Living in Shanghai

**I wrote this email to friends who are moving to Shanghai for a short term assignment. Here's my two cents about the basics of short term expat life in Shanghai.
I was in Shanghai from April to November 2010 as part of my company's World Expo pavilion management team. I first arrived in April on an extended business trip, which turned into six more months of a short term assigment.

Service Apartments
When I first arrived, I stayed at Fraser Residence on Shou Ning Lu (“Lu” = Road) off of Huai Hai Zhong Lu near Xintiandi. They have different size apartments – I was in a one-bedroom which was barely big enough for me. Another expat friend was in a two bedroom that was much nicer and decent sized. The best thing about Fraser by far is that there is an Element Fresh in the building (and they deliver, though you’ll learn quickly, everyone delivers) and also the Fat Olive which is a popular expat bar/restaurant. We paid CNY17,500 for the one bedroom there. Note, definitely demand laundry in-room (they’ll even move you when one opens up if you insist), as their shared machine on the 7th floor is not pleasant.

When the trip turned into a short term assignment, I moved into the Ascott because all of my colleagues had moved there. Ascott is down the Huai Hai Zhong Lu from Fraser, quite close to Xintiandi, and a block from the subway. You’ll notice Ascott is a much higher end property than Fraser and the rooms are quite nice. For the one bedroom premier room (116sqm), the deal my coworkers made was 4 months fixed + 2 months flexible at CNY25000 per month, and they were clear this rate was for moving in right when they opened in May 2010. They were literally doing construction on the lobby and half the floors weren’t open when I moved in. I believe it's priced about 50% higher now. Modern feel, functional kitchen, 3x week house cleaning, laundry/dryer in-room (definitely ask for that at either place). There is also a steakhouse/lounge called The Strip on the 7th floor, as well as a decent gym and 20m pool. I would totally live there again if someone else was paying my bill :)

The Xintiandi area is quite central, which makes Fraser and Ascott quite convenient for many expats' work and for enjoying the city. I don’t know where you’re going to have to work so that’s definitely a consideration, though cabs are cheap and can go most anywhere. I actually liked the subway, and depending on the package you may have a driver. If you are working in Pudong or Gubei/Hongqiao in the west, do NOT live out there, you will have nothing to do.

Eating
God I loved eating in Shanghai... so much good food and from all over the world. The different Chinese regions, Japanese, French, Peruvian... street food, 'scene-y' places. You could possibly never cook if you wanted between the dining and delivery options, which I think is up there with the NYCs of the world. But you can also get decent groceries, including American stuff, if you want to cook.

Restaurants – Check out this post for my lists. Shanghai has an amazing restaurant scene, a lot of variety, and also changes so often. IMHO Shanghai dining at the extreme price points are inexpensive… Cheap food is ridiculously cheap, and super high end is reasonable (i.e. US$100 at Jean George). The middle is kind of the same… A $20 meal is a $20 meal, $60 is a $60. Shanghai doesn't have steller Mexican (esp if you're from California) or pizza, but has most anything else you could want. If you end up at Fraser or Ascott, you’ll be right near Dintaifung, Jujube Tree, and Bellagio which were some of my favorite places.

Sherpa’s – OMG this is the most amazing service ever, I wish we had it in SF. It is food delivery, but legitimate restaurants posting and delivering their full menus, not like pizza and sandwiches. Super reasonable pricing.

Element Fresh and Wagas– when you start to crave salads and sandwiches and “California-y” food, Element Fresh and Wagas are your friend. There’s a bunch of them throughout the city, and both deliver.

Western super markets – there are a handful of non-Chinese super markets that you can go to for comforts of home like cheese and peanut butter. City Supermarket is in the Times Square (literally a block from Fraser and few min walk from Ascott) For me, I looved that there were Japanese super markets - GL Japan Plaza in Xintiandi on Madang Lu was close and I was a regular there (not cheap). Carrefour is the big supermarket that you go to to stock up.

Language
I’m not sure how much Mandarin you guys speak, but it’s a great time to learn :) Some colleagues and I took 'executive lessons' (private small group at your place) through Mandarin House. I ended up keeping my teacher and still do weekly WebEx lessons with her!

Also, Google Translate is your friend. I used several tools before but it now combines the translator with audio and pinyin pronunciation!

Here are some key phrases below… There are literally guys who have been in Shanghai for years and only know this...
• Yao 要 / Bu yao 不要 –‘want’ and ‘don’t want’. Latter in particular is critical phrase
• (Wo yao 我要) fapiao 发票 – (I want) a receipt. This is the formal receipt you need for reimbursements. If you just say ‘fa-pi-ao’ the cabbies and servers get it
• Fuwuyuan 服务员 – waiter/waitress. How you call over someone in a restaurant. Xiaojie 小姐is ‘miss’ and is the word guidebooks may tell you, but my understanding is that in Shanghai it’s sometimes used for ‘prostitute’ so fuwuyuan is better.
• Mai-dan 买单 – check please
• Ting 停 – stop. Like what you tell a cabbie to pull over.

Especially in the beginning ALWAYS carry around the printed piece of paper that has your residence address written in Chinese, along with anywhere else you want to go. The SmartShanghai app is totally worth the $5 for it's functionality. It’s like Citysearch but will turn every location into a ‘taxi card’ on your phone, big block Chinese characters for the cabbie to read.

Stuff to do
Shanghai is a great metropolitan city, so there's always something to do. In addition, the expat community is enormous, and supports tons of activities and organizations. And don't forget, there are so many travel opportunities within China and the rest of Asia. This is a laundry list of the mundane, expat and touristy.

Massages – amazing, one of the things I miss the most. If you stay at Fraser or Ascott, there’s actually two places actually right between the two, details in post.

Shanghai Night Bike Ride – wait until it gets warmer and maybe when you have a visitor since it's a fun way to tour the city. It was super fun! Bohdi is the company that runs them, and they also organize cool hikes and stuff.

Moganshan Lu - a cutting edge art district with dozens of galleries. You have to cab there, but it's always cool to go. Stop at TwoCities Gallery in building zero - my friend's the director and has beautiful glass/ceramics!

Shop - this is a whole post unto itself. The fake markets are a must at some point. Women will most likely want to make the trip to the Hongqiao Pearl Market as well. Negotiate everything, and don't feel bad walking away.

Get Clothes Made - there are a few locations across the city that pack in tailors to make, well, anything you want. Inexpensive and some very skilled tailors to custom make suits, shirts, dresses, coats. Everything from a jersey dress to tuxedo.

Concerts/Shows - check out the free expat magazines that are at restaurants and supermarkets and look for the upcoming events. Shanghai gets an amazing selection of popular artists, symphonies, jazz fests, and dance. Also world class DJs come through the club scene.

Go out - this topic probably deserves its own post as well, as Shanghai's bar/club/lounge scene is pretty amazing. Frankly it changes so often I don't even know how to write about it. There's something for everyone from the velvet rope members only clubs, to swank lounges with mixologists and wine bars, to divey American drinking holes, to British pubs

Trivia night - I believe trivia night has moved to Camel on Tuesday nights. Really fun.

Softball - there is a 12-team softball league in Shanghai if you can believe that. Mostly American teams, plus two Taiwanese and a Japanese I think. Mostly guys (I think I was one of five women in the whole league) play on Sunday way out in Pudong at the facility they built for the 2008 Special Olympics (which Shanghai got when Beijing hosted the Summer Games).

Expo - so World Expo is done, but the China Pavilion and a number of other sites are open or have been repurposed. I hear China Pavilion still gets tens of thousands of visitors a day

Weekend trips – there’re places to go within a few hours car or train from Shanghai
• Hangzhou - about 1 1/2 hr train ride with beautiful West Lake and surrounding area tea village and Xixi wetlands (though 6 million people live there)
• Zhouzhuang - about 1 hr drive, an ancient water village built around canals and bridge
• Suzhou - they call it the Venice of China because of the canals, but it's also an 11 million population industrial center

China travel - here are my trips that I got in
• Sichuan - I went to Chengdu, Huanglong, and Jiuzhaigou over the May holiday and loooved it
• Beijing and Great Wall - nuf said.

Websites to bookmark
There are many more sites than this and probably all new ones, but here's a start.

• Smart Shanghai – best site for English info on Shanghai life http://www.smartshanghai.com/. Get their app too.
• Shanghai Daily - local English newspaper http://www.shanghaidaily.com/ with a pretty good 'Life" section http://live.shanghaidaily.com/
• China Daily - English language version of state newspaper, always an interesting read and just good to know what's going on http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/

Other stuff to think aboutInternet/VPN – I am assuming that you guys will have VPN, but remember Google related sites (including blogspot), Facebook, and a multitude of other sites are not accessible from Shanghai without it.

TV – if you VPN through a US site rather than Shanghai, HK, whatever the closest is, you will be able to access Hulu and other US media sites. It is definitely worth bringing one of those display cables (you know like for a projector) to attach your laptop to the flat screen TV in your room so you can watch internet TV on a big screen. I bought a cable there but it was a bit of an exercise to get it, so if you have a projector cable, bring it!

Meds – stock up on pharmacy-ish stuff, I just felt better having the familiar Advil and Pepto on hand than the local stuff. There are a few good hospitals/clinics that cater to Westerners, I think Parkway Health is the one everyone recommends.

“China Days” – common expat term for those days where you just want to scream “$*%(@)”… I talked with a friend, who was in Shanghai for the first few years out of GSB with his wife. He actually loved being there (wife did not) but did mention no matter how much you love it, China Days just happen. But it's so worth it.