The pictures from the Internet were taken in Lujiazui Financial Center, Shanghai, where there was a tidal period of unbalanced people flow on weekdays. The empty street view of the city shot at a single time point is completely unrepresentative, and the statement of "ghost town" is misleading with ulterior motives. According to the quarterly report released by Shanghai Traffic Command Center in August, in the second quarter of 2023, the average daily passenger flow of rail transit was1.654,380+0.62 million. Lujiazui Station ranks first in the morning rush hour at 8:00- 10.
On-the-spot investigation of 澎湃 Tea found that:
The Starbucks store in the first picture of the network transmission is almost full at noon on weekdays, and its shopping malls and restaurants are also quite popular; The second picture was taken from the corridor overpass of Lujiazui Ring Road, and the traffic at night was obviously more than during the day. The third picture is the Yin Cheng Middle Road Ramp of Yan 'an East Road Tunnel in Pudong. The ramp entrance is normally closed, which affects the traffic flow of one-way lane in the same direction to a certain extent, but vehicles normally pass in this lane at different times.
Event background
On September 5th, Newsweek published an article entitled "China and Shanghai Become Ghost Cities"? The article "What does the photo show" quoted three static photos taken in Lujiazui, Shanghai, released by users of social platform X (formerly known as Twitter) on the 4th. The original tweet said, "Shanghai is now a ghost town" and "Today is Monday, a normal working day, which feels like a Sunday morning in Germany, very quiet and with little traffic". This statement was forwarded by many netizens, and the number of views exceeded 654.38+0.5 million.
Under this tweet, some netizens commented that there is no barista in the coffee shop (Starbucks in the picture), so this was taken before the store opened. Some netizens also shot videos or photos of pedestrians in downtown areas such as Shanghai Bund and Huaihai Middle Road to refute them.
Some netizens joked: "Is it possible that this was taken at four in the morning?" "I hope (less people) this is true!" In this regard, Newsweek's article seems to have listed several netizens' doubts about Shanghai's "ghost town" in a balanced way, but at the end of the article, it still turned the tables and threw out negative doubts about China's economy.
Because the photos published online did not indicate the specific time period when they were taken, the picture parameters were erased and could not be viewed. In order to find out the truth, on September 8, an equally ordinary working day, the inspectors of "Chaoyong Tea" came to the shooting place of these three photos and saw the unreasonable statement that Shanghai, with a population of nearly 25 million, became a "ghost town".
Tea
Where is the Starbucks in the network map?
First, "Yanming Tea" tries to find the "Starbucks" in the picture.
Through the preliminary speculation of the landmark building Oriental Pearl in the three pictures, this Starbucks store with several small steps at the door should be located near Lujiazui, Pudong New Area, Shanghai. 澎澎湃 then searched the environmental photos of Starbucks stores in this area one by one and found that they were consistent with the facade of Starbucks (Blue Ocean International Plaza Store).
Above: Sending pictures online. Below: On the morning of September 8, I took a look at the scene map of Starbucks branch in Shanghai International Plaza.
Recognizable storefront design, door steps, floor tiles, elevator pictures reflected from windows, etc. All the pictures on the Internet can correspond to the environmental map of Starbucks (Blue Ocean International Plaza Store) one by one.
The Starbucks store next to Shanghai World Financial Center has two floors. At noon on the 8th, the store was almost full. At the same time, in the Blue Ocean International Shopping Center, which can be accessed by turning right from Starbucks, many restaurants are also crowded at noon.
On the 8th, from noon 12 to afternoon 1, Starbucks (Blue Ocean International Plaza) was almost full of "tea". At the same time, look at the passenger flow in front of a restaurant in Blue Ocean International Shopping Center. The clerk of Starbucks (Blue Ocean International Plaza Store) told Pengmingcha that the passenger flow in this store is really low in the early morning of the working day, but it tends to increase around noon on 12 and afternoon tea.
Even in the period of low passenger flow, customers can still be seen coming to the store for consumption. Left: From 9: 00 am to 10 on the 8th, there were customers in Starbucks, and many pedestrians were visible outside the window. Right: From 10 to 1 1 on the morning of the 8th, on the first floor of Starbucks, many customers took their seats to spend money.
The second picture of the network transmission was taken at the corridor overpass of Lujiazui Ring Road. The shooting point of the second picture of the network transmission is not far from the above Starbucks store. Go upstairs from the escalator in front of Starbucks, go straight along the corridor overpass of Lujiazui Ring Road and go west about 100 meters.
The security guard at the entrance of Guo Jin Center near Lianlang told "Pengpai" that the pedestrian flow at this corridor overpass is less than that at ordinary nights. Lujiazui subway station has an exit near the corridor, and some employees in nearby units may choose to enter the office of the business building directly from the subway station. Overpass is not the only place to pass.
At noon on September 8th 12, the inspector took photos of the pedestrian flow on the overpass and the zebra crossing under the bridge (the red arrow indicates the location where the online photos were taken).
At about 8: 00 am -9: 00 am on the 8th, when "Paipai Tea" arrived at Lujiazui subway station by subway 14 line, the carriage was already crowded with people.
According to the article "Quarterly Report of Shanghai Traffic Operation in 2023 (Rail Transit)" published by the official WeChat of Shanghai Traffic Command Center on August 2 this year, in the second quarter of 2023, the average daily passenger flow of rail transit was 1 1.62 million. Among them, "the stations with high passenger flow in the morning peak (8:00- 10:00) are mainly traditional CBD regional stations and industrial park stations" and "Lujiazui station remains the first".
Of course, the "surging Pai" of the field trip found that the location of taking photos online was about 800 meters away from the nearest subway station Exit 8, and the subway entrance was not a direct overpass, so subway passengers were diverted before they set foot on the overpass. Some people who work nearby choose to go downstairs from the middle of the overpass and take the zebra crossing under the bridge. One of the men told Paipai that it was cooler under the bridge during working hours (9: 00 am 9:00- 10/0).
In addition, the corridor overpass connects many large shopping malls, including Guo Jin Center and Blue Ocean International Plaza. During lunch break and evening rush hour, the traffic on the overpass increased obviously.
Left: Send pictures online. Right: The same shooting point of the online photo of "surging tea" at 5 pm on September 8.
The third photo from the Internet was taken at the junction of Yin Cheng Middle Road, Yan 'an East Road Tunnel in Pudong.
The third photo taken online is also located on the corridor overpass of Lujiazui Ring Road. In the photo taken, on the right is the east-west ramp of Yan 'an East Road Tunnel and Yin Cheng Middle Road.
According to the notice issued by the Shanghai Municipal Government on February 23rd, 2022, the entrance of Yin Cheng Middle Road Ramp of Yan 'an East Road Tunnel in Pudong will be closed normally.
On September 8th, the entrance of Yan 'an East Road Tunnel and Yin Cheng Middle Road Ramp in Pudong was closed.
On the other hand, the one-way lane on the left side of the ramp in the third network map is always open, and vehicles can be seen passing normally in this lane at different times.
On September 8, the traffic flow map of the online photo shooting location is 10 am-1 1 am on the left and 5: 00pm -6: 00pm on the right.
To sum up, although it is difficult to verify the specific shooting time of photos posted by netizens on social platform X through technical means, it is found that there is a tidal phenomenon of uneven passenger flow in the above shooting locations on ordinary working days through visits to the shooting locations. During the regular lunch break and off-duty hours, normal people can be seen in Starbucks coffee shop, corridor overpass and road.
We don't know how the photographer photographed an empty street scene in the CBD area with the highest morning rush hour in a city with a population of nearly 25 million. However, Newsweek, an old American news magazine, indiscriminately chose three completely unreasonable "empty mirrors" to look at pictures and speak, taking the opportunity to throw out negative comments on China's economy, which is not only unprofessional, but also has a big question mark on its motivation. In fact, "China's theory of economic collapse" is not new. It can be traced back to nearly half a century ago at the earliest.
For decades, China has repeatedly "slapped" these empty arguments with real economic development. Perhaps, as a netizen said in reply to the original post, "Don't worry about Shanghai", American media need not worry more about China's economy.