Pawsome City: Creating an Environment Where People, Pets Coexist in Harmony

When it turned its head at my call and looked into my eyes for a moment, my heart seemed to melt under the gentle gaze.

It was a crippled puppy, who sat on a lawn near a well-wooded marketplace in suburban Shanghai, facing away from me. I called it by its name, and was pleasantly surprised that it responded immediately.

Earlier, its owner had taken it for a walk around the marketplace in Fangxia Village of Zhaoxiang Town, Qingpu District, and I happened to notice its limping gait.

I then chatted with the owner – a young man – and learned the puppy, called Guai Guai, which means one's little sweetie, is congenitally disabled, with its left forefoot bent and unable to touch the ground.

"A friend picked it up on the roadside about three years ago when it was only one or two months old, and found it had a birth defect," the young man recalled. "My friend immediately gave it to me."

"I would say most people prefer to adopt a healthy pet, yet you readily accepted one with a birth defect. What were your thoughts back then?" I asked.

"It was quite well-behaved when I first saw it, so I was not particularly concerned about its disability," he replied. "I don't simply seek a perfect or an expensive dog. Every dog is a life worth caring for."

"Guai Guai doesn't walk as far as a normal dog does, but we have managed to ramble at least half an hour a day together since it learned to walk," the young man explained, adding that he likes the well-wooded village where the aforementioned rural marketplace is located.

"It's like certain parts of the American countryside, where pristine landscapes are well preserved on the whole," he said. "Pets would like to play or relax here."

As we chatted away on Tuesday afternoon, the sun cast its soft rays on the lawn where the disabled puppy sat quietly. In the distance, a Bichon Frise was running along a pavement ahead of its owner, while a West Highland White Terrier darted into a roadside forest after its owner.

Like many other pet owners I met that day, the young man lives in downtown Zhaoxiang, but their homes are mostly within 15 minutes' walk of the rustic village.

An elderly couple lives in a downtown community just across the street from the village. It takes them about five minutes to walk their three dogs from home to the village. I ran into them when we entered the village almost at the same time.

"How old are your three dogs?" I asked them.

"At least eight years old," replied the old man. "When we adopted them about eight years ago, they were stray dogs in our neighborhood. It's possible that they were originally under the care of the construction crew responsible for developing our housing estate, but the crew didn't take them along when they left."

"May I say you have one of the city's most idyllic places for pets," I said.

"You bet," the old man gave a confident nod in reply. "In such a nice village, dogs frolic freely and flourish."

His wife, a woman of few words, was walking one puppy along a country road flanked by dense trees and vegetable fields, while he was in charge of the other two. The three dogs, named Xi Xi, Mi Mi and Miao Miao, scampered merrily, nosing their way through the greenery that bustled with rustic life.

The scene reminded me of my visit to another village in Zhaoxiang Town last Saturday, where I spotted a Maine Coon cat roaming or relaxing by a creek among a crowd of visitors. It feared no one, as if it owned the place.

Sometimes, tucking its front paws, it crouched on the ground in a riverside dining area, attracting the attention of curious kids. Other times, it lay beside baskets of tomatoes, watching people take photos of it.

It feared no one, nor did it bother anyone.

On a closer look, I found it wore a ring made from a tender, fallen twig dotted with flowers. I thought it might be the village mascot – until a young man came, picked the cat up, and cuddled it in his arms.

"Is it your cat?" I asked him.

"Yes," he replied. "It's easygoing and likes to play outdoors."

He said he lives in neighboring Songjiang District and often takes his cat to adjacent rustic villages so that it can explore and enjoy nature. Hemu Village, where we met, is just one of his many choices.

On the same day, I also saw people walking their dogs in Hemu Village, including a German Shepherd, a Labrador Retriever and many Toy Poodles. Those pet dogs were all on leash while strolling or scampering in the fields.

"We came from Putuo District, which is a bit far from here," said a middle-aged woman who was walking a Labrador Retriever through a field of blooming canola flowers. "Usually we can only walk it in our downtown neighborhood, but today we have plenty of time to spend with it outdoors."

This year's three-day Qingming Festival holiday, which started this past Saturday, allowed people to go on spring outings or visit and clean their ancestors' graves to honor their memory. Qingming Festival is also known as the tomb-sweeping day.

To a great extent, the ever-improving rural landscape in Shanghai has created a natural playground for pets. Fangxia, for example, was elected as one of the city's first batch of 47 forest villages in 2023.

Pet-friendly parks

Beautiful villages are not the only "paradises" for pets, though. Many pet-friendly parks, including those within large commercial complexes, have also mushroomed across the city, from downtown areas to suburban districts.

Shanghai Suhewan MixC World in Jing'an District is a case in point. When I visited it on March 25, I found many dogs scampering on a wedge-shaped grassland, which is separated from a sunken shopping mall.

There are even two special rooms on the grassland, in which pets can be bathed and groomed. Although these rooms were not yet in use when I arrived – they were still under test – one could see how much effort the massive commercial complex by the Suzhou Creek has taken to earmark a special outdoor space for pets.

A young man bringing a Border Collie and a Toy Poodle to the grassland told me that the bathing rooms were attractive to many pet owners who hoped they could start operation as soon as possible.

While creating a special outdoor space for pets and their owners, the commercial complex clearly bars pets from taking the escalators leading to the sunken shopping mall, while nudging people toward bringing their pets to the designated outdoor space. Inside a coffee shop in the sunken mall, I also saw a notice reminding customers to refrain from bringing their pets indoors.

Panlong Tiandi in Qingpu District offers another example of how differentiated management can foster a reasonable pet-friendly environment.

By "reasonable" I mean an environment that balances the needs of pet owners with those of other visitors, rather than one that's overly permissive or prohibitive.

There are two major pet-friendly places at Panlong Tiandi. The one in the central part of the commercial complex is smaller and fenced, while the other on the edge of it is bigger and unfenced. In addition, people can walk their dogs in most outdoor places so long as the animals are on leash.

When I visited Panlong Tiandi on March 29, I found many pets playing merrily with each other and with people who were willing to be their companions.

A sturdy dog caught my eye as I approached the unfenced, pet-friendly grassland on the edge of the commercial complex. At first I mistook it for a Tibetan Mastiff, so I cautiously kept a distance from it. After seeing it playing gently with a toddler, I moved closer and learned from its owner that it was a good-natured Bernese Mountain dog whose name was Cai Three.

"Cai Three!" I suddenly called the dog. It immediately lifted its head and looked at me. At one time it even came closer and caressed my legs with its long fur.

The owner, a young lady, said Cai was her family name, and she was happy to share it with her pet. "Three" sounds similar to sirui in Chinese, which means intelligent.

I don't own a pet, but I appreciate every effort the city has gone through to create a reasonable environment in which people and their furry friends co-exist in harmony.

Considerate pet owners

My recent visits to rustic villages and commercial complexes with ample outdoor space have reinforced my belief that being pet-friendly doesn't mean all shopping malls should be unconditionally accessible to pets. I can't see any reason why pets must be admitted into the crowded indoor space of a shopping mall.

Since the beginning of this year, a number of downtown shopping malls have made it clear that no pets are allowed to enter their indoor space. In my recent field interviews at such malls, several security guards told me that most pet-owners were considerate and would not persist in entering with their pets once they learned of the malls' latest policies.

In principle, Shanghai bars pets from entering places such as shopping malls, schools, restaurants and hospitals. Some malls or restaurants did once try to accommodate pets in their indoor space, but now the loopholes have been closed.

And it's not just about regulation. More importantly, the crowded indoor space of a mall or restaurant is never an ideal destination for pets. A Jiefang Daily report published earlier last month quoted a pet owner as saying that puppies do not really like going to shopping malls. The pet owner, surnamed Guan, told the Shanghai-based newspaper that taking a pet to (the indoor space of) a mall is usually more about meeting the owner's needs.

"Shopping malls are often filled with all sorts of smells and can be noisy," she said.

I can't agree with her more.

Shanghai is increasingly becoming a pet-friendly city as it strives to create an environment in which humans and their companion animals co-exist naturally. Being pet-friendly means being considerate of both pets and people.

In addition to many villages and the outdoor space of many commercial complexes, an increasing number of parks and communities have also transformed into ideal venues for these lovely, domesticated animals.