Greetings. For those who have been and know please offer their advice to a few questions about living in Shanghai.

1) On the websites we's seen rents as high as 5K US a month in the downtown area for a good size apartment. Obviously this kind of rent is for big business people. How about the outlying areas that are safe and moderately clean (by China standards!). Any idea what a decent family sized place would go for?

2) Do expats hang amongst themselves manily or do the CHinese accept foreigners (especially Americans) socially?

3) What if you had a Finance MBA with many years of managerial expereince, would it be difficult to find a good paying English speaking position in the same work?

Thanks. dv

 

1) The expat places command high dollar, but the locals don't make enough money to afford that. You can easily find rents much lower. It would be difficult to give a price unless you narrowed down the geographical area to a specific part of the city.

2) Are you single? Wouldn't be difficult at all to meet a single Chinese girl if you are in which case the answer to your question is yes the Chinese do accept foreigners socially. The caveat to that is how deeply they accept you. They will almost universally accept you on the surface, but to get into deeper relationships takes a bit more work. Expats with families, especially those working for big corporations, tend to hang out amoung themselves more.

3) Don't know.



Typhoonpilot

 

Looked at a couple of places within 10 minutes of the downtown airport and 15 minutes to downtown Shanghai for less than 1000.00 furnished. 3+ bedrooms, very nice places. The newer places in the downtown area are very expensive. This was in early June.

 

I'd agree with wxyz for sure.

I'll be based there but will be commuting, so I am going to attempt to do thing's a bit differently, however I did take a reasonable look around last week and there are lot's of pretty sweet places for around about the 10000 Yuan mark in the French concession. Your employer should help you look around by attaching a real estate agent to you.

The expat communities are very good. I had some beers with a few guys at a pub in the FC during the All Blacks vs SA match a month ago and they made some very pertinent points. Mostly, everybody is there because they want to be, not because they have to be. This makes for a very positive atmosphere. The schools are first rate, and barring the pollution, which sucks, it's a great place for kids; or so the parents there told me. Long and short, you'll have a great time.

With locals anywhere you have to make the effort, then they're great. With the Middle East I used to hang around with the local pilots all the time; great bunch of guy's. The point was made that this wasn't the norm (by the GM to me), not in a bad way, he was just surprised. I have, so far, found that the better you treat people the better they treat you. The locals in Shanghai really like to have western friends, there's just that bit of a barrier you have to work through on your side.

The job for the English speaker; for your spouse? They should give you a work permit for your spouse as well, if not there is something wrong I think. My guy's do it for us. The cost of living is way lower than Hong Kong, so there is more action on the financial front these days; I would not think it difficult to get a job, and if you walk in with not only the qualifications in hand but also a work/residence visa, then I'd reckon it'd be no worries (more money than a pilot I would perhaps).

Have you been over yet, or spent any amount of time there? Wicked city, and huge. Lot's of boroughs and heaps of thing's to do, both western and Asian.

 

Out of curiosity, where are you guy's headed company wise?

 

Don't forget to go to the Indoor go-cart track. It's called Disk Kart and it's near a park, but the hotels all know about it. About 30 RMB from anywhere in downtown Shanghai.
Where else in the world can you race cars and drink beer?!! Great country, China!!!
fbh

 

I was able to do the same thing in Hyderabad, India. Great time!