November 25, 2025 • 6 mins
Our Shanghai-based correspondent talks temperatures, beef, driving and parking in a city of 30 million people, and making a Chinese man’s day.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's our guy in Shanghai, Rockspur up born and bred
Kiwi hunter McGregor selling venison, selling red meat to the
Chinese hunter. You'll be interested to know we're headed for
a high of twenty eight degrees here in Dunedin today,
which is summer like for the end of spring, no doubt.
In Shanghai, you're starting to chill down.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, no, good afternoon, Jamie, No, it is, we're starting
to cool down. Actually, Shanghai this year had one of
the hot summers on record. It was very hot, and
we will get down to twenty eight overnight during the
height of summer. So yeah, twenty eight degrees is quite comfortable.
At the moment. We're actually having quite a warm, sort
of early start to winter and we're around about twenty
(00:43):
degrees most days for the clear blue skies and get
down to about eight overnight, just below ten. So it's
quite good. But coming into when we hit real winter,
it gets wet and damp and now we sit around
about between zara and ten degrees and it's not much fun.
But during it at the moment, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'd imagine some of it because you're right on the
coast there at Shanghai, some of those inland Chinese cities.
Beijing would be an example. Further north, so that'd get
a lot more chilly.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh yeah, further north, you know, you get the grass
actually turns brown, so it's not green. It's quite depressing
to be on us. The winters in the north of
China and Beijing, for example, it gets down to minus
thirty over the winter and plus forty in the summer.
So yeah, big big swings and changes. You and that
north part of China, there's a hell of a lot
(01:32):
of animals and a lot of sheep that have grown
up there. But you know, winter's pretty hard on them
when it's minus thirty minus forty and your heavy snow
and stuff. So you know, it's tough on the animals
up there, but yeah, they seem to survive and get through,
and then they thrive in the summer month.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Let's talk about beef. China produces seven point seven million
metric tons of beef. Here in New Zealand we do
seven hundred and twenty thousand metric tons or tons of beef.
So basically China's producing ten times the amount we are.
I thought it might have been more.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, well, it's probably actually growing, to be honest, because
beef is you know, it is growing. But the problem is,
you know, they're running out of land. So you know,
if beef production increases, you know, they'll probably dropped down
some pork production or chicken or other sort of you know,
other other animal production because that comes to the limits
of the land. But you know, Chinese beef in general,
(02:30):
in the past, it's been you know, and then the
consumers just focused on one thing, has been cheap and
high volume. But they're moving, you know, and a lot
of the consumers now starting to move to other things.
The one thing that I've seen, you know, quite a lot,
especially in restaurants in Shanghai, is they're now focusing on
(02:52):
fresh beef. You know, when I talk about fresh beef,
I'm meaning you know, from when they walk into the
saord of plant there actually coming out the other end.
It's sort of six to eight hours. It's on a
truck directly into the restaurant, so you know, she's pretty fresh,
and they managed to get a bit of a premium
for it. So you know, it's an interesting way that
they're consuming beef up here.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Hunter McGregor. With Hunter, you've got a bit of a
story about driving in China. I'd be no good in China.
I'm no good in Dunedin. I struggle on the main
street of Riversdale. How do you get on driving amongst
thirty million people?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, you know, I've been doing it for about four
or five years now, and a lot of people that
I know up here think I'm a bit mad driving
around the streets. But I got my own car and
drive around and actually got my first ticket the other day,
which is a bit of a bit of a shock
to the system. Now, when I drive around the streets
to Shanghai, I kind of know what the speed limit is,
but I usually just drive a bit slower than everybody
(03:50):
else and when we're fine, and luckily there's lots of
flashes with speed cameras and stuff, but they don't seem
to issue tickets, which is which is quite good. But
I got done for a U turn on a road
the other day, and what happened is that I did
the U turn and two days later we've got a
text message saying that I got a demerit point. So
(04:12):
you log into their app and you had to pay
two hundred room and bee fine, which is about fifty
dollars in New Zealand these days. And you got the
option of getting rid of the demerit point by watching
a video and an educational video and passing a test
or going and doing some community service. I think the
whole they're real positive thing about. The whole thing is
(04:33):
that the demerat point is linked to the car and
the car owner being my wife. You know, she got
the demerat point and she managed to sit the test
and pass it, so you know, it was a low
level offense obviously. And you know they have twelve demerit
points every two years here, Yeah, look like they do
in New Zealand, so it wasn't a big problem. But
(04:53):
you do see a lot of traffic cops around issuing
tickets and stuff like that quite regularly. Yeah, that was
interesting and I won't be doing that. You turn on
a on a double yellow line in the future.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Your miserable side. You made your poor wife watch the
video and sit the test when it was actually your fault. Okay,
driving in Shanghai would not be for the fainthearted. What
about parking in Shanghai, for instance? Where do you park
your car? And I'm talking about overnight and if you're
driving around, can you ever find a park on a
street or do you always have to park in parking buildings?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
For me, I parked my car in my office building,
so it's underground, so it's quite good. But cruising around
there's a lot of parks during the day, you know,
nighttime it's a bit hard. But if you park on
the streets these days, there used to be traffic wardens
that will come along and issure take out you have
to pay as you left. Now it's all automatic. You
(05:54):
just park your car, you get a text message to
say that your car's being registered at this location, and
then then when you go to leave, you just scan
a QR code which is on the ground, and you
just pay. So it's pretty pretty convenient, you know. And
then also, you know, with parking buildings and stuff, they
don't have the little tickets or anything like that. You
just drive in, you scan the QR code and pay
(06:17):
on the way out. The other thing is that with
a lot of the what you call off the apartment
buildings apartment complexes, during the day, they let other cousins
to park there, so there's plenty of parking. Just certain
times She's a bit challenging, and you know, five o'clock
on a Friday night is a bit hard to get
a park and the streets are full, so I sort
of avoid traffic of that safe see mate.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Thanks for your time as always here on the Country.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yes, thanks Jamine
He's our guy in Shanghai, Rockspur up born and bred
Kiwi hunter McGregor selling venison, selling red meat to the
Chinese hunter. You'll be interested to know we're headed for
a high of twenty eight degrees here in Dunedin today,
which is summer like for the end of spring, no doubt.
In Shanghai, you're starting to chill down.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, no, good afternoon, Jamie, No, it is, we're starting
to cool down. Actually, Shanghai this year had one of
the hot summers on record. It was very hot, and
we will get down to twenty eight overnight during the
height of summer. So yeah, twenty eight degrees is quite comfortable.
At the moment. We're actually having quite a warm, sort
of early start to winter and we're around about twenty
(00:43):
degrees most days for the clear blue skies and get
down to about eight overnight, just below ten. So it's
quite good. But coming into when we hit real winter,
it gets wet and damp and now we sit around
about between zara and ten degrees and it's not much fun.
But during it at the moment, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'd imagine some of it because you're right on the
coast there at Shanghai, some of those inland Chinese cities.
Beijing would be an example. Further north, so that'd get
a lot more chilly.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh yeah, further north, you know, you get the grass
actually turns brown, so it's not green. It's quite depressing
to be on us. The winters in the north of
China and Beijing, for example, it gets down to minus
thirty over the winter and plus forty in the summer.
So yeah, big big swings and changes. You and that
north part of China, there's a hell of a lot
(01:32):
of animals and a lot of sheep that have grown
up there. But you know, winter's pretty hard on them
when it's minus thirty minus forty and your heavy snow
and stuff. So you know, it's tough on the animals
up there, but yeah, they seem to survive and get through,
and then they thrive in the summer month.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Let's talk about beef. China produces seven point seven million
metric tons of beef. Here in New Zealand we do
seven hundred and twenty thousand metric tons or tons of beef.
So basically China's producing ten times the amount we are.
I thought it might have been more.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, well, it's probably actually growing, to be honest, because
beef is you know, it is growing. But the problem is,
you know, they're running out of land. So you know,
if beef production increases, you know, they'll probably dropped down
some pork production or chicken or other sort of you know,
other other animal production because that comes to the limits
of the land. But you know, Chinese beef in general,
(02:30):
in the past, it's been you know, and then the
consumers just focused on one thing, has been cheap and
high volume. But they're moving, you know, and a lot
of the consumers now starting to move to other things.
The one thing that I've seen, you know, quite a lot,
especially in restaurants in Shanghai, is they're now focusing on
(02:52):
fresh beef. You know, when I talk about fresh beef,
I'm meaning you know, from when they walk into the
saord of plant there actually coming out the other end.
It's sort of six to eight hours. It's on a
truck directly into the restaurant, so you know, she's pretty fresh,
and they managed to get a bit of a premium
for it. So you know, it's an interesting way that
they're consuming beef up here.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Hunter McGregor. With Hunter, you've got a bit of a
story about driving in China. I'd be no good in China.
I'm no good in Dunedin. I struggle on the main
street of Riversdale. How do you get on driving amongst
thirty million people?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, you know, I've been doing it for about four
or five years now, and a lot of people that
I know up here think I'm a bit mad driving
around the streets. But I got my own car and
drive around and actually got my first ticket the other day,
which is a bit of a bit of a shock
to the system. Now, when I drive around the streets
to Shanghai, I kind of know what the speed limit is,
but I usually just drive a bit slower than everybody
(03:50):
else and when we're fine, and luckily there's lots of
flashes with speed cameras and stuff, but they don't seem
to issue tickets, which is which is quite good. But
I got done for a U turn on a road
the other day, and what happened is that I did
the U turn and two days later we've got a
text message saying that I got a demerit point. So
(04:12):
you log into their app and you had to pay
two hundred room and bee fine, which is about fifty
dollars in New Zealand these days. And you got the
option of getting rid of the demerit point by watching
a video and an educational video and passing a test
or going and doing some community service. I think the
whole they're real positive thing about. The whole thing is
(04:33):
that the demerat point is linked to the car and
the car owner being my wife. You know, she got
the demerat point and she managed to sit the test
and pass it, so you know, it was a low
level offense obviously. And you know they have twelve demerit
points every two years here, Yeah, look like they do
in New Zealand, so it wasn't a big problem. But
(04:53):
you do see a lot of traffic cops around issuing
tickets and stuff like that quite regularly. Yeah, that was
interesting and I won't be doing that. You turn on
a on a double yellow line in the future.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Your miserable side. You made your poor wife watch the
video and sit the test when it was actually your fault. Okay,
driving in Shanghai would not be for the fainthearted. What
about parking in Shanghai, for instance? Where do you park
your car? And I'm talking about overnight and if you're
driving around, can you ever find a park on a
street or do you always have to park in parking buildings?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
For me, I parked my car in my office building,
so it's underground, so it's quite good. But cruising around
there's a lot of parks during the day, you know,
nighttime it's a bit hard. But if you park on
the streets these days, there used to be traffic wardens
that will come along and issure take out you have
to pay as you left. Now it's all automatic. You
(05:54):
just park your car, you get a text message to
say that your car's being registered at this location, and
then then when you go to leave, you just scan
a QR code which is on the ground, and you
just pay. So it's pretty pretty convenient, you know. And
then also, you know, with parking buildings and stuff, they
don't have the little tickets or anything like that. You
just drive in, you scan the QR code and pay
(06:17):
on the way out. The other thing is that with
a lot of the what you call off the apartment
buildings apartment complexes, during the day, they let other cousins
to park there, so there's plenty of parking. Just certain
times She's a bit challenging, and you know, five o'clock
on a Friday night is a bit hard to get
a park and the streets are full, so I sort
of avoid traffic of that safe see mate.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Thanks for your time as always here on the Country.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yes, thanks Jamine
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