Stay Signed In
Do you want to access your site more quickly on this computer? Check this box, and your username and password will be remembered for two weeks. Click logout to turn this off.
Stay Safe
Do not check this box if you are using a public computer. You don't want anyone seeing your personal info or messing with your site.
So I knew from others who have lived here and my own travel experiences in Shanghai that there would be a transition period between Hong Kong and the Hai, and they came in surprising and not surprising ways. It took me a year to get them on this site - but it seemed appropriate to kick off the "Shanghai" section of this website with a list of new lessons.
I would love to say it’s a more open-minded, world weary and “adjusted” view of things (perhaps it is, but I just can't see it), but I think the reality is that anytime you have to make a new place home, you revert to your most basic creature comfort instincts. The one difference is the adjust is shorter!
Thanks for sticking in there and reading my stories.
Xiexie he gam bei,
Susie
Lesson #1
Being exactly on-time is near impossible.
This should come to no surprise to anyone who has been to Shanghai, seen a picture of Shanghai, or simply read the basic facts; that there are 22 million people in this city. Traffic is ridiculous and unpredictable as hell. I have been 40 minutes late for a dinner (a dinner that was mere 2 miles from the start point of my house)
Lesson #2
You may die on a daily basis.
Holy crap, it’s not just the traffic; it’s the blatant disregard – wait not disregard – the blatant absence of globally acknowledged right-of-ways, utilized turn-signal engineering, and red lights that are actually embraced as law. Like I said, things I have taken for granted since my impatient father (kinda) took the time to teach me how to be a (mediocre) driver. Now that said, I have a driver so I at least get to be familiar with the driving habits of one person who would never get granted a US drivers license, as opposed to being subjected to different cabbies and their idiosyncrasies. Boiled down (and having exhausted my daily quota of big dramatic words), it’s a harrowing daily experience.
Lesson #3
America’s version of Middle Class is kinda like being royalty.
I live in an area stuck in the middle of mass-modernization (in the form of skyscrapers and modern complexes) and old school Shanghai living. My building has, on one side, Wujiang Lu walking mall with a Marks & Spencer, a Cold Stone creamery, a Starbucks, and a Burger King. And on the other side is a neighborhood filled with people going about their Mahjong games, wandering in their pajamas, and selling fresh veggies and grilled squid from a makeshift Coleman set up in front of their home. The whole thing combined in Chinese middle class living. How they live, how they socialize, how they shop -- all wrapped up haphazardly in one city block with a split personality. People here manage to raise families, play games, take care of their elders at home, work a shift, know their neighbors, get in loud verbal spars, go to malls, grow squash on fences, dodge bicycles and trucks while walking to school.... all in "dirty" neighborhoods, with houses about 20% of the size of a typical suburban development. No centralized heat or A/C, plumbing that - at best – is emitting a constant, although not intolerable, stench (even my high level, thouroughly modern apartment has that smell in the bathrooms), and electricity that would be considered tantamount to a condemned building (300 hundred wires wrapped around a stick 30 feet above your head doesn't build much confidence). And then the big one - no yards (not even a 1x1 foot patch of dirt), no fences, no garages. So boiled down, from the narrow perspective of my upbringing, people are on top of each other, make an effort to stay clean, and get zero “pleasing aesthetics” from their home environment. Hence the obsession with the shiny new mall.....
Lesson #4
Mystery Smells are like Ninjas
They sneak up on you in a dangerous way. Don’t really need to elaborate on this one. This city has the capacity for being absolutely rank – just when you think it’s safe to breath.
Lesson #5
Hot Days are Boring Days
In HK I got used to a hot summer day being an excuse to act like a college kid on Spring Break and head to a beach or get out on a boat. But in Shanghai, there are no options. You stay home in your air-conditioned space, or you – wait that’s right, there is no other friggin option. Short of knowing a heat wave is coming and booking at a hotel with a nice outdoor pool, you’re relegated to an indoor weekend. And I know, I know, you’re saying to yourself – well Susie deal with it! Get outside and walk, go to a park…. Please read my previous lessons – 22 million people, middle class existence with no yards, garages, living rooms, or A/C, mystery smells. Hot days are NOT your friend. And there is something horribly depressing about knowing it’s summer and it’s hot, but you’re inside watching a movie.
Lesson #6
My Driver – a relationship.
Among my ex-pat friends, its common knowledge not to talk about certain things with people who have not been ex-pats. We just fundamentally know we’ll sound bourgeoisies to the unfamiliar mind, and somehow we’ll get exposed as being horribly exploitative of humanity and 3rd world dynamics.
But oh well - having a driver is, and even my most practical and low maintenence friends would agree, fabulous.
Situation #1 When you emerge from customs at Pudong International your man in standing there, ready to take your bag, lead you to the garage, pull that automobile around and drive you the hour home, all while the CD of your choice plays while you sit back in your plush silver mini-van. (yes, I have come to love mini-vans - I may get one when I move back to the states) I mean I would still rank higher a greeting by someone tall and dark with a bunch of flowers, but a driver is a close second for airport greetings. It’s no “Love Actually” moment, but it works. You feel taken care of, secure that if something went wrong – someone would actually know you had disappeared.
Situation #2; The Shanghai IKEA or B&Q (China's Home Depot) on a Saturday. I think all 22m people do the same thing on Saturdays – purchase RTA furniture and cheap kitchen gadgets. These places are worse than the crossing in Shubuya. With no driver you would have to limit your purchases to what you can carry (what fun is that?). You don’t have to wait in the IKEA ‘s epically long taxi line. And someone is at the other end of your trip to unload and get rid of those boxes.
Situation 3: My driver is the little angel voice in my head; my moral compass. They know EVERYTHING and they are willing to have an opinion. Susie – you drink too much last night. Susie – you no exercise yesterday. I take you today. Susie – is this new boyfriend or just new “friend”. Susie – you did not leave house today. Susie – you look tired, need more sleep. Susie – you look fat, need eat less.
Oh and they tell all the other drivers…..and your mother when she visits.
