What It's Like To Live In... Shanghai

Hannah, this post is absolutely incredible! Thanks so much for sharing your Shanghai experience!—Sparkitors

Hello Sparklers! I am an American expatriate living in Shanghai, China.  Since I moved here this summer, I’ve come to really enjoy it.  My life here is not “normal” in any sense of the word…but it sure is fun.  If you are ever in town, send me a message and I’ll show you around! Here are some of my favorite things about living in Shanghai.

The neighbors: Shanghai has a population of 23 million people. (To put that in perspective, New York City only has 8.3 million.) And, at least in my opinion, these people are super duper fun to watch. A common (and I mean very common) sight is adults walking around in their pajamas: full flannels, goofy print pants, slippers, the works. You name a type of nighttime apparel, and odds are there's someone walking around in broad daylight wearing it.

And then there are what my brother calls the Belly Boys. When it gets hot outside, many men here simply roll up their shirts to their armpits, revealing their ample guts to the world. It is not especially attractive. Women in Shanghai take an opposite approach to the warm (read: boiling hot) season, and cover every inch of their skin for maximum protection from the sun. And I’m talking hats, parasols, face-covering-visors-that-could-be-used-as-protection-when-welding, long pants, gloves, sunglasses, and detachable sleeves. Yes, detachable sleeves.

What exactly are my neighbors doing while attired thus? Well, I live on the 25^th floor of a high-rise apartment downtown, and the other people in my building are a mix of expats and locals.  But when I walk out of my building and onto the street, I am in a wet market. The wet market is like a social street market full of people selling vegetables, animals, and household supplies. While I’m waiting for my bus in the morning, I’ve watched chickens and eels being decapitated, toothless old men carrying birdcages, elderly women doing tai chi, and people brushing their teeth, using a hose for their faucet and then spitting into the gutter. Man, I love my neighbors.

The culinary delights: Chinese food is not at all like the American version of Chinese food.  It’s more like a potpourri of all the parts of an animal that you always assumed were inedible. Though I used to consider myself an adventurous eater, I tend to make safer choices when I’m eating out locally. But then, sometimes it’s impossible to tell what you are ordering. Like when the options are:

-Primary colors mud whorl
-Four happy roasted qood men
-Savory madder cloud silk
-Mixed bacterium saute belly slice
-Hair blood viqorous
-Buttress dyfe braize bloom chub nob
-Hundred leaf hair dish bacon silk

I copied those down, with original spelling, from the English menu at restaurant my family visited.  I ended up ordering “Acid vegetables” that day (because vegetables are safe, right? Right??), but in retrospect, I wish I had gotten the “Savory madder cloud silk.” Because savory and cloud and silk all sound pretty good…and with all those on my plate, the madder probably wouldn’t have mattered!

The Possibilities: Last Saturday, my friend and I went to breakfast at the Starbucks a block from my building. (Yes, there is a Starbucks a block from the wet market!) Then we went next door for an hour-long massage, which cost the equivalent of 5 USD. Walked another block, and had manicures and pedicures for 3 USD each. Maybe it’s just me, but I recently moved here from Belgium, where everything is trés cher. So I find it amazing that there is so much that a teenager with a limited allowance can do in Shanghai. It’s easy to find a balance between the more home-like Western experiences (Starbucks, seeing Avatar in 3D, etc.) while still taking advantage of living in a foreign country and appreciating what it has to offer. I can go shopping with my friends at a 9-story mall or at an outdoor market where we barter for relics from the Cultural Revolution to decorate our rooms.  My school had a very American-type winter formal a few weeks ago, but most of us had our self-designed dresses handmade by a tailor at a cloth market for less than it would cost at Dillard’s!

Overall, being a teenager in Shanghai is pretty awesome.

Wow, it sounds totally amazing! Anybody else ever been to Shanghai?

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