Expats, district officials outline optimal services
People try their hand at flower arrangement at Shanghai New Art Flower Store on Friday.
Nine Japanese representatives and Hongkou District officials meet on Friday at Shanghai New Art Flower Store, inside the historic Embankment Building, to discuss how to improve Shanghai's services.
The issues under discussion included improving social and commercial services, transportation, housing, medical treatment and education.
The CNS Coffee Talk project.
The event was the fourth activity of the CNS Coffee Talk project which is aimed at optimizing the services that the Shanghai government provides to foreigners living and working in the city. The event was co-hosted by City News Service and Hongkou District Information Office.
Since its launch in November last year, City News Service has been working to address the main concerns of expats in working, studying, and living in Shanghai.
The guests spoke about and made suggestions on their living experience in Shanghai from multiple perspectives such as daily living, travel, housing, medical treatment, payments, and education.
The guests all said that living in Shanghai is quite convenient and prosperous, but also put forward their suggestions on the problems they encountered in daily life. Hongkou District government officials said that they will do their utmost to provide a better environment.
Tanaka Masako talks about her life in Shanghai.
Kidono Masako shares her point of view.
At the end of the session, everyone tried their hand at flower arranging.
"Today, I was able to experience flower arrangement here and learned about this flower shop," said Kidono Masako. "I am very happy about it."
Japanese guests are also looking forward to the upcoming Japanese version of City News Service.
"CNS Japanese version is necessary for Japanese who may do not understand English," said Uyama Tsumugi. "Because there are indeed people who only read Japanese information. We are also looking forward to the Japanese version of this platform being implemented as soon as possible. I think this is a very good idea."
Iwai Ryouk added: "Today is my first time learning about City News Service. If Japanese could use such a platform to search for information in the future, I think it would make it more convenient for us."
