Shanghai and Beijing have an intense city rivalry. It goes something like this.
Beijing: We’re arty and cool, Shanghai is soulless and the people are really snooty.
Shanghai: Oh yeah!? Well we’re the most international city in China and have a super glamorous nightlife. Beijing is polluted and dirty.
*fight fight fight fight*
Over the past two years I have become a proud “Beijing ren” trotting out the typical arguments when someone asks me which city is better. A lot of my Chinese friends in Beijing – none of whom are actually from Beijing, tell me they chose to move to the capital over Shanghai because they worried they wouldn’t make friends in Shanghai. That they would struggle not speaking the local dialect and seemed to hold the impression the people would look down on them.
Beijing
