Comfort meets constraint in China’s most “liveable” city

W hat does the good life look like in China? A loaded question, no doubt. For some it will elicit praise of safety, convenience and planning-minded leaders. Others will say that combination also entails repression, surveillance and a sluggish economy. The complex reality is that these problems and virtues are all there, often alongside each other. To bring a bit of depth to the matter, Chaguan decided to look at it from the vantage of “liveability,” by spending time in Shaoxing, a city judged as the country’s best in a popular newspaper index. That is not a soft test of China but a stiff one: if boosters’ claims hold anywhere, they should hold here. It was not an arduous assignment. Shaoxing is indeed pleasant. An ancient capital built around canals, it is known today for its rice wine, a fragrant tipple, and as the hometown of Lu Xun, China’s most famous writer of the 20th century. Cartoonish versions of him, emphasising his thick moustache, are everywhere, delighting throngs of domes

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