[unable to retrieve full-text content]With China’s working environment becoming increasingly stressful and competitive, Zheng Lizhu’s career ambitions as a designer shifted dramatically earlier this year.“The competition and anxiety in the design industry made my toes curl,” Zheng said. “I worked like a machine every day. By the time I got home I’d already be exhausted, and my mind would be blank, with no time or energy to think or reflect on myself.”Devoting her whole life to the company wasn’t a fair trade-off, the 30-year-old…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]As Beijing’s Universal Studios opened to sell-out crowds last week, another global theme park franchise was preparing to make its China debut.

Following in the footsteps of Universal and Shanghai Disney Resort, Legoland – in the southeastern tech hub of Shenzhen – is the latest amusement park offering for Chinese domestic tourists.

Construction of the 580,000 square metre (6.2 million sq ft) park, the biggest of China’s four Legoland, began in late August on the scenic Dapeng Peninsula on the…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Short trips and local travel have mitigated losses in China‘s tourism market after fresh coronavirus outbreaks caused a flood of cancellations ahead of Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, as resilient travellers opted for trips closer to home instead of between provinces, new data shows.Despite a Delta variant outbreak in Fujian province crushing many people’s travel plans just days before the three-day holiday began on September 19, turnover was not drastically below pre-pandemic numbers even amid…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A rapidly expanding outbreak of the Delta variant in China’s southeastern province of Fujian is posing a new threat to recovery of the local tourism industry, with fresh lockdowns set to torpedo upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival travel and holiday plans.Covid-19 infections have grown to at least 213, including asymptomatic cases, in a week since the outbreak was detected, prompting a ban on interprovincial group tours to and from Fujian. In the coastal city of Xiamen, which is home to several…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Beijing Electric Power Industry Association has joined 11 coal-fired power companies in petitioning authorities to raise electricity rates to avoid bankruptcy amid surging coal prices.Supply shortages have driven up coal prices in China and coal-fired power stations can only raise rates to accommodate increasing operational costs by as much as 10 per cent, with a large part of electricity prices fixed by the government.But last year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Chinese are showing renewed enthusiasm to travel over the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, with tour bookings surging as restrictions on interprovincial movement begin to be lifted following containment of recent coronavirus outbreaks, data from Trip.com shows.The rise in bookings is expected to reinvigorate China’s domestic travel market, which was disrupted again over summer by new Delta variant clusters that resulted in lockdowns and transport restrictions across the country.However,…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Luxury resorts in China’s southernmost tourism destination have an opportunity to cash in on stymied international travel as affluent domestic holiday-goers seek out tropical shores to tide them over until they can again return to their jet-set lifestyle abroad.Unable to bask in the sun of far-flung destinations such as the Mediterranean or the Maldives due to coronavirus restrictions, China-based holidaymakers are increasingly turning to the beach-resort city of Sanya on Hainan island, one of…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Beijing resident Yu has been shopping nearly exclusively at members-only bulk retail store Sam’s Club for about eight years, rather than buying his groceries online like many Chinese.Even though he pays an annual membership fee of 260 yuan (US$40), Yu – who refused to give his first name – says it is worth it.“It’s convenient,” said Yu, who usually spends between 1,000 yuan and 3,000 yuan each week for his family of six. “I just push a cart and get everything I need, one stop style.”Membership…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Transport and delivery services in central China’s flood-ravaged Henan province have mostly been restored, with logistics operations in e-commerce hub Zhengzhou suffering only short-term delays.Roads and other transport infrastructure have largely been unblocked after flash floods inundated the province last week, killing at least 99 people, officials and traders said.Postal services in Henan have cleared backlogs on goods in transit and expect deliveries to flow smoothly, the transport…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]This is the fourth in a series of stories on China’s job market, looking at its history, the role of migrant workers, inequality and the future for its graduates entering the workforce.Like women in workplaces the world over, struggling to juggle their careers with motherhood, many of those who choose to have children in China are finding that the decision comes with immense challenges – often considerably more than their male counterparts face.In addition to the high cost of living, including…