Creek Community: A Neighborhood Spirit and a Livable, Enjoyable City

Editor's note:

British magazine Time Out released "The 50 Best Cities in the World in 2026" this March, in which Shanghai ranked second, just behind Melbourne, Australia. Abundance of cafes and affordability of coffee are cited as two of the reasons why Shanghai is such an attractive place.

A Shanghai Daily reporter has spent nearly three weeks walking along the 42-kilometer Suzhou Creek promenade to provide footnotes to the city's everyday charm through first-hand, spontaneous interviews with different people. It's a story not just about infrastructural convenience, seen in the cafes connected by the esplanade, but also about the warmth of the city embodied in people's readiness to share.

This is the second part of a two-piece series.

One day in mid-April, as I reached the walkway beneath the Changhua Road Bridge over the Suzhou Creek, I encountered an elderly man singing Peking Opera. His resonant voice attracted me and several foreign tourists. They had planned to pass through the underpass, but, not wanting to interrupt him, they instead turned back and stood beside me.

One of them even began filming the performance on his phone.

I explained to the international visitors that the man was singing Peking Opera, which surprised them a lot. The man filming told me that they were from Chile and this was their first trip to China. They had already visited Beijing, Xi'an, Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhangjiajie and Furong Town before arriving in Shanghai the day before. We talked about Chile's fruits, beer and mountains. They encouraged me to visit Chile someday, and I told them I hoped to do so.

After they left, I waited until the elderly singer finished practicing and approached him for a casual talk. The man, surnamed Sheng, is 83 years old and an amateur Peking Opera enthusiast. Influenced by his father, he began singing in his teens, later joining an amateur troupe at university and even performing at a theater in Shanghai.

When asked what his college major was, he said it was physics. After graduation, he taught computer science at a university before becoming a deputy chief engineer for computer development at a large enterprise.

Sheng said he comes almost every noon to sing Peking Opera for about 40 minutes beneath the Changhua Road Bridge ever since the Suzhou Creek promenade was fully connected nearly six years ago. His tape recorder contains more than 80 pieces, and he still remembers every lyric perfectly.

Sheng explained that singing beneath the bridge offered at least two advantages: good acoustics and no disturbance to neighbors. Before the walkway was built, he used to sing facing the riverbank on the opposite side, which was less convenient.

His home is about two-minute walk from the promenade.

The completion of the Suzhou Creek promenade has not only provided Sheng with an ideal place to sing Peking Opera, but also made it easier for him to walk his Schnauzers every morning and evening. Mentioning Schnauzers made both of us laugh: We agreed that their expressions look deeply thoughtful.

Aware that I planned to write an article on everyday life along the Suzhou Creek, which might include the interview with him, he gave me his phone number – also his WeChat account – and asked me to send him the article as a keepsake once it was published.

I promised I would. I told him that once the article was published, I would return to hear him sing again beneath the Changhua Road Bridge. Hearing this, he smiled happily.

After saying goodbye to Sheng, I continued walking along the creek and met many more foreign visitors. At one point, I saw a woman trying to photograph a man, so I offered to take a picture for them together. They were delighted.

They were from Germany. Shanghai was the first stop on their trip to China, after which they planned to visit Beijing, Xi'an, Chongqing and Chengdu.

Two elderly neighbors

On another day in late April, I met an elderly man practicing an electronic wind instrument on a grassy lawn encircled by walkways along the Creek.

As we talked, I learned that the 65-year-old man was a genuine farmer. At 17, he began working in the fields, planting rice and wheat. At 18, during the off-season, he started making furniture, mainly traditional five-drawer chests and three-door wardrobes. He retired at 60 with a rural pension while continuing to run a small business.

His hometown is in suburban Fengxian District, but he now rents an apartment in downtown Changning District where he manages an online shop. He now spends about half of each month back in Fengxian tending vegetables, and the other half near the Suzhou Creek in Changning, where he manages his small business and practices the electronic wind instrument along the creek.

As we chatted, an elderly woman in a wheelchair approached. She lived in the same residential compound in Changning. He waved to her, and she rolled over, parked her wheelchair, and listened to him play.

Before long, she began singing along softly. And when they learned that I practiced xiao, a traditional Chinese bamboo flute, they encouraged me to bring it next time so we could practice together.

The woman, in her 70s, told me that she had always loved mountain climbing, but after pushing herself too hard, she injured her legs and could now only use a wheelchair while hoping gradually to recover.

Ever since the Suzhou Creek promenade was completed, she said, she came out every day for about an hour, if it's not raining. In the past, the riverside paths were covered with gravel, making them inconvenient for elderly people and wheelchair users alike. Later, when they were rebuilt as rubberized walkways, getting around became much easier.

As the evening wore on, the two elderly friends decided it was time to head home. One rode an electric scooter while the other sat in a wheelchair, making their way back along the creek. Watching their figures recede into the distance, I was deeply moved.

"Flesh-and-blood" communication

On May 1, while walking along the northern bank of the Suzhou Creek from the South Qilianshan Road Bridge to the Luding Road Bridge, I saw children playing on sandy beaches and hiding in tents, while adults jogged, read books, or rested on the grass.

Near the Middle Ring Road Bridge, I noticed a man reading while sunbathing. As I approached, I realized he was reading an English book. Sunlight shone on him, making his white hair appear even brighter against his rosy complexion.

I happened to need a short rest, so I placed my parasol on the grass and waited for a chance to strike up a conversation.

After a while, he put down his book and noticed me, and we began talking.

"You're reading an English book?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied. "A novel."

"I also carry an English novel with me," I said, taking out my pocket-sized copy of "The Portrait of a Lady" from my shoulder bag.

"With such tiny print, can you still read it?" he asked.

"My eyesight is getting poor," I replied, "but I can read without glasses."

"What novel are you reading?" I asked him.

"'The Godfather'," he answered.

He explained that he first read it more than 30 years ago while working in Shenzhen and recently picked it up again after retirement.

He said he had loved reading since he was young, and after retiring last year, he continued reading regularly because he believed it could help prevent dementia.

He's 65 years old and retired only last year. Before retirement, he worked long in the research and production of fixtures for CNC machine tools and operated his own workshop. Eventually, presbyopia made it difficult for him to read technical drawings, so he decided to retire.

Besides "The Godfather," he was also reading "The Wealth of Nations" and "The Story of Mankind," he revealed.

When I asked why he enjoyed reading in English, he explained that he used to often deal with European and US clients. Combining technical expertise in manufacturing with a love of wide-ranging reading in both Chinese and English, he enjoyed thinking about the comparative advantage. Along the way, he even gave me an impromptu lesson on why China possesses comparative advantages in manufacturing.

When our conversation turned to AI and human communication, he said that while AI is undoubtedly a valuable technical tool, it cannot replace "communication between real human beings." He literally called human communication a kind of "flesh-and-blood" interaction.

He told me that he started running after retirement. Once, while jogging, he happened to meet a younger runner whom he did not know. He was surprised that the two of them ended up walking and chatting all the way back to the same residential compound. The younger runner, he said, has been running marathons for more than 10 years and, despite being 63, looks as though he were in his 40s.

"Health and self-cultivation depend on one's own efforts. You can't rely on AI for that," he noted.

"The completion of the Suzhou Creek promenade has truly benefited local residents," he said. Not long ago, he accompanied a classmate visiting from the United States on a run from the creek all the way to the ecological greenway beyond Changning's Outer Ring Road, and both of them had thoroughly enjoyed it.

He mentioned that the Lingkong Music Park area near the Outer Ring Road had recently been completed.

"Yes," I replied. "A few days ago I interviewed a man there who plays the suona (a Chinese double-reed woodwind instrument). He has been running marathons since 1998. Perhaps one day the two of you will meet and exchange stories about running."

"We did see someone playing the suona while we were running there," he said. "And when we ran back, he was still playing."

"That's him," I replied. "Sometimes he plays for six hours straight. Although running has injured his legs, his lung capacity is remarkable. Once his legs recover, perhaps the two of you could run together someday."

Everyone is the main character

The three touching small stories all took place in the public spaces along the Suzhou Creek. Here, local residents and travelers from afar casually chat with one another, extending the homely atmosphere into a wider community.

In fact, when Time Out released its global city rankings for 2025, it wrote: "There's never, ever a dull moment in Shanghai, a cinematic city where everyone's the main character. You only need to stand on a street corner before something happens that makes you want to pull your camera out …"

In 2025, Shanghai ranked ninth on Time Out's list.

From mid-April to early May, I encountered countless interesting people and moments along the Suzhou Creek. What I have recorded here represents only a small portion of what I saw and heard. Together, those people and moments form the connecting dots that help overcome the possible psychological barriers between strangers.

When strangers open up to each other, everyone becomes our neighbor, and a prevailing neighborhood spirit usually underlies a city that's livable and enjoyable.

Before ending this article, I want to tell one final story.

In mid-April, on the very first day of my walk along the Suzhou Creek promenade, I happened upon a 24-hour self-service reading room on the southern bank of the creek. It's called "Introvert Reading Room," or i-Ren Shufang, the letter "i" standing for "introvert."

The moment I pushed open the door, I saw a young woman inside and assumed she was an employee. Only later did I realize she was simply another visitor. She described herself as an introvert and said she lived in a nearby rented apartment and had come there to read.

In a guestbook, she wrote that she was trying to step out of her introverted state and actively explore the world around her.

After finishing her note, she began reading a copy of "Essentials of Screenwriting" by Richard Walter, a well-known scholar from the University of California, Los Angeles. She told me that she hoped one day to transition into writing fiction or film screenplays and wanted first to immerse herself in books on the subject.

In early May, on the final day of my journey along the creek, I made a special trip back to the Introvert Reading Room. By then it was already late evening, yet compared with my first visit, far more people were there.

I casually opened one of the guestbooks and saw the following message:

To all:

You must be a writer.

Don't give up on words!

I thought to myself: Whether through writing or images, what matters most is remaining grounded in real life.

About six years ago, near the end of 2020, I walked along parts of the Suzhou Creek promenade for the first time. At that time, most of the 42-kilometer riverside walkway had been connected, though several sections were still unfinished. This time, covering the entire route from beginning to end, I discovered that new distinctive spaces had continued to emerge – for instance cafes and reading rooms like the one mentioned above.

Time Out aptly observed: "Shanghai is a city rooted in history but always sprinting toward the next thing."

To this I would add: In constantly sprinting toward the next thing, the city has become more connected, aided in no small measure by an ongoing expansion of the neighborly spirit along with greater communal convenience.