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Afgelopen week had Shenzhen Daily een oproep geplaatst voor feedback van expats. Het jaarlijkse “Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress” werd namelijk afgelopen dagen gehouden. De opgestuurde vragen zouden dan gebruikt worden op een persconferentie na afloop. Ik had daarom gelijk van de mogelijkheid gebruik gemaakt en acht opmerkingen ingestuurd. Het gebeurt immers niet zo vaak dat je zo direct invloed kan hebben, dus gelijk gebruik ervan gemaakt. Tot mijn blijde verassing heeft de redactie van Shenzhen Daily er zelfs een heel artikel over gemaakt! De krant heb ik natuurlijk ook gekocht. Kostte 1 yuan!

TRAFFIC, business registration and residence permit applications are among issues that most concern Shenzhen’s foreign residents, based on questions they have submitted to the Shenzhen Daily.

On April 10, the day the city’s lawmakers met for their annual session, the Shenzhen Daily invited its expat readers to ask questions, suggest ideas and provide comments on how the expat community could be better served, and also on how the city could improve its international image.

Most of the more than 10 contributions received by the newspaper by yesterday focused on traffic, the green card application process and setting up complaint hotlines for expatriates.

Thijs Terlouw, a programming engineer with Tencent Innovation Center in Shenzhen, has lived in Nanshan District for two years. In his e-mail to the newspaper, he put forward eight traffic-related suggestions.

“Cycling on the pavement is not convenient and it is extremely dangerous to cycle in traffic. I hope the government to allocate separate bicycle lanes, just like Beijing does,” said Terlouw.

He also called for the government to re-evaluate the frequency of buses, which are always overcrowded during rush hour.

“More buses should be arranged to handle busy traffic during rush hour on busy routes,” he said.

Poul Holt, a technical and quality director of Lego Co., has been a weekly visitor to Shenzhen in the past five years.

He said he wanted to see Metro station signs in English, as foreigners new to city can easily lose their way.

P. Kostoulas, who works for a company in the Futian Free Trade Zone, voiced his worries about the enforcement of traffic rules in the zone.

“I have seen too many instances where people have been almost hurt because of drivers who speed or who ignore stop lights,” he said in an e-mail.

In addition, Kostoulas questioned why taxis were not allowed to stop at Futian Checkpoint, which opened last August.

“This creates difficult and potentially dangerous situations for people with luggage, if there are concerns about congestion, then there should be some type of traffic management scheme to regulate taxi flow rather than a complete ban,” said Kostoulas.

“Having taxis stop two blocks away doesn’t give a professional impression to people who are carrying luggage,” Kostoulas said.

Simplifying registration procedures for foreigners is another aspect that the city can improve in, according to some respondents.

Terlouw said it was difficult to information on how a foreigner could start a business in Shenzhen and that it was “impossible” for most expats to get a green card, which sets investment of US$1 million as a threshold.

Some expatriates suggested setting up a permanent Web site, or opening hotlines for expatriates to get reliable information or lodge complaints. The city should provide more information to make life more convenient for foreigners.

The Shenzhen Daily will collect the suggestions and ideas from readers and submit them to relevant government departments.

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