Shanghai tops nation in sense of security

People have fun playing with water at the People's Square in Shanghai as a security guard looks on. (Photo: Shanghai Daily)

When Lillian Sun was out for her late-night jog recently in Changning District at around 10:30pm, she saw six security guards on bicycles patrolling the street, two policemen riding motorcycles and two police cars within 40 minutes.

"I am not worried at all running alone late at night," says the 30-year-old woman. "Because every time I go home around 11pm, I see at least several patrol cars."

In fact, Shanghai ranks as the safest city in China, according to a survey jointly conducted by Insight China, a Party-run magazine in Beijing, and Tsinghua University, which ranked areas based on what residents said about their own sense of security.

It used a "Chinese safety index" of five major categories: social security, health safety, production safety, economy safety and psychological security. No definitions were provided for these terms.

Beijing was ranked second-safest in the survey of cities and provinces, followed by Hong Kong, Macau, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Tianjin, Taiwan, Shandong Province and Hainan Province.

Six years ago, Sun left her hometown of Shenyang, capital city of Liaoning Province, for Shanghai. She's never looked back.

"Shanghai is so much better than Shenyang," she says, recalling that as a student, if she was cycling after school among hidden corners or in the dark, she feared encounters with unsavory people.

"I am not saying this happens a lot, but I'm sure it's not rare," she says. "Just a few days ago, my friend met a man with exhibitionism."

Her mother back home never wears jewelry on the street or goes out late at night, she says.

For 33-year-old Luc D'Agostino, who runs a café in Shanghai, the city feels safer than Paris. Three years ago, he came to Shanghai and lives near Shanghai Circus World in Zhabei District.

"In Paris, when you go out at night you have to be a little worried, especially in some neighborhoods where hooligans or drunkards gather. But you have no such worries in Shanghai," he says.

He also observes the city has more surveillance cameras in public areas than Paris.