terms of active users in January:

January Snapshot of City News Service via Google Analytics

November Snapshot of City News Service via Google Analytics (our last full-month of data at the time of this writing)

Yes, that is a little over 11x growth from the beginning to the end of the year. And to pull this off, took the efforts of multiple teams. Growth happened under several different strategic actions:

• Updating our URL structure so that it is better optimized to be read by search engines (increases traffic)
• A major design and website update (more on that later)
• Consolidation of Shanghai Daily and Shanghai Bizz Buzz under the CNS Umbrella
• Producing good content that generates engagement and audience growth

New Writers on CNS

Last year we expanded our team of contributors by 10! Quite a big jump for us. This year, we added a few more great people.

Beth Burton (US)

Ceci Perdomo (Venezuela)

Chase Williams (US)

Harvey Charles (United Kingdom)

Promethee Spathis (France)

Q: Is CNS accepting more writers for 2026?

Yes! If you are interested, or know someone who might be, please reach out to us via our Official WeChat Account: City News Service, or email at info@citynewsservice.cn

Milestones & Achievements

In order to waylay internal disappointment, I will say clearly that CNS has had a number of achievements this year. But... I can't list them all, I need to turn this article in within the hour!

We Made it Easier to Contact Us

This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. We were (unknowingly) very challenging to get a hold of! This happens when you are in the media and are already busy, and are receiving ten introductions a day from people around the city. Lo and behold, more of you wanted to get in touch with us. So, we made a contact page! Contact us!

We won an award!

Earlier in the year CNS was recognized by the 2025 China Newspaper Innovation and Development Conference as a leader in integrated media communication, highlighting its work in multilingual, inclusive storytelling and reimagining how a city connects with global residents. The award reflects CNS's rapid evolution from a three-year-old platform into a nationally acknowledged case of media innovation and cultural exchange.

New Website

Our old website was... nice. But... the original design was meant to be a launchpad for an all-in-one urban platform that was still being conceptualized. We knew we wanted CNS to be something integral for Shanghai readers, but we needed to start simple and build from there. And build we did!

We went from this:

To this...

We are presently in Phase 3 of our website development, which entails:

New Design

We needed a refresh, didn't we?

New Functionality

We've started building new systems for our website. The first of which that went live was a new calendar system, so people can more easily stay up to date on the coolest things to do in Shanghai. We're also in the process of building a gallery's hub, because... we take a lot of gorgeous photos of folks in Shanghai, and who doesn't like to See & Be Seen? We also have a number of other cool things in the pipeline, but we'll share those midway first quarter of 2026 once we finalize the priority list.

Updates to User Experience

Beyond just an upgraded design and features, we also put some thought into how users experience the site. And this informed a lot of our design choices. For example, we reduced the header image so that users could see more features above the fold (before needing to scroll down). Your first landing will show you:

• Navigation
• Search
• Featured Articles
• City News
• Events

We wanted to expand the usefulness of page real estate above the fold so people had more immediate access to Quick News as well as Events. These two things we felt were necessary to include because they have a higher tendency to impact people's decision-making on a weekly or daily basis.

The Launch of the CNS APP

Following the development strategy of our website, the CNS app is intentionally bare-bones and minimalist, with a straightforward tie-in to our editorial. Translation: this is just the beginning. Over the course of 2026, you will see major upgrades as the app grows into an everyday tool for international residents navigating life in Shanghai.

Expanded Our Giveaways and Prize Pools:

This year, to promote community engagement, we went further than last year, giving out a total of 300 giveaway prizes. The top three sought-after prizes this year were the 1,980 RMB NYE Alter party tickets, the 690 RMB ballet "Love Bridge," as well as the 390 RMB F1 Tickets. Next year, we hope to expand this further with even more prizes (but hey... be sure to check out the Quiz pages every week!).

CNS and Shanghai Daily teamed up to launch the Inter-School Youth Development Alliance, a new platform linking 14 international schools across the city. Sure, Shanghai already has its fair share of school associations, but this one hits differently. It is backed by the Shanghai government, which is the city openly acknowledging that the international school ecosystem is not a side note, but a core part of Shanghai's international DNA.

A few things that we need to work on:

1) Yes, the new website is a big upgrade. Yes... it has many bugs. But we're squashing them. By all means, if you find one, let us know by visiting our contact page or our official WeChat Account.

2) We need to make our presence known offline more. We know that the digital brings CNS to the masses across time and geography, but it can't be a full replacement for being around the town, and in places where folks can meet us, and talk together.

3) We also need to update things with our tech backend and data organization. We're excited about this because it will pay dividends in the features that users can benefit from, as well as the data that can help inform our decisions in the future, but it is a process that requires persistence and patience!

4) We also need to be better at creating engaging content. Sometimes our articles get comments, but... not as many as we'd hope. That being said, please interact with our content. We'd love to hear from you. In the meantime, we'll be looking at how we can best encourage this!

Final Thoughts and Looking Beyond:

Sometimes its hard to see the forest through the trees. But when we look back...we did accomplish quite a lot. And one thing that should definitely be mentioned, is that a large part of City News Service's success stems from you, our readers, the organizations we work with, and the communities in Shanghai that interact with us.

This is an incredible city. This past December reminded me of this, when going out and about, I couldn't help but wonder at how beautiful it had become. To drive this home, I have a dear friend visiting from London who lived in Shanghai between 2010-2016. And he is flabbergasted at how much has changed.

- Oh my God, the city is so clean, the air is breathable, what happened?!

- Xintiandi... but what... now.. Columbia Circle, Shan Kang Li, Hong Shou Fang, Zhang Yuan... what happened to Maoming Road... it's... classy now?!

- Does no one use cash anymore here??

Our hope is that in 2026, many of us will have moments of awe that this city deserves and a recognition that each of us plays a part in its grand story. At CNS, we're here to tell that grand story. We hope you continue to enjoy it as much as we have.

Happy New Year!

~~~

A Special Thank You:

2025 was a defining year with a lot of growth. We had organizations approach us (or vice versa) with the desire to be part of telling Shanghai's story. We'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the following organizations who pitched us ideas, gave us interesting introductions, and helped us disseminate information with urgent public service announcements to help keep people safe (like Typhoon season!):

• The Australian Chamber of Commerce (AusCham)
• The British Chamber of Commerce (BritCham)
• The European Chamber of Commerce (EUCham)
• The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham)
• Shanghai Mama's
• The US Consulate
• The British Consulate
• The Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
• All of the schools that have joined in supporting the Inter-School Youth Development Alliance

2026, we are ready and open to work with other organizations that align with our core mandates:

1. Highlight Shanghai's International Character, Through Personalities, Urban Lifestyle, Trend Setting, and Business Prowess
2. Support and Celebrate Foreign Businesses Operating in Shanghai
3. Create Useful Content on How to Live and What to Do in Shanghai
4. Provide News and Policy Updates of Interest to the International Community
5. Integrate Useful Services for Foreign Residents, Tourists, and Business Travelers
6. Create & Encourage Community Among International Residents & Businesses