6 things to expect from Shanghai in 2016

Sandy Chu, co-founder of the Creative Collective and blogger at notesfromchina.com, told us: 'For men there will be more pressure to dress well and look young. This is due to popular slanguage like xiao xianrou - little fresh meat which has made it socially acceptable for women to date younger men.

'Since China has such an unbalanced gender ratio and the media is increasingly focusing on post-’90s generation male celebrity icons in TV shows and even advertising, this is likely to impact how guys dress and groom.'

Jonathan White, managing editor at DRINK magazine, says: 'There are strong rumours of a new craft beer chain coming to China and that would definitely come to Shanghai but a much hyped and long-expected big local opening, Craft has gone conspicuously quiet of late.

'The year will see more collaboration across the board, within China and overseas, in beer and cocktails (guest bartenders or joint brewed beers). And someone will definitely open another speakeasy. Apparently you can’t have too many of them.’

‘Along with Midi, Strawberry and Simple Life, there will be more and more music festivals this year', says Yan Wang, PR manager at MAO Livehouse. 'Audiences won’t be limited to rock kids, there’ll be an increasing number of ordinary youth and families attending.

'A number of foreign music festival brands will look to enter Shanghai and the music festival market will become even more fierce – if the line-ups aren’t fresh and are repeated year on year, the audience won’t buy tickets.'

Mauricio Reyes, founder and Head Trainer at Style Fitness, told us: ‘A trend I expect to emerge this year is the couple workout. People try to squeeze time out of their busy schedule in order to train, but in the meanwhile, they don’t want to neglect spending time with their other halves. Therefore, couple workouts are becoming a popular activity.

'Training together can help to reinforce and build a stronger relationship as well as awareness of healthy lifestyles, which is much better than bonding by spending a lazy day on the sofa eating junk food and watching movies together.’

After years of teasing us, Disneyland looks set to finally open. The park will contain six ‘themed’ lands (including the Adventure Isle and the Gardens of Imagination – wheeeeee) but with a Chinese twist. Given that it cost about 25 billion RMB we’re expecting something pretty mega. Oh, and with a mini Legoland in the works, it seems like we’re going to be spoiled in terms of amusement.

Does Shanghai need any more shopping malls? Regardless ofyour answer to that question, they’re going to build them anyway. This yearwill see our city usher in no fewer than 18 new malls (that we have on recordanyway) including a new edition of SML (that one above Dapuqiao metro station)in Xuhui, a BFC next to Yu Gardens, a Plaza 96 in Lujiazui, Solo Town inHongkou, Ocean Plaza in Yangpu...