Suburbs in Shanghai are different from suburbs in the U.S. When you think of suburbs, you might think of neighborhoods filled with rows of two-story houses with their own lawns and backyards. In Shanghai, suburbs mainly consist of rows of newly-built apartment buildings rather than rows of individual houses.
Suburbs in China are a new invention. Only a few decades ago, people lived either in the city or in the country, and these lifestyles were very different. As China’s economy has developed and cities have grown, suburbs have also developed. Many suburbs are residential, which means that people mainly live there rather than work there. They are filled with newly-built apartments and everything people need to live comfortably. What do you think people need in a suburb? Suburbs are filled with restaurants, supermarkets, schools, universities, hospitals, movie theaters, police stations, fire stations, parks and malls. Other suburbs are more industrial, which means that they are mainly filled with factories where workers make many things such as clothes, medicine or cars.
