"easy life" in Shanghai

I arrived in Shanghai last Friday night after 22 hours of traveling. I've since moved into my new apartment. It's an 11th floor, newly furnished, 60 sq. m. (~540 sq. ft.) bachelorette pad - even larger and nicer than the apartment I had in Austin - in a complex that is less than one year old. By complex, I mean at least a dozen 39-story buildings arranged in a circle around a garden, and a recreation center that includes a gym, reading room, card/chess rooms, ping pong tables, a mini-cinema, a golf simulator(!?), and even a couple piano rooms. Oh, and there's a shopping center just next door with restaurants, shops, hair salons, a supermarket, and access to the newest line on the subway. All this is just two minutes' walk from my front door. As a result, my building is called, so I'm told, the "Easy Life" building.

And, indeed, it is the easy - and extremely spoiled - life. If the buildings weren't so tall, I would be able to see from my 11th floor window the shanties, or "hutong", just outside the complex fence. In these brick shelters, people live whole families in one room with perhaps no electricity and a small stove to keep them warm. They wash communally from a line of faucets outside while little babies waddle around with the seats of their pants undone.

I've done this before. I've lived the whole spoiled expat life, with everything paid for and everything at my fingertips and everything easy enough if I choose to stay within my little circle of comfort. I managed to get through a year and a half in Beijing without much more knowledge of Mandarin than I had the first day I got there. I managed to walk across the street to the US imports grocery store where they had everything from Pop Tarts to Dr. Pepper. I managed to get chauffered everywhere I needed to go, from my army/embassy brat international school to all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants to my top-floor two-story apartment home. But I didn't manage to make friends with any local Chinese, or have a daily dumpling breakfast that filled my tummy for only 4 yuan, or even ride my bicycle to the park to watch the old people doing tai chi in the morning.

My parents' company paid for our way of life; now my company is doing the same. But I'm determined not to let this chance pass me by again. Sure, I'm still spoiled. I get paid more than my more talented and more experienced Chinese counterparts just because I'm from the US. My apartment is covered, as is a transportation allowance, an appliance allowance, and, of course, moving expenses to make my way over here. I have internet access in my apartment, satellite TV, oh, and not just a washer, but a dryer, too! This time, though, I plan to ride a bicycle to work and take the bus on rainy days. I plan to make good friends with my coworkers, who are all local Chinese except for one American who moved here when I did. And I definitely plan on leaving this city at least semi-fluent in Mandarin -- with maybe a hint of a Shanghainese accent.

That said, I began my exploration of Shanghai on Sunday after spending most of Saturday getting somewhat settled in my apartment. I took the subway downtown from my apartment and attempted to go to both the US Embassy and the bank, both of which were closed. The subways here are in surprisingly good condition. They are efficient and modern and look very much like the MTR in Hong Kong. Each trip can cost anywhere from 2 to 5 yuan, or about 25 to 50 cents, depending on how far you go. You also can buy a subway pass, like a debit card, for 30 yuan, or about $3.50, refundable if you return the card when you're done. A taxi, on the other hand, starts at 10 yuan and increases 2 yuan every half kilometer or something like that. I haven't used the buses yet, but I assume they cost about the same if not less than the subways. I also went to the Shanghai Library on Sunday. It's a giant building filled, of course, with books, periodicals, newspapers, etc., and on the ground floor is an internet room where I paid 2 yuan to use a computer for half an hour. 50 cents an hour -- not bad if you don't mind the censorship. On my way to the bank I passed the Oriental Pearl Tower, that iconic, gaudy, needle-shaped TV tower that's the fourth tallest in the world. Just for fun, I checked the price for going up to the top: 100 yuan. That's 25 hours of internet use! Near the tower is a 7-story mall called the Super Brand Mall that's got everything from Esprit to the San Francisco Steakhouse, which, ironically enough, is where an American coworker of mine contracted e coli on a visit this past October.

Anyway, I'm having fun doing silly price comparisons (it's the math major in me) and discovering things about China that I really should have discovered the last time I was here. I plan to make somewhat regular contributions to this as-yet-unused blog, so stay tuned for more about the "easy life" in Shanghai.