Shanghai at a Glance
Living in Shanghai
Chinese traditions and colonial heritage are both found at the Shanghai Bund.
Living in Shanghai has often been romanticized in Western and Chinese popular culture alike. Life in the glamorous Shanghai of the 1920s and 1930s and during the Japanese occupation (1939-45) has particularly captured the imagination of many an author or movie maker.
It is the birthplace of internationally renowned artists such as British writer J.G. Ballard or Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-Wai. Although both spent only their childhood years living in Shanghai, their best-known works (The Empire of the Sun; In the Mood for Love) focus on life in Shanghai during World War Two or on exiles from Shanghai living in Hong Kong after the city came under Communist control.
Living in Shanghai: Quality of Life
In the Mercer Quality of Living Study 2011, Shanghai did unfortunately not make it among the Top 50 cities recommended for their quality of life. As China’s industrial and financial center, Shanghai is struggling with problems typical of life in other Chinese megacities, especially Beijing: environmental problems like smog, water pollution, and noise as well as overpopulation, traffic jams, and a housing shortage.
However, living in Shanghai is relatively safe. Pickpocketing, panhandling, bicycle theft, and scams are the most common crimes. There’s little violent crime against foreigners. Shanghai remains the glitzy “Paris of the East” in many ways: Living in Shanghai, the 21st most expensive expat city in the world (also according to Mercer 2011), means living in a consumerist Mecca – which seems slightly ironic if one considers the city’s more recent, staunchly Maoist past. The cosmopolitan atmosphere of life in Shanghai includes a vibrant nightlife and a huge arts & entertainment scene.
Life in Shanghai: Driving
Owing to the huge size of the city, commuting to work or school is an integral part of living in Shanghai. If you are lucky, you are living in an expat-oriented compound providing you with a shuttle service to international schools or important traffic junctions in the area. Executive expatriates might even have use of a company car with driver.
Due to the maze of streets, the recurring traffic congestions, and the soaring accident rate, it is preferable not to drive yourself as a non-local living in Shanghai. However, if you will be living in Shanghai’s quieter neighborhoods, you could even “go local” to some extent and buy a bike for cycling short distances.
Living in Shanghai: Bus Network
Fortunately, people living in Shanghai benefit from an extensive and fairly cheap public transport system. Unfortunately, this can be extremely confusing for foreigners, particularly if they can neither read nor speak Chinese. Shanghai has over 1,000 different bus lines run by several companies. They can be extremely crowded, especially during rush hour, and a bit overwhelming to figure out.
However, expats living in Shanghai will soon get the hang of the mostly numerical bus system. Lines 300-399, for example, are all night buses; nos. 700-799 have their routes in suburban areas, and lines 10-29 (except for 17, 18 & 21) are the famous trolley buses characteristic of a life in Shanghai tinged with nostalgia. All buses are air-conditioned, and a ticket costs two yuan. Most lines also accept the Shanghai Public Transport Card (SPTC), a smart card that may come in useful while you are living in Shanghai.
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