Living in Shanghai throws its fair share of obstacles at you – what with shrewd landlords pinching every kwai in your pocket, the temptation of McDonald’s home delivery, coping with getting to work in ankle-high rain, it seems the language barrier is the last thing on your mind!  Here is a random collection of my reflections on China (I wrote this ages ago but never got round to publishing the post until now)…

What I was totally unprepared for was the sheer difference in moods in my time in the two countries.  The four months I spent away from the UK coincided with the first stages of the British recession.  Shanghai was buzzing with movement, what with all the construction sites dotted about the city and the daily changes to my local neighbourhood there. Back home in the UK however, I really felt a sense of depression all around the country. Every time you turn on the television there’s bad news about the economy, and everyone on the street looks forlorn with the majority never even raising a smile. A good deal of British people I knew living out in the country kept re-iterating how badly they wanted to stay in China and not go back to the UK. At least in China, there is this unstoppable enthusiasm for life, with even near-centenarians cheerfully strolling the streets with their carrier bags of green vegetables. The Shanghai Expo of 2010 is starting to make its mark on the Shanghai landscape, with the new Cool Docks development having opened by the Bund and new metro stations being carved into the ground.

Of course, I now hear that even China is experiencing a slowing economy, but it was amazing to see heaving crowds of well-to-do Chinese bustling around the newly opened Marks and Spencer’s on Nanjing Xi Lu paying the equivalent of £5 for pasta sauce! Now I’m back home, the newly opened Westfield shopping centre is always just that little bit too empty, and the shops are more often than not struggling for visitors. If I get a chance on my round-the-world trip to visit China again, I would love to see if there is any marked change on its aura since the global downturn has got into full swing. Perhaps the 2010 Expo will be hit by heavily reduced Western businessmen visiting the area. Many people ask me, “so what’s China like?” and it really does defy description. I might mention the hectic lifestyle, the uniqueness of its people, or perhaps the beautiful National gardens and temples…. but there are almost too many ways to sum up China. I usually just say “you have to see it to really believe it”!  The inability to label current-day Shanghai makes it very hard for me to convince my friends just how mind-blowing living there was. One of the strange things for me is that you can go for hours walking around the city and not see another Westerner, and yet this city is allegedly the most Westernised city in China. Sometimes once you leave such a place it is hard to accurately remember all of the minute details that made up your experience there. I came across an e-mail I sent to a friend after I had been living in Shanghai for a couple of months, and below are some of the points I made to try to convey the quirkiness of living in the city!

 + To get proper fruit and veg in Shanghai is a mission, my local Chinese supermarket sells cheap fruit but the majority is mouldy, misshapen and has flies swarming around it. You have to go to the major Western supermarkets such as the one above Jing’An Temple station or Carrefour in Zhongshan Park. To eat basic items such as nice apples or salad, you will probably have to pay twice the price of what you would pay at home.

 + As expected, the Chinese culture has very different notions of what constitutes acceptable public behaviour. One of my friends saw an old guy actually shit on the pavement in broad daylight, and he even had toilet paper with him to clear up after himself!!! In the poor areas behind where my office was most of the locals wash in tubs outside their houses, and little children wee wherever they like because the majority don’t wear nappies but just have detachable panels on their trousers.

+ There’s no denying it, the city is full of rubbish and is pretty smelly. Also, on the touristy sites and on postcards the Bund is always accompanies with a blissful sunset or clear blue sky, but a blue sky in Shanghai is a complete rarity! Most of the time the sky is so muggy you can barely see more than a few skyscrapers in the distance, and I even noticed the impact of the poor air on my own body. I felt unhealthier, although I think part of that was due to my habit of smoking a whole lot more in Shanghai due to the cheapness of cigarettes (less than 50p a packet usually).

+ Public transport is dirt-cheap, but its users have absolutely no common-sense – instead of making way for people leaving the carriage, people stand in the doorway and then pull the most unpleasant face, as if they are shocked that they are getting pushed about! There are dozens of people all struggling to get into the same carriage at once, and it can be quite a violent experience. I remember seeing one mother holding her baby and I felt genuinely worried about their safety due to all the pushing and shoving.

+ There are endless shops in massive shopping malls and yet I found it very hard to find items that I liked. One of my favourite shops out there was called ‘Codes Combine’ which has a American Apparel feel to it and seemed a bit like an upmarket H&M.

 + I miss having a thrice-weekly maid coming to my home and tidying up all the mess I made… not to mention washing dishes and making the bathroom spotless. It’s amazing that for such a little amount of money you can make small changes to your life that make you feel like some extravagant princess! I guess there is not much more I can say to convey the reality of living in Shanghai – you will just have to go there to experience it for yourself