One of the most common questions I’m often asked is, “so why are you living in Shanghai?”. My response: “Why not?”
We moved to Asia because we wanted to shake our life up a bit. Before we met, my husband and I had both travelled fairly extensively. Sydney was the adopted hometown for both of us (I’m from Brisbane, he’s from Durban), so moving to a new city didn’t mean that one of us was uprooting long-term ties. While we loved Sydney and our family and friends are there, we just couldn’t get ahead career-wise or financially, so we were open to any opportunity to change things up.
When my husband was offered a job in Singapore, we jumped at the chance. Within one month of living there we were hooked on Asia, the expat life and the opportunities it offered. Two years later another job offer appeared and we made the move to Shanghai. It was a difficult decision for us to make as I had to leave my much-loved job in Singapore to allow my husband to move up the career ladder. But we knew it was the right decision for us as a couple.
I love that we threw caution to the wind and have created a new life for ourselves by living overseas. We are in it together and are discovering and exploring new places, meeting new people, having better work opportunities and generally crafting a different life to what either of us expected or planned. I love that our life is not mapped out and we could be living in a different country or city next year or next decade. I am thrilled that we are having a baby here and will be able to offer our children a global perspective of the world. I truly feel that we could live (almost) anywhere as long as we are together. With an internet connection of course!
As with everything, there are pros and cons with any city. Here’s my list:
The best things about living in Shanghai
1. 1. The lifestyle – Don’t be fooled. Shanghai is not a backwards hick town. It’s a cosmopolitan city of 23 million people. It’s the financial centre of a booming economy and is a city seriously on the move. There is oodles of opportunity here and China is changing rapidly. Shanghai offers a perfect blend of East and West. Yes, you can find cheap dumpling shops, falling-down houses and cheap fabric markets, but you also have world class restaurants, corner bakeries, trendy boutiques, high street chain stores, sports pubs, wine bars, gyms, yoga studios, cafés, museums and galleries. There are old Chinese temples and laneways, European art deco buildings and modern skyscrapers. We live in a gorgeous apartment (double the size of our apartment in Singapore and three times the size of our apartment in Sydney) on a tree-lined street, with taxis at our doorstep, a park at the end of our street and a local pub showing the rugby around the corner. I have friends from England, Malaysia, Portugal, Canada, US, France and Switzerland. I can sit in my local café on a perfect wi-fi connection while reading an international newspaper and listening to the next table’s inhabitants chatting in French, Spanish, Japanese or Chinese. Some people call it an “expat bubble”. I call it “living the life”.
2. 2. The travel – since moving to Asia, we treat travel as a necessary expense not an indulgence. With other countries and cultures on our doorstep, it would be a crime not to spread our wings and experience as much of the world as we can. I love living in Australia, but it’s a geographically isolated country. After living in London in my early-twenties, I was used to jumping on a flight and being in a different European country. Similarly, in Asia, you can be in a completely different landscape just as easily. This year, we’ve travelled to Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Manila and Palawan (read about those trips here). Next week, we're off to Tokyo. When we lived in Singapore, we could regularly nip away for a weekend in Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Bali and Malaysia. My husband travels a lot for work so I often travel with him and we’ll add a weekend on before or after. He likes the company in his downtime and I like the change of scenery. And we love exploring new cities together.
3. 3. The weather – it might sound strange to say this, since a lot of people moan about the Shanghai weather, but I love it. This city has proper seasons. Sydney has seasons but it’s not geared for it. Few houses and apartments have central heating in winter or air-conditioning in summer, so often you’re bundled up in clothes or boiling hot under a fan or on a packed beach. And in Singapore, it’s a steamy 32 degrees year round. Yes it’s sunny, but it can be disorienting when Every. Single. Day. Is. The. Same. I think weather can be a marker. “Oh I remember I was wearing my black coat when we found that cute shop,” or “I was in my red shorts when we ate at that restaurant.” Here in Shanghai I can rug up in coats, scarves and boots in winter and in summer I can turn the aircon up.
The worst things about living in Shanghai
1. 1. The pollution – there’s no denying that the air is cleaner in other parts of the globe. If you want to breathe fresh air 365 days a year, you can live in better places than Shanghai. It does worry me that food standards are slippery, development is rapid and industry is king. That said, it’s a million times less polluted in Shanghai than Beijing. You just have to take more care to stay indoors on exceptionally smoggy days, choose organic or imported foods, have good health insurance and stay fit and healthy.
2. 2. The traffic – with a city of 23 million people, there’s bound to be a lot of people on the road and on public transport. Throw in some very flexible road rules (turning on red lights, beeping your horn for minutes on end) and you have a difficult city to navigate quickly. You can catch the metro (clean, quick, packed like sardines), you can hire a driver (comfortable, expensive, isolating), you can walk (flat, explosed to the elements, dodge the flying spit) or you can get a taxi (affordable, no seatbelts, no English). Whatever your mode of choice, it takes time to get around this city.
3. 3. The language barrier – with Mandarin or Shanghainese being spoken all around me, there’s clearly an inbuilt barrier to experiencing all the city has to offer. No matter how much Mandarin I learn, I will never truly be able to understand the city like a local does. I do try, but it’s a difficult language for me to grasp and retain. Particularly with baby brain.
Living abroad is not for everyone. Sure you have your off moments and I have desperate pangs for home. But for us, the positives far outweigh the negatives.
