The Shanghai Customer Evaluation Center surveyed 308 foreigners from 28 countries and regions in March and April using questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. Twenty-six percent of respondents live in the city while the rest were in town for business or tourism. More than 57 percent of those surveyed have visited the city at least twice during the past two years.

The survey included questions about the city's infrastructure, transportation system, investment environment and entertainment facilities, among other issues.

Respondents were asked to give ratings ranging from unsatisfied to very satisfied to certain aspects of life in the city. An index was then created to quantify those answers on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 100 (perfect).

When asked about their impression of downtown Shanghai, including transportation facilities, restaurants, shopping, public sanitation and communication infrastructure, respondents gave it a rating of 71.63.

That represents an increase of 6.4 points from a similar survey conducted by the center last year.

The city's investment environment scored equally well, earning a rating of 71.9. That question wasn't asked last year.

More than 72 percent of respondents said the city's successful bid to host the World Expo 2010 will buoy local economic growth.

When asked to rate more than 20 aspects of the city, respondents expressed the most satisfaction with local hotels and restaurants, followed by the diversity of goods available at local stores and the variety of entertainment venues in Shanghai.

The quality of service available in the city saw the largest improvement over last year, posting a score of 71.66, an increase of 8.8 points. Some of the foreigners did, however, complain about impolite police officers, and about 60 respondents said they were not pleased with the response they received after lodging complaints with local authorities.

The city still has some other problems to solve, according to the survey. Many people complained about air quality, public sanitation, traffic and telecommunication services. "Air quality is very bad and traffic is awful," one Australia woman told the center during the survey.

(eastday.com May 23, 2003)