A walk in the park / CommMedia / Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State

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A walk in the park

CCR in Shanghai

Dong Yan, 46, learned how to ride a bicycle in elementary school. For the past three years, he's made his living on this tricycle, which includes a six-foot flatbed that carries up to 16 cases of beer or soft drinks. He makes 10 deliveries a day, each trip about 40 minutes through the back alleys and smaller streets of the city. These slow, bulky bikes are typically not welcome on the fast-paced main streets. “I don’t get too sore from peddling and it is not too hard to balance,” Dong said. “But I get fatigue from carrying the beverages to the stores.”

Photo gallery: Wheeling through Shanghai

People write down job information at the Shanghai Job Expo on March 5, 2013 in Shanghai, China.

Job market tight for college graduates, even in booming China

Hundreds of advertisements hang from a string along a walkway filled with visitors to People’s Park in Shanghai's marriage market. The ads typically include the name, gender, age, and sometimes a photograph of the person being advertised. In most cases, the advertisements are posted by parents who are seeking prospective partners for their unmarried young adult children.

Chinese women switching priorities from marriage to career

Zhou Zhongqun cooks a meal in front of the one-room residence that serves as her family's home and restaurant business.

Migrants struggle to survive as Shanghai modernizes

Environmental activists call Nanmen, outside Shanghai, one of China's "cancer villages" -- places so despoiled by industry that residents have fallen victim to cancer caused by polluted air and water. Trash and debris are strewn about in the small community, while factories rise up in the distance.

China’s industrial pollution reflected in rise of ‘cancer villages’

Chen Wei Ming, a Harvard-educated businessman, bought a cash-strapped technical college in Shanghai and built Xing Wei College on its remains. The private school is patterned after American liberal arts colleges. Chen hopes his college will be a new higher education model to help China breakout from its rigid education system.

Innovators seek to reform higher education in China

A golfer follows through with his swing at the Tomson Golf Club in the shadow of the club’s version of Mount Fuji in Pudong, Shanghai on March 6, 2013. David Lee, who works as a consultant for the club, said membership fees for the club cost an initial payment of nearly $200,000 and an additional $100 each month. Tomson has played host to various professional tournaments, including the BMW Asian Open from 2005-2008.

China’s golf culture beginning to change

Tracy Teng, a 26-year-old public relations specialist who lives in Shanghai, peruses a Chinese social media platform smartphone in Shanghai coffee shop. Teng works at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, an international financial communications consultancy in China, where she focuses on social media marketing.

Despite censorship in China, social media thrives

Dumplings: The Pizza of Shanghai

Shanghai Ballet: Dancers’ Dreams and a Lifetime Commitment

A donkey grazes on a hillside at The Great Wall of China near Beijing.

Great Wall of China

Visitors touch a wall of the Forbidden City, the Chinese Imperial Palace in Beijing, China.

The Forbidden City

Video: Shanghai street scene

With a retirement age of 60 for most men, it's quite common to see groups of men gathering on ta sidewalk or in a park for a game of cards or checkers.

Afternoon Checkers

A barber in a residential neighborhood of Shanghai offers shaves using a straight razor.

A shave in the streets of Shanghai

Men practice Tai Chi in People's Park in the heart of Shanghai, China.

China Views