GUIDE TO LIVING AND WORKING IN SHANGHAI

Living in Shanghai

Housing

The wide variety of housing available to expatriates in Shanghai includes both apartments and houses. Serviced apartments are particularly popular and range from large, luxury blocks which can cost up to US$8,000 a month to much more modest places which can be found for less than US$2,000.

Downtown Puxi offers some beautiful, historic houses which tend to be popular with longer term expats, while the western suburb of Hongqiao offers more modern housing, much of which is conveniently located close to international schools. The highest rents tend to be reserved for new houses in gated communities.

One important consideration when looking at where to live is the time it will take you to get to your place of work. Shanghai is a very big city and the rush hour traffic can be extremely busy. A similar consideration exists for those who have children because living in the wrong part of town can mean time consuming journeys to and from school every day.

A particular advantage of serviced apartments is that most things are taken care of for tenants, which can be a particular benefit to those whose spouses may not have fluent Mandarin language skills. Moreover, the top end blocks have fantastic facilities such as gyms, restaurants, pre-schools and even post offices.

Due to the cold winters and humid summers in Shanghai, accommodation needs both air-conditioning and central heating. Living in a big house is always nice, but heating/air-conditioning costs can be extremely high.

Social Life

Once the sun goes down, Shanghai comes alive. It is once again a truly cosmopolitan city, a fact reflected by the huge variety of restaurants, bars and clubs. However, unlike many of Asia's leading cities, it does not have a wide selection of lifestyle clubs that tend to be extremely popular with expats. The exception is the American Club on the Bund, although there are persistent rumours that others will soon appear.

There is plenty of opportunity for expatriates to play most of the common sports, such as football, rugby, basketball and tennis. Moreover, golf is extremely popular and Shanghai is home to about a dozen golf courses, although they can be up to an hour's drive from downtown.

Unfortunately for the average expatriate, the vast majority of films shown in Shanghai are Chinese. Also most of the western movies shown are dubbed into Chinese. That said, the number of cinemas showing foreign films in their original language is on the increase and if you look hard enough you can usually find something to go and see.