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China’s Growing e-Commerce Graveyard: These Companies Already Failed in 2017

“When there’s enough wind, even a pig can fly” (当风来了, 猪也会飞起来) does not hold true for all online businesses.

Manya Koetse

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China’s e-commerce market is a dog-eat-dog world, with new companies popping up every day, while older ones are throwing in the towel. How (not) to make it in China’s crazy world of e-commerce has become a hot topic of discussion on Chinese social media. What’s on Weibo takes a look at 3 big – once successful – Chinese online companies, and why they failed in 2017.

It is still early in the year, but already some big online companies have exited China’s chaotic world of e-commerce. The release of an ‘e-commerce dead list’ (#2017电商死亡名单#) became top trending on Chinese social media on February 22, and triggered discussions on the status-quo of the market.

“One by one they collapse, one by one they pop up,” one netizen (@逛吃秦皇岛) says. With an ever-growing Chinese online population and the world’s largest e-commerce market, more companies seek to join, hoping to find a goldmine. Instead, many of them soon end up on the e-commerce graveyard. The popular idea about China’s e-market that “when there’s enough wind, even a pig can fly” (当风来了, 猪也会飞起来) does not seem to hold true for all online businesses.

Their collapse does not necessarily mean the end – for many, it is just a new beginning. “This whole business is like gambling,” one Weibo commenter responds. Another micro-blogger says: “E-commerce companies all soon become like conventional businesses. The large online companies are just too strong. It is easy to join [the market], but hard to survive.”

Let’s take a look at 3 big companies that have already collapsed this year, and what experts say goes wrong in their approach to the Chinese online market.

 
“China’s 2017 e-Commerce Dead List”

Along with other Chinese media, China’s influential online e-commerce magazine Ebrun.com recently released a list of big companies that have closed their doors this year. We have selected the 3 biggest ones.

 

1. Dingfangbao 订房宝

Business: Online Hotel Bookings

With the slogan “You only sleep ten hours, why would you spend all your money for the day on it?” (只睡十小时,为何要花整天的钱), Dingfangbao was an up-and-coming online hotel booking site (app + website) selling high-class hotel rooms at low prices, focused at offering clients a luxurious room for the night.

The company started in late 2014 with its own formula that allowed customers to search for available hotel rooms after 6 pm. Through the Dingfangbao app and site, four and five-star hotels in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen could offer their rooms at competitive prices if they were not occupied or reserved by 6 pm. A win-win situation: Dingfangbao users could get a top room for a cheap price, and hotels wouldn’t be left with empty hotel rooms.

The Dingfangbao service (Dingfangbao literally meaning ‘booking treasure’) was especially aimed at business travelers who won’t arrive at their hotels until the evenings due to late meetings and leave again early in the morning.

With Japanese nude model/(adult) film actress Sola Aoi (苍井空) as their company ambassador, it seemed that Dingfangbao was also aiming at luring customers to luxurious hotels at nighttime for other purposes – similar to the ‘love hotels’ in Japan.

Japanese sexy actress Sola Aoi was Dingfangbao’s spokesperson.

Dingfangbao had a promising take-off in 2014, with various fundings and an initial angel investment of 6 million RMB (±870K$), followed by second- and third-round funding of a total of 13 million RMB (±1.9M$) in 2015 and 2016.

But on 27 January 2017, Dingfangbao announced that it would be stopping its services. CEO Sun Jianrong (孙建荣) told the media that although there certainly is a market for the Dingbaofang formula, the frequency with which its clients used these services was too low and not enough to cover their operational costs.

On Weibo, the company still has around 19000 followers. Sola Aoi, who has a staggering 17 million fans on her Weibo page, announced on February 8 that she would step down as the company’s spokesperson. A day later, the company officially closed its doors, although its website is still live at the time of writing.

 

2. Greenbox 绿盒子

Business: O2O Children’s Clothing

Online trendy children’s clothing brand Greenbox (绿盒子) was a success story when it first entered China’s O2O (online-to-offline) retail market in 2010. The company was already established by businesswoman Wu Fangfang (吴芳芳) years before, but it made a conscious shift from offline to e-commerce when Wu realized the potential of middle-class moms spending more time shopping for their kids on the internet.

In 2010, Greenbox received two rounds of funding from Trust Bridge Partners (TBP) of 20 million RMB (3M$), and of 100 million (14.5M$) from DCM. Children clothing brands such as Miss de Mode, M.I.L. Boy, Jenny Bear, and a special Disney brand all belonged to Greenbox, which soon was named one of China’s top 10 e-retailers.

Greenbox tapped into the children’s clothing at the right time, as this retail segment has become especially booming business over the past few years. Together with the surge in other children-related products, there has been a shift to bigger sales of these ‘non-traditional products’ that show that China’s ‘Mummy Economy’ (妈妈经济) has become increasingly more relevant.

Wu Fangfang, the founder of Greenbox.

Soon after the brand was established, it became one of the most popular children’s clothing brands (ranking no.1 for three years in a row) on Alibaba’s online malls Tmall and Taobao. But Greenbox was not solely sold through Alibaba; it was also available through other online shopping platforms such as JD.com and Dangdang. The brand also had its own shop on WeChat.

In 2015, Greenbox started opening up physical stores besides its online ones. It had around 100 (flagship) stores in China’s first-tier cities, solely focused on online sales for the second- and third-tier cities. Was the company taking on more than it could? According to some Chinese media, the brand was “blindly expanding” and growing too fast, too soon, which led to recurring financial difficulties throughout the years. Their financial problems severely worsened in 2016, as the children’s clothing became increasingly competitive. In January 2017, the brand finally announced its bankruptcy.

On Weibo the brand still has 76000 fans, but it has been inactive for months. Some netizens are surprised that the well-known brand has quit, and wonder what this means for the future of other successful ‘Taobao brands.’

 

3. An Home 安个家

Business: Online Real Estate

An Home (安个家) was established in April of 2015. Headquartered in Shanghai, it was independently funded (10 million RMB, 1.5M$) by CEO Liang Weiping (梁伟平). Its business offered online real estate services with a focus on its mobile app, attempting to rival with traditional real estate services.

Different from offline realtors, An Home aimed to be an online (mobile) platform where its home-seekers, homeowners, and consultants could connect with each other, making the process of buying and selling a house less time-consuming and more efficient.

An Home was a promising start-up for which Liang Weiping gathered a team coming from prosperous companies such as Tencent and Alibaba.

But by late December of 2016, Liang admitted to Chinese media that the company was facing financial hardships, and that they had not succeeded in finding the right way to compete with their offline rivals through online channels. As booming as all corners of China’s e-commerce market might seem, people might not be ready for O2O when it comes to real estate.

One of the reasons for its failure was that eventually, no matter online or offline, access to a large number of houses is the key to winning over the real estate market – and it was precisely this issue where the company feel behind compared to the more traditional channels.

Late 2016, CEO Liang sent out a letter to all of its staff that An Home had to halt operations due to financial difficulties. The company has now closed its doors.

What Can We Learn from the Graveyard Companies?

The aforementioned online companies are not the only ones who did not make it this year. Bollain Home Textile (帛澜家纺天猫店), founded in 2012 and selling bedding and home textiles through over 50 online stores in China, has collapsed after running behind approximately 16 million RMB (2.3M$) in its payments to suppliers and staff.

Online recruitment company Job Tong (周伯通招聘), established in 2013 as a major social recruitment platform and even receiving a 28 million RMB investment from NetEase, also went down earlier this year – its online competitors, including lagou.com, liepin.com, and zhipin.com, simply grew too strong.

 

“Even the most clever housewife cannot cook without rice”

 

And then we have not even mentioned foreign brands such as Lotte and others that closed their doors this doors in the highly competitive Chinese e-market.

So what is the lesson to be learned from these start-up failures? Of course, there is not one answer.

But Chinese e-commerce guru Wang Yongjun (王勇军), who has over 2,5 million fans on his Weibo account (@老高电商圈子), thinks he knows what China’s e-commerce start-ups need.

Wang runs a large networking group called the ‘Laogao Club’ for online entrepreneurs in China that are active on Taobao, Tmall, JD.com, etc, and in response to the ‘2017 failing e-commerce list’, published a blog on February 22 in which he gives some main points on how to succeed in this dog-eat-dog e-commerce world.

Mr. Wang, founder of the Laogao Club, explains how businesses can become successful on platforms such as Taobao or JD.com.

According to Wang’s article (in Chinese), which received many views on Weibo on February 22, building up an online community is key for any e-commerce business in China.

“Even the most clever housewife cannot cook without rice”, Wang argues, seeing an online following as the key ingredient to any online-based business. Drawing in communal media followers costs time and energy – haste makes waste.

The ‘guru’ says that online businesses can’t just gather their following by simply arranging a KOL (Key Opinion Leader) or online celebrity (see the first Dingfangbao example) for their brand; it is something a brand has to do themself, since they are the core that needs to attract fans.

 

“No matter how good you are, or how good your product is, it is worth nothing without an online community.”

 

“No matter how good you are, or how good your product is, it is worth nothing without an online community,” Wang writes. In a time when netizens are drowning in the information that is presented to them, it is essential that brands and companies are precise in targeting their relevant audiences and shooting their arrows in the right place.

Wang strongly advises companies to set up the right online environment that suits their target audience, and to pick the right timing to market their messages. Sometimes brands are lucky when their campaign goes viral, but mostly it is about smart strategy.

Before converting your assets into cash, it is important to continue to be valuable to followers and give them a reason to stay. Wang stresses that it is never a good idea to start the money-making machine too soon – you first need to make sure you have a steady and loyal group of online followers that is attached to your brand/company.

 

“Don’t drown the pond to get at the fish.”

 

“Don’t be overhasty, don’t drain the pond to get to the fish” (不能操之过急、竭泽而渔), is one of the messages of the Laogao Club for their online entrepreneurs. You can only transform your brand and starting making money once your ‘fans’ trust your brand/company enough and feel connected to its ‘flavor.’

Keeping up the quality of your services and products, and always making sure it brings more than just a ‘bargain’, it is therefore key to survive in the fiercely competitive Chinese e-commerce market.

Reading from the Laogao Club’s road to e-success, we could draw the conclusion that Dingfangbao had not worked enough on creating its own communal following of trusting and loyal fans before attempting to converting its assets into cash. An Home jumped into the pond before there were any fish at all, and Greenbox went ahead of itself and became too hasty to expand.

“If you enter the pit, be cautious”, some netizens respond on Weibo: “It is risky business.”

“There are too many people who don’t understand and think they are already running an e-business simply because they openened an online company. It looks good on paper, but in reality, it’s nothing,” another person writes.

– By Manya Koetse

©2017 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.

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China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

‘Carpet Pacific’: A Timeline of the Cathay Pacific Scandal Through Weibo Hashtags

Cathay Pacific flight attendants mocking non-English speaking passengers by saying, “If you can’t say blanket, you can’t have it,” has sparked a major controversy and caused a marketing catastrophe.

Manya Koetse

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Last week, Xiamen Airlines was the focus of attention on Chinese social media after one of their pilots was caught secretly filming a female staff members in the ladies room. This week, the focus has shifted to Cathay Pacific, as the Hong Kong-based airline faced accusations of discrimination against travelers from mainland China.

The incident gained significant attention on May 22 when a user of the Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) app shared a public complaint about the Hong Kong airline. In the post, the author, who claimed to have resided in Hong Kong for eleven years, expressed their inability to remain silent after witnessing overt discrimination on a Cathay Pacific CX987 flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong.

The passenger said they were seated near the area where the flight attendants rest and prepare meals, and that they could hear the cabin crew making fun of passengers who could not speak English. Passengers who tried to ask them for help in English about filling out immigration cards allegedly also received impatient responses. The passenger recorded some of their conversation, and later posted the audio clip online.

In one clip, you can hear the staff laughing about a passenger who wanted a blanket but could not properly say it in English. “If you cannot say blanket, you cannot have it,” they joked. Since some passengers allegedly had used the word ‘carpet’ instead of ‘blanket’, the cabin crew can be heard saying: “A carpet is on the floor.”

Since the incident was first exposed on social media, it turned into a major controversy and a marketing crisis for the Cathay Pacific company. As Cathay was condemned by million of netizens, many also vowed to boycott the airline.

Cathay Pacific has been hit hard by the pandemic, and was seeing an increased demand for travel into the Chinese Mainland since quarantine-free travel between Hong Kong the Mainland was finally resumed on January 8 of this year. Cathay is heavily dependent on the Chinese market, and approximately 70% of its revue reportedly comes from China (#国泰航空近七成营收来自中国#).

The incident has ignited anger due to the discriminatory treatment of mainland customers by a Hong Kong company, leading to further discussions on anti-Chinese sentiments in Hong Kong and the role of language in fostering (or hindering) national unity between mainland China and Hong Kong.

This is a timeline of the incident through Weibo hashtags that have gone trending over the past few days.

▶︎ The Cathay Discrimination Audio Leaked Online #国泰空乘歧视乘客录音曝光# (260 million views)

After a netizen posted about supposed discrimination against non-English speaking passengers by cabin crew members on the Cathay Pacific CX987 flight, the incident soon garnered widespread attention on Chinese social media, especially when the 30-second audio was also shared online (hear the audio snippet here).

▶︎ Cathay Pacific Apologizes #国泰航空致歉# (210 million views)

On May 22, Cathay Pacific soon issued a response apologizing for the passenger’s experience and promised a thorough investigation. However, their initial apology was considered inadequate by many netizens, and only sparked more debates about the discrimination against mainland Chinese passengers within Cathay’s work environment.

On May 23, Cathay Pacific issued a second apology via social channels, mentioning that they had contacted the passenger and that they had suspended the flight attendants involved.

▶︎ Cathay Pacific Uses Standard Mandarin to Apologize #国泰航空行政总裁用普通话道歉# (10 million views)

Lin Shaobo apologizes using Standard Mandarin, image via Weibo.com.

During a media briefing in Guangzhou on May 24, Cathay Pacific CEO Lin Shaobo (林绍波) once again expressed his sincere apologies on behalf of Cathay for the incident. In doing so, he used Standard Mandarin, the national language of mainland China.

▶︎ Three Employers Fired for Discriminating Against Passengers #国泰航空3名歧视乘客空乘被解聘# (460 million views)

At this time, it was also announced that Cathay had completed their investigation into the matter and, in accordance with the company’s regulations, had dismissed the three involved cabin crew members. Lin Shaobo clarified that the airline maintains a “zero tolerance” approach towards any employees who violate the company’s rules and ethical standards.

▶︎ Cathay Pacific’s Flight Attendant Union Regrets the Incident #国泰空乘工会对空姐被解聘感到遗憾# (180 million views)

On May 24, there was some online turmoil over a statement issued by Cathay Pacific’s Flight Attendant Union (FAU). In the statement, the union expressed that Cathay is “facing a shortage of both manpower and resources, a significant increase in workload and low salaries.” Because these problems are ignored, Cathay is seeing an “extremely low” morale among cabin crew and more complaints regarding cabin service. “Nothing comes from nothing,” the statement said. The Union was criticized for “whitewashing” the cabin crew’s discrimination against non-English-speakers.

▶︎ No Official Support for The Union #国泰航空称空中服务员工会不代表国泰# (130 million views)

On May 25, Cathay Pacific issued a statement in which they clarified that The Union is an independent labor union and does not represent the company. They also clarified that did not support the union’s position nor agreed with it.

▶︎ Hu Xijin Recommends Mainland Passengers to Speak Mandarin #胡锡进建议乘国泰航空只讲普通话# (910,000 views)

Chinese political & social commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) also responded to the Cathay incident in multiple posts. In one of them, he suggested that mainland passengers should primarily speak Mandarin when they fly Cathay in the future. Since so much of their customer base is from mainland, Cathay should have enough cabin crew speaking Mandarin, he argued. Hu also reflected on how Cathay also caused controversy in 2019, when it would not stop staff from joining the Kong Kong pro-democracy protests. According to Hu, the company should pay attention to “correcting the values” of their employees.

▶︎”Leaked” Internal Email Labeled as Fake News #国泰航空称网传英文内部信件为伪造# (77 million views)

Post by Cathay in which they deny that this “leaked memo” is authentic. Screenshot by What’s on Weibo.

In the meantime, some images circulated online that allegedly showed an internal Cathay Pacific memo by the company’s HK Express CEO Mandy Ng in which a warning was issued to be “cautious when engaging with customers from China and be aware of their media culture.” That memo was labeled as being false by Cathay Pacific.

▶︎ Hong Kong Perfomer Condemns Cathay for Incident #香港演员怒斥国泰空乘歧视乘客# (170 million views)

Hong Kong celebrity Maria Cordero, nicknamed ‘Fat Mama’ (肥妈) went trending on Weibo for condemning the Cathay Pacific crew members in a recent interview. “Is speaking English that important?” she wondered: “The whole world is learning Chinese!” She also expressed that the primary duty of flight attendants is to look after passengers and help solve their problems. If they are incapable of fulfilling their duty, they should be sacked.

▶︎ Blankets for Everyone #旅客称现在国泰的航班挨个发毛毯# (6.5 million views)

According to passengers flying Cathay after the ‘blanket incident,’ the cabin crew went around explicitly asking all passengers if they needed any blankets, making announcements in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

▶︎ Follow-up to the Incident #国泰航空空乘歧视乘客后续# (26 million views)

As the Cathay scandal keeps fermenting online, one commenter expressed a common viewpoint by stating: “If Cathay Pacific is so unwilling to serve Chinese people and they refuse to speak Mandarin, why don’t they clearly state that they don’t welcome Chinese passengers? They can’t have it both ways by earning money from Chinese tickets without providing the same level of service.”

Meanwhile, an online meme has gained popularity, depicting ‘Cathay Pacific’ as ‘Carpet Pacific’ in reference to the controversial comments made by the cabin crew.

Other memes include the quote: “If you cannot say blanket, you cannot have it,” or include the phrase “no zuo no die” – a popular internet meme that basically means ‘what goes around comes around.’

Those flying China Southern Airlines or Eastern Airlines are posting about their warm on-board blankets, joking: “I didn’t even have to say ‘blanket’ and still got it!”

By Manya Koetse

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©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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China and Covid19

Repurposing China’s Abandoned Nucleic Acid Booths: 10 Innovative Transformations

Abandoned nucleic acid booths are getting a second life through these new initiatives.

Manya Koetse

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During the pandemic, nucleic acid testing booths in Chinese cities were primarily focused on maintaining physical distance. Now, empty booths are being repurposed to bring people together, serving as new spaces to serve the community and promote social engagement.

Just months ago, nucleic acid testing booths were the most lively spots of some Chinese cities. During the 2022 Shanghai summer, for example, there were massive queues in front of the city’s nucleic acid booths, as people needed a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours for accessing public transport, going to work, or visiting markets and malls.

The word ‘hésuān tíng‘ (核酸亭), nucleic acid booth (also:核酸采样小屋), became a part of China’s pandemic lexicon, just like hésuān dìtú (核酸地图), the nucleic acid test map lauched in May 2022 that would show where you can get a nucleic test.

Example of nucleic acid test map.

During Halloween parties in Shanghai in 2022, some people even came dressed up as nucleic test booths – although local authorities could not appreciate the creative costume.

Halloween 2022: dressed up as nucliec acid booths. Via @manyapan twitter.

In December 2022, along with the announced changed rules in China’s ‘zero Covid’ approach, nucleic acid booths were suddenly left dismantled and empty.

With many cities spending millions to set up these booths in central locations, the question soon arose: what should they do with the abandoned booths?

This question also relates to who actually owns them, since the ownership is mixed. Some booths were purchased by authorities, others were bought by companies, and there are also local communities owning their own testing booths. Depending on the contracts and legal implications, not all booths are able to get a new function or be removed yet (Worker’s Daily).

In Tianjin, a total of 266 nucleic acid booths located in Jinghai District were listed for public acquisition earlier this month, and they were acquired for 4.78 million yuan (US$683.300) by a local food and beverage company which will transform the booths into convenience service points, selling snacks or providing other services.

Tianjin is not the only city where old nucleic acid testing booths are being repurposed. While some booths have been discarded, some companies and/or local governments – in cooperation with local communities – have demonstrated creativity by transforming the booths into new landmarks. Since the start of 2023, different cities and districts across China have already begun to repurpose testing booths. Here, we will explore ten different way in which China’s abandoned nucleic test booths get a second chance at a meaningful existence.

 

1: Pharmacy/Medical Booths

Via ‘copyquan’ republished on Sohu.

Blogger ‘copyquan’ recently explored various ways in which abandoned PCR testing points are being repurposed.

One way in which they are used is as small pharmacies or as medical service points for local residents (居民医疗点). Alleviating the strain on hospitals and pharmacies, this was one of the earliest ways in which the booths were repurposed back in December of 2022 and January of 2023.

Chongqing, Tianjin, and Suzhou were among earlier cities where some testing booths were transformed into convenient medical facilities.

 

2: Market Stalls

Market stalls instead of nucliec acid testing booths. Image via Sina.

In Suzhou, Jiangsu province, the local government transformed vacant nucleic acid booths into market stalls for the Spring Festival in January 2022, offering them free of charge to businesses to sell local products, snacks, and traditional New Year goods.

The idea was not just meant as a way for small businesses to conveniently sell to local residents, it was also meant as a way to attract more shoppers and promote other businesses in the neighborhood.

 

3: Community Service Center

Small grid community center in Shizhuang Village, image via Sohu.

Some residential areas have transformed their local nucleic acid testing booths into community service centers, offering all kinds of convenient services to neighborhood residents.

These little station are called wǎnggé yìzhàn (网格驿站) or “grid service stations,” and they can serve as small community centers where residents can get various kinds of care and support.

 

4: “Refuel” Stations

In February of this year, 100 idle nucleic acid sampling booths were transformed into so-called “Rider Refuel Stations” (骑士加油站) in Zhejiang’s Pinghu. Although it initially sounds like a place where delivery riders can fill up their fuel tanks, it is actually meant as a place where they themselves can recharge.

Delivery riders and other outdoor workers can come to the ‘refuel’ station to drink some water or tea, warm their hands, warm up some food and take a quick nap.

 

5: Free Libraries

image via sohu.

In various Chinese cities, abandoned nucleic acid booths have been transformed into little free libraries where people can grab some books to read, donate or return other books, and sit down for some reading.

Changzhou is one of the places where you’ll find such “drifting bookstores” (漂流书屋) (see video), but similar initiatives have also been launched in other places, including Suzhou.

 

6: Study Space

Photos via Copyquan’s article on Sohu.

Another innovative way in which old testing points are being repurposed is by turning them into places where students can sit together to study. The so-called “Let’s Study Space” (一间习吧), fully airconditioned, are opened from 8 in the morning until 22:00 at night.

Students – or any citizens who would like a nice place to study – can make online reservations with their ID cards and scan a QR code to enter the study rooms.

There are currently ten study booths in Anji, and the popular project is an initiative by the Anji County Library in Zhejiang (see video).

 

7: Beer Kiosk

Hoegaarden beer shop, image via Creative Adquan.

Changing an old nucleic acid testing booth into a beer bar is a marketing initiative by the Shanghai McCann ad agency for the Belgium beer brand Hoegaarden.

The idea behind the bar is to celebrate a new spring after the pandemic. The ad agency has revamped a total of six formr nucleic acid booths into small Hoegaarden ‘beer gardens.’

 

8: Police Box

In Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, authorities have repurposed old testing booths and transformed them into ‘police boxes’ (警务岗亭) to enhance security and improve the visibility of city police among the public.

Currently, a total of eight vacant nucleic acid booths have been renovated into modern police stations, serving as key points for police presence and interaction with the community.

 

9: Lottery Ticket Booths

Image via The Paper

Some nucleic acid booths have now been turned into small shops selling lottery tickets for the China Welfare Lottery. One such place turning the kiosks into lottery shops is Songjiang in Shanghai.

Using the booths like this is a win-win situation: they are placed in central locations so it is more convenient for locals to get their lottery tickets, and on the other hand, the sales also help the community, as the profits are used for welfare projects, including care for the elderly.

 

10: Mini Fire Stations

Micro fire stations, images via ZjNews.

Some communities decided that it would be useful to repurpose the testing points and turn them into mini fire kiosks, just allowing enough space for the necessary equipment to quickly respond to fire emergencies.

Want to read more about the end of ‘zero Covid’ in China? Check our other articles here.

By Manya Koetse,

Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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