Launched in 2006, the free, 24-hour hotline (962288) offers services in 15 languages, the most popular being English, Korean, and Japanese. Operators at the center assist callers with a number of issues such as travel, transportation, education, healthcare, and entertainment.

The hotline is staffed by 50 female operators in their 20’s from six countries and takes an average of 550 calls on 250 lines per day. The most common questions relate to directions to an address and simple translations, but can sometimes involve things like negotiating disputes.

Twenty-seven year-old Desislava Koleva said one of the strangest and saddest calls she took was from a man who needed help giving a police report. The man had just been tricked and robbed after going to one of the city’s many bar streets. “I listened to him but I can’t really comfort him in the real sense of the word. I am only supposed to translate what he says to me,” said Koleva.

In trying to keep with the times, the call center is updating its systems to allow operators to field questions via text message.

The Shanghai Call Center is sponsored by the Information Office of Shanghai Municipality, and the Foreign Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.

The post Shanghai Celebrates Anniversary of an Often Used Foreigner Helpline appeared first on The Nanfang.

Civil Aviation Data Analysis (CADA), a Chinese organization that tracks the on-time performance of 103 major international airlines, released a report comparing Chinese airlines with their global peers. Needless to say, the local carriers didn’t perform particularly well. OK Airlines was China’s top performer at 80th on the list, followed by China Southern Airlines at 86th, Air China at 93rd and China Eastern at 94th.

Hong Kong and Taiwanese airlines fared better. Taiwan’s TransAsia Airlines ranked 65th, followed by Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific in 74th spot. EVA came in 78th.

The ranking of other mainland Chinese airlines were not mentioned in the report. However, with the best mainland airline rated at 80th position in a list of only 103, we can assume that mainland China’s approximately 25 other airlines round out the bottom of the list, if they are included at all.

The CADA report is consistent with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which recently reported that the industry was getting worse with each passing year: before 2009, 80 percent of Chinese flights arrived on time, compared with 68 percent today. Industry observers cited bad weather and increased passengers as the main cause of flight delays.

Things are not all bad if you’re travelling in Asia and looking for an airline that’s on-time. The number-one ranked airline for on-time service was Thailand’s Nok Air, rated at 99 percent. Other Asian airlines in the top ten included Japan Airlines at 4th and All Nippon Airways at 6th position.

The post It’s Official: When It Comes To Delays, Chinese Airlines Are The World’s Worst appeared first on The Nanfang.

The survey, involving 45,435 respondents in 40 countries, found that 55 percent had a “favorable” view of China. For the majority of countries, that number is up an average of five percent from last year. The countries with the highest approval ratings are Pakistan, Ghana, Malaysia, and Russia, which, not surprisingly, all share deep economic ties with China.

Although opinions are mixed in Asia and the Middle East, North American and European countries are less enthusiastic about the Asian giant: 60 percent of Germans hold an “unfavorable” view of China, with the US only slightly better at 54 percent. Yet, neither country comes close to Japan, where an overwhelming majority of 89 percent hold an unfavorable view of the country. With recent territorial disputes in the East and South China Sea, that number is unlikely to improve in the near future.Japan holds the highest average of unfavorable views towards China at 89 percent.

The survey also shows that younger people are more likely to have a favorable impression of China.

While China’s reputation has improved an average of five percent over the last year, the perception of its government has worsened. The number of respondents who believe that the Chinese government does not respect the personal freedoms of its people was up five percent from last year, with respondents from North American and Europe being the most critical, particularly of China’s human rights record.

From an economic perspective, while the majority of people surveyed still consider the US to be the world’s leading economy, 27 of the 40 countries surveyed are convinced China will overtake the US in the near future.

The post More People Around the World Have a Favorable View of China, Japanese Excluded appeared first on The Nanfang.

China is home to more than 20 of the most congested cities for traffic in the world, and five are ranked among the world’s top 20, according to a report by TomTom, a dutch company specialising in car navigation services.

China’s most congested cities are its first-tier ones, with Chongqing taking top spot in China and 12th internationally, followed by Tianjin, Beijing and Guangzhou. Chengdu rounded out the top five Chinese cities, coming ahead of Shanghai as well as making it one of the top 20 most congested cities in the world at no. 19.

A number of cities in the Pearl River Delta made it onto the list. In addition to Guangzhou are Shenzhen as China’s 11th most congested city, Zhuhai in 12th place and Dongguan at 21. Another group to note are the Chinese cities that will make up the future Beijing supercity of Tianjin, Beijing and Shijiazhuang, Hebei at the number seven spot.

Taipei also made it onto the list as the 11th most traffic congested city in the world.

TomTom compiled the data by comparing travel times during peak periods against non-congested travel times, and expressing the result as a percentage. Chongqing has a congestion level of 38 percent in which an ordinary commute that takes 30 minutes in unobstructed traffic is delayed by 27 minutes during rush hour.

As bad as traffic conditions appear in Chongqing, car travel in Beijing may actually be worse. While Beijing has a 37 percent congestion level with a delay of 24 minutes for every 30 minute commute, it has more roads than Chongqing that still get clogged up. Though they are both large first-tier cities, Chongqing’s road network is only 5,575 kilometers long, of which 196 kilometers are highways. By comparison, Beijing has a road network of 20,834 kilometers in which 1,177 kilometers are highways.

Here is the list of China’s most congested cities for traffic, followed by their international ranking:

1. Chongqing; 12th
2. Tianjin; 14th
3. Beijing; 15th
4. Guangzhou, Guangdong; 17th
5. Chengdu, Sichuan; 19th
6. Shanghai; 24
7. Shijiazhuang, Hebei; 25th
8. Fuzhou, Fujian; 28th
9. Shenyang, Liaoning; 29th
10. Hangzhou, Zhejiang; 30th
11. Shenzhen, Guangdong; 31st
12. Zhuhai, Guangdong; 33rd
13. Changchun, Jilin; 35th
14. Changsha, Hunan 39th
15. Nanjing, Jiangsu; 42nd
16. Quanzhou, Fujian; 49th
17. Ningbo, Zhejiang; 52nd
18. Wuhan, Hubei; 54th
19. Xiamen, Fujian; 80th
20. Suzhou, Jiangsu; 82nd
21. Dongguan, Guangdong; 83rd
22. Wuxi, Jiangsu; 105th

Istanbul, Mexico City, and and Rio de Janeiro are the three most congested cities in the world.

The post China Has the Worst Traffic in the World appeared first on The Nanfang.

The official language of aviation is English to avoid any problems, but three pilots from Southeast Asia-based airlines say it’s not happening enough in the Chinese capital. Speaking on the condition on anonymity, the pilots admitted they became confused when different air traffic controllers changed the runways scheduled for landing in Chinese. The pilots stressed that all pilots and air traffic controllers should speak a common language so they can share common situational awareness, especially in cases of emergency.

An official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China named Li Mao said the practice of using English to communicate with foreign airline pilots and Mandarin for Chinese pilots has been a long-standing one. He did not elaborate further.

The post Pilots Complain Beijing Air Traffic Control Using Mandarin appeared first on The Nanfang.