Luo Qi(L) in Me Library with friends. Photo provided to Shanghai Star

Xiu has met other migrant talents with professional skills facing the same problem. Most of them struggle to make good friends with local people who like to spend time with their own social circle of people they grew up with.

Xiu and his friends from outside Shanghai regularly get together and go hiking to kill time and have fun.

"We have mixed feelings about the city, which is colorful and attractive but we also feel a bit lonely as a group of outsiders, who have to cheer up each other," Xu says.

Shanghai is also home to the largest population of foreigners in China. The latest national census of population in 2010 showed that 208,000 people from outside the Chinese mainland were registered, while 143,200 of them are foreign passport holders.

Ilite Williams, a 27-year-old Swiss bar manager, got to know Chinese culture and local people by engaging in daily life.

Williams moved to Shanghai to work as a bar manager in 2012. She initially found it difficult to make friends with local people.

"I could not speak any Chinese when I arrived so I was a bit depressed working the whole week and having nothing to do in my leisure time," Williams says.

Everything changed after William started participating in volunteer work in a nearby neighborhood that has a mixed population of Chinese and foreign residents.

She was asked by a local friend to participate in volunteer work. She agreed to take part without hesitation as she felt that it would be the most meaningful thing she could do in her spare time.