FOR Yu Jianning, Shanghai is the ideal place to live and work after her graduation from the elite Peking University in Beijing seven years ago.

It is because Shanghai is friendly enough to give her a sense of belonging, she said.

As a researcher at the Shanghai Party Institute of the Communist Party of China, Yu is presenting a report framing the future of a high-quality life in Shanghai on Friday.

“From my personal point of view, I am quite happy about my choice of Shanghai,” Yu said. “It is in line with our survey results in the report, which shows the majority of people are very positive about the city and its future.”

The report is considered the first evaluation index of high-quality life in China. It is composed by four key barometers to paint what a life of high quality is like.

The four primary indicators are: healthy and green; harmonious and peaceful; smart and sharing; colorful and progressive. They are further exemplified by 21 secondary indicators and 69 tertiary ones.

Healthy and green

Longevity is one basic appeal but length alone is not enough. Shanghai has set a target of achieving a healthy life expectancy of over 71 by 2025, compared with Japan’s 73. A healthy life expectancy, according to the World Health Organization, refers to the average number of years that a person can live in a healthy condition.

The city has also set goals to improve residents’ health literacy, the number of people who regularly take exercise, regulation of smoking in adults and ratio of residents’ fulfilling physical standards, as a comprehensive facilitation to improve people’s health and beyond.

The green development strategy, adopted by Shanghai government, also helped people in the course of health care. In the past four months, Shanghai’s concentration of PM2.5 particles was 37 micrograms per cubic meter, 17.8 percent lower than the same period in 2019. The ratio of days with air quality index (AQI) marked as good or excellent reached 88.4 percent, increasing by 7.6 percentage points from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, more than 96 percent of major rivers and water areas in the city have met water quality standards, 15.6 percentage points higher than last year. No black and foul waters were reported in these areas.

Harmonious and peaceful

Shanghai is among the world’s top 50 safest cities. For a life of high quality, people need a better feeling nurtured by more comfortable neighborhood relations, more active volunteer services and a more balanced work and life.

“Feeling safe physically and psychologically is an important guarantee for a good life,” Yu said, noting that an index to measure people’s sense of security in the city has improved for eight consecutive years.

Smart and sharing

Shanghai is a leader in smart infrastructure construction and its digital transformation has expanded the boundaries of quality life.

Last year, Shanghai was named the world’s “smartest city” at the Smart City Expo World Congress, becoming the first Chinese city to win this award. It excelled in areas like Internet bandwidth, digital application access, research and development capacity, as well as data transparency.

Shanghai’s Deputy Mayor Wu Qing has said Shanghai attaches great importance to the leading role of digitalization, networking, and intelligence in urban development. The city will further promote digital transformation and strive to build a smart city that provides a sense of gain, happiness and security for its residents.

Colorful and progressive

A life of high quality is about opportunities for good work, education, health care, and it is also about leisure. Shanghai has created diversified consumption scenarios, and its cultural activities have shown the aspiring side of urban life.

One example is the city’s coffee culture. According to local business media Yicai, Shanghai had 6,913 coffee shops as of January, ranking it No.1 in the world. There’s an average of 2.85 coffee shops for every 10,000 people in Shanghai, the same density as in New York, London and Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Shanghai is a national center for art performances, various shows, movie premieres and the debut of many new products that will define the future.

“We are excited about living in Shanghai because the city is exciting,” Yu said.

The report, compiled by the Shanghai Development Research Institute and Shanghai Administration Institute under the guidance of Shanghai Party Institute, is released at a time marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

It also touches upon some issues disturbing people, including super-high home prices, overwork and growing worries over children’s education by families. These are shared by many cities and need time to fix.

The report suggested the city further relieve pressure of living and working, improve the living environment and give more attention to the vulnerable, thus allowing more to share prosperity.

“Helping people live a happy life is the original goal and mission of the CPC,” Yu said.

“This evaluation framework is unique to measure what a life of high quality is in Shanghai and beyond, and we expect it to provide guidance for creating higher-quality life in the future.”