Wandering the streets of the Chinatown-International District, Gustav Svensson finds something that he rarely enjoyed during his one-year spell in Guangzhou, China: space to walk.
“It was impossible to do anything on the weekends,” the 30-year-old recalled while walking under the Chinatown Gate on 5th and King St. “The malls were so crowded. You had to go into stores even when you didn’t want to buy anything, just to avoid the crowds.”
While mall visits in Guangzhou – the third- largest city in China with 15 million residents – presented throngs of people walking shoulder-to-shoulder, the Chinese Super League (CSL) bestowed an opportunity for Svensson to ply his trade in a market eager to become a global soccer powerhouse.