SHANGHAI, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- On her seventh night in Shanghai, Wang Tingyi came back to her small apartment near the subway with a bag full of resumes and a half-empty bottle of water. No job in sight, but at least she had a free bed.
"I could have spent thousands on hotels just running interviews," she said. "Here I get a free place to crash."
Wang is among thousands of young graduates arriving in Shanghai each year, drawn by the megacity celebrated for its glamour, opportunities and high cost of living. For newcomers, the first challenge is often not finding work, but finding an affordable place to stay while they search.
Shanghai's answer has been quiet yet practical: free short-term accommodation, job-matching services and low-cost evening classes designed to help young people find their footing in a city with 24.85 million permanent residents.
One of the world's leading financial centers, Shanghai is a magnet for young job seekers. The city gathered nearly 150,000 new domestic and overseas professionals in 2025, according to its government work report published in February. Apart from finance, artificial intelligence (AI), biomedicine and integrated circuits sectors are also driving demand for talents.
A ROOM BEFORE A JOB
For many young migrants, the first hurdle in Shanghai is finding somewhere to sleep. Hotels are expensive, hostels can be crowded, and uncertainty can make newcomers more anxious than they need to be.
Shanghai's youth stations, a network of free, short-term accommodation run by the local youth organization and municipal government, offer eligible job seekers up to 15 nights of free lodging a year. Applicants must be recent graduates without Shanghai household registration, or hukou, and must not own or rent property in the city.
Wang applied for a room at a youth station in the central Putuo District and was approved the next day. Within a week, she had received three job offers.
Zhang Yuhan, from Guizhou Province in southwest China, had been comparing hotel and hostel prices when she discovered that the youth station at Hexin Apartments offered free single rooms.
"It was a pleasant surprise," she told Xinhua. "The room was clean, fully furnished and ready to move into."
The two youth stations in Putuo District, opened in late 2024, have hosted more than 2,800 young people and logged over 9,500 overnight stays, with an occupancy rate above 80 percent, according to local government figures.
Across Shanghai, 93 youth stations have become a first stop for more than 30,000 graduates from universities in China and abroad. The city plans to expand the network to 5,000 rooms by the end of this year.
At Hexin Apartments, former residents leave handwritten notes on a notice board for those who come after them.
"This is probably where you can expect some good news," one reads.
"Stay positive and be confident. Don't forget a good shirt," says another.
A third reads, "May we disappear into the crowd, each with a bright future."
HELP WITHIN REACH
The youth stations are more than dormitories. Many also provide employment information, policy briefings and connections to longer-term housing.
To help graduates find work, Shanghai has brought job-matching services closer to where young people live, study and commute. By April 2026, the city had established 506 community-based employment service centers and organized more than 26,000 recruitment events, which together attracted more than 1.02 million visits.
"We act as a bridge between applicants and employers," said Guo Chunquan, deputy director of the Caojiadu community service center. "New graduates often need help because they are unsure what they can do, or what opportunities are available."
One recent graduate, surnamed Zhao, initially declined help, determined to find work on her own. For months, she sent out resumes with little response. When she eventually spoke to social workers at the community service center, she said she wanted "a stable white-collar job, working five days a week, with adequate social insurance."
She later joined a local nonprofit as a project assistant, a role she enjoys, but one she had never considered before.
The centers also run training in fields with relatively low barriers to entry, such as barista work, AI training, freelance social-media content writing and medical appointment companionship, an emerging role in which workers accompany elderly patients through hospital visits.
Young entrepreneurs get support, too. Cai Huiyun, a graduate of the Shanghai Theater Academy, opened a makeup studio in a pop-up space at the Jinglin Employment Service Center in Caojiadu community, Jingan District.
In the same building, third-year student Xi Lifan runs a miniature-model studio that has generated more than 200,000 yuan (about 30,000 U.S. dollars) in online sales.
"We used to work like nomads, carrying our equipment wherever we went," Xi said. "Now we have our own office, and someone to help us with business registration and everything else."
The community provides co-working space and private offices, along with practical guidance on policy and regulation. As businesses grow, it helps connect founders with financing and pitching opportunities. Once established, they can move into bigger office buildings or industrial parks, according to Guo.
NIGHT SCHOOL FOR CONNECTION
At the end of a workday, some avant-garde young people in Shanghai go to night school classes to learn a new skill, meet people or simply unwind.
At a community center in Jinhai neighborhood of Fengxian District, office workers and job seekers gather weekly for a stand-up comedy course. Instructor Yan Shuai encourages his students to turn awkward, frustrating or painful experiences into jokes.
"When I first met them, they all seemed weighed down by life," he said. "Now they're more relaxed, and they look forward to coming each week."
Gao Yuyao, a recent graduate working as a freelance video editor, joined the class hoping to make friends. She said it helped her cope with difficult days.
"Now I can tell my parents about a bad day and make them laugh," she said.
In 2025, the Jinhai neighborhood's night schools offered 60 courses over 491 class hours, serving about 1,000 young people. This year, it has opened 50 courses for around 700 participants, with classes typically costing 50 to 80 yuan per hour.
Across Shanghai, night schools offer classes in painting, golf, dance, yoga, Pilates, swimming, gardening, pet nutrition, baking, calligraphy, knitting and musical instruments. The most popular classes are always hard to get into.
Since the program began in 2024, it has recorded more than 150,000 attendances. Last year alone, 951 night schools offered more than 2,600 courses.
Zhong Xiaohua, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, initially wondered why night schools had become so popular when online learning resources were abundant. Her research, she said, provided an answer.
"Some people go because they do not want to live only online," she said. "Some want to meet new people, and others are preparing to start their own businesses."
Not every class is purely recreational. Since March, the youth station at Hexin Apartments has hosted evening courses on mock interviews, career planning, artificial-intelligence office tools and personal branding, a recognition that a free bed alone is not always enough to ease the worries of someone starting over in a new city. ■
