Shanghai's white collar workers hit the tanning salons

What’s going on with Shanghai’s white collar workers these days? What are some of the things they do to alleviate the boredom of the 9-to-5 life and add some spice into their lives? What are the trendmakers among this silent majority saying and doing?

Here are the results of a Shanghaiist (i.e. totally arbitrary ) internet search:

• Become a fisherman for a day. One Shanghai white-collar worker said that his trip to a park located about 5 km from Hangzhou’s West Lake allowed him the rare chance to return to the days of his youth and feel closer to nature. You can catch all kinds of fish (mostly varieties of carp and mackerel), grab some fruits and make a meal.
• Getting a tan -- artificially, that is. Tanning beds and bronze colored skin are in right now, though it seems that women are still more beholden to the white=beautiful theory more than men: only 1/4 of the customers at the tanning salons are women. Our tip for the men: want that bronze look? Try being a migrant worker for three days.
• We reported several days earlier about the shakeup in the karaoke world. It seems that there will be no more free lunch for karaoke businesses, they are going to have to pay more money, and the government is in the process of figuring out how much. Chances are that some karaoke establishments are going to have to pass the rising costs onto the consumers—we’re not prophesizing the downfall of karaoke, but if this does come to pass, will it dissuade some of the white-collar workers from singing their cares away?
• Another thing that Shanghai’s white collar workers are not doing is signing up in droves for all the activities that travel agencies set up for Chinese Valentine’s Day (qi xi), which we believe is July 28 this year. Some say it is because people are simply too busy, and others say that it has to do with the fact that people are more into the Western Valentine’s Day on February 14. This is pure, unadulterated cultural imperialism. We say don’t wait until February 14, 2007 -- try to get laid next week. It’s good for you.

Photo from Unity.project's Flickr page.