Minding your own business

With a daily average of 370,000 visitors to the Expo, Shanghai's hotel industry is experiencing a boom that has seen some hotel rates more than double in the past few months. Despite the hefty increases, hotels remain almost fully booked, prompting many locals like Li to offer rooms for rent to earn some extra cash and help visitors enjoy Expo.

Li offered two single-room apartments in the vicinity of the Expo Garden in an online posting and had immediate results. He charges 150 to 240 yuan a night for one to four tenants, which is much cheaper than the average hotel rates. Both rooms have been booked to the end of August and even for periods in September and October, said Li.

Li also hands out free Expo information to his tenants. His hospitality and the quality of his rooms have won him rave reviews online and some visitors have even changed their schedules to book a night or two at his apartments.

Renting rooms short term can bring in more than 4,000 yuan a month as opposed to about 1,500 yuan if the rooms are rented on a monthly basis. Li said he enjoyed getting to know different people from outside Shanghai as much as earning the extra money.

"Through the experience I not only make new friends but also get to know more about Shanghai, as I have to make introductions and suggestions for the visitors' travel plans," Li said.

"The experience is so interesting that I'm thinking of continuing it after the Expo ends," he joked.

And there are many people like Li. A search at the city's major online community portals turn out scores of rental service postings from homeowners who live near the Expo site. Apart from Expo visitors, those working at the Expo Garden are the major tenants.

Expo-motivated businesses take in all sorts of activities, many of a smaller scale than Li's room-rental business. Zhu Mei makes a little extra income from collecting empty beverage bottles dumped by visitors to the Expo. But the 68-year-old, who used to be a farm worker, says the extra few yuan she earns each day comes in handy when buying different food treats.

Zhu collects several hundred bottles and cans each day in the Expo Garden and sells them for recycling.

"It's not big business, but it does not require a single penny of investment. It's also interesting to stroll outside the Expo site," she said, adding that many elderly people living near the Expo site are doing the same.

Family-run eateries near the Expo Garden have also benefited from the huge influx of visitors who appreciate the cheaper and more varied foods than those offered in the Expo Garden.

"Our business has increased by 30 percent since the Expo started," said the owner of Qiao Jia Shan Snack House, surnamed Tang. The restaurant is located near one of the entrances to the Expo Garden.

Ding Wei, manager of another restaurant in the area, said given the brisk sales of the past three months, she would be able to recover all the costs of her new restaurant within the Expo's six-month duration. She said otherwise it would have taken two years.

A vendor sells counterfeit Haibao mascots at a metro station. Gao erqiang / China Daily

Soft drinks are more popular as summer rolls on. Yong Kai / China Daily