For Bahar Jena Vossoughi, who has been living in Minhang for 16 months, Huacao Town is a comfortable place. She not only sees it as her second home beyond her home country France, but also would like to recommend Huacao to more foreigners.

As she said, Huacao is very well located. It is not far from the city center and near Hongqiao International Airport and the National Exhibition and Convention Center. “All the components for living here in Huacao Town for international residents are good. The only thing is to have to make sure the management is doing a good job in the compound, so the expat family will come here. Besides, international schools are here,” said Jena, adding that when expats arrive in Shanghai, one of the first choices real estate agencies recommend is Huacao.

Building a neighborhood center for expats

With over 20 years’ history, the Jinfeng International Community in Huacao which Jena moved into in August 2019 covers an area of 6.5 square kilometers, hosting 11 expat compounds. It is home to 4,389 expats and nearly 3,000 families from 76 countries and regions.

(Logo of Huacao Town. Photo by Tang Fengli)

Huacao has built an international community service center, which includes a service window, a reading club, a general clinic and an expats’ consultative conference room. It provides international residents with 191 types of services, and has received more than 1,000 people so far.

(Huacao International Community Service Center. Photo by Tang Fengli)

“We established the ‘1+1+X’ international community working mechanism, which is ‘the Huacao International Community Management Committee + the Jinfeng International Community Development Association (JICDA) + a number of alliances/leagues’ where there are 12 functional units to meet the work and life needs of foreigners,” said Chen Jian, deputy mayor of Huacao Town. She also said that in the town’s plan of building 100 neighborhood centers, there will be one specially built for the better convenience of expat residents.

Harmony between Chinese & foreign residents

In Huacao, the bilingual magazine “H·LIFE” is no stranger to residents. The magazine was initiated to further enhance the multicultural communication in the international community. Now the amount of distribution has surpassed 25,000. As many families live in the community, a variety of themed activities have been organized for them, such as Mid-autumn Festival, International Family Day, Huacao Cycling Day, and the Jinfeng International Market, attracting over 10,000 participants in all.

(Kids at International Family Day)

As they would like to discover more of the country, Jena and her family take advantage of the events to blend with the people and with the Chinese culture. What they have found interesting is that finally the language is not a big problem for anyone. At a Mid-autumn Festival event, Jena’s husband made friends with an elderly man from the nursing home. “Now they have made contact on WeChat, and from time to time they chat with each other,” Jena recalled, her face melting in smiles. “Not knowing anyone, then you come together and you can find many common situations and common opportunities.”

(Residents get together at a Mid-autumn Festival event)

“In the past, Chinese and foreign residents lived in their own circles. JICDA was formed with the intention of breaking the barriers between them to allow Chinese and foreign residents to truly integrate with each other,” said Meng Lu, executive secretary-general at the Jinfeng International Community Development Association (JICDA).

Voices heard for community autonomy

Apart from organizing community activities, JICDA also listens to expat residents’ needs by conducting consultative conferences, questionnaires and home visits, and encourages them to contribute advice for their own community.

(Huacao’s bilingual magazine “H·LIFE”)

Jena now works part time for JICDA. Since the garbage sorting regulation was launched last year across Shanghai, JICDA has invited expat residents like Jena to discuss issues and solutions during their practice of waste sorting in the community. Together with a representative from SAS Logistics Office, Jena and other residents took part in a seminar in October, and had a face-to-face meeting with directors of the Community Office and the Waste Sorting Office.

(Jena (center) at the Waste Sorting Seminar)

Amir Khan, a Pakistani who has lived in Huacao for 10 years, is also familiar with JICDA and its work. Recently, he has noticed government officials coming to the community and talking with some foreign representatives. Through the platform of the Huacao Expats’ Consultative Conference, expats can directly talk to government officials. In his opinion, the government has built Huacao as both an ideal community for foreigners, but also the ideal place for consultations between the Chinese government and foreigners to take place, which demonstrates the place’s importance and recognition for Huacao and especially JICDA.

(Story by Huang Lichun, Tang Fengli, Wu Qiong, Lu Yukun, Zheng Qian)

(Photos provided by Huacao Town)