Shanghaiist: So just how safe is Shanghai?

kristina chao

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 06:25:53 +0800

I was just wondering how often this happens in Shanghai. I was hoping to visit a dear friend of mine in this city, however, if the city is not safe, perhaps I should wait. Thank you for your replies.

Julie Knoll

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:51:42 +0800

I have a stopover in Shanghai for a night on my way to Malaysia for work, and I have about 24 hours in the city. What are the best things to do in Shanghai in 24 hours? I would like to do some shopping and see some typical chinese things, eat chinese food, etc. as I have never been in China before. I am a girl alone, will it be safe for me to explore the city on my own?

killarkai

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 14:42:47 +0800

I would still think Shanghai is very safe, of course this is coming from my personal experience. The guy got robbed, while that is unfortunate, he escaped with some bruises and lost cash. Within the past few days about 3-4 unfortunate souls in my country got robbed *AND* killed by snatch thieves/robbers in totally separate incidents.

Peregrand

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:10:36 +0800

It's hard to make out how significant this kind of news really is. China doesn't make its crime statistics a matter of public record so putting individual instances like this in context is hard to do. Bad things happen all the time, it's the trends that count. From a personal perspective, I've always felt China is a very safe country, and it seems a great majority feel the say way too. How many times have we heard "I spent 3 months treking around Asia and never once felt unsafe until I stepped out of the Los Angeles airport." Still, I do seem to hear more and more stories like this of late. Maybe it's just a case of better reporting, but probably not. In any event, shame on nanheyangrou for flippancy and a condoning attitude with regard to a serious subject. In the spirit of information sharing, I leave you with one more alarmist annecdote from two months ago: A Dutch professor (friend of a friend) recently visited Shanghai for a lecture at Jiaotong U. Dinner plans were made for Friday night but he never showed up. 48 worried hours later he finally appeared in a groggy state. Turns out two "Singaporean" nationals had spiked his beer at Blue Frog on Maoming Lu. While under the influence of drugs unknown, they led him back to his hotel and stole his laptop and cash. The story was reported to the police. I don't think anybody expected anything to come of it, but apparently, thanks to the hotel's video cameras, the culprits were ultimately caught. I don't think it ever made news, and we never actually found out who the bandits really were.

nanheyangrouchuan

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 23:26:32 +0800

Gee, Shanghai is turning into a regular city due to economic development. Big surprise, and of course whenever you have "haves" you have alot more "have nots" who want some of what the "haves" have. And and white face foreign "gods" are fair game too.