Sunday, September 23, 2007

Shanghai: A Few Days in Our Lives [September 23, 2007]

Supercuts
We've been here for about two months, meaning we have had to figure out how and where to get our hair tended to. Mine was perhaps a little more daring - an unexpected stop at a barber shop we passed when searching for a hardware store. Once we saw the oversized spinning red thing (I guess its a universal symbol), we had to stop. After confirming that no one in the place spoke English, I sat in a chair, made a few hand gestures, and waited to see what happened. That blue stuff in the bottle, with all the combs in it that supposedly sanitizes them - it doesn't exist in China. It is somehow gross when it is there, but missed when its not. Anyhow, after a few passes with the clippers, a mumbled and tardy comment from Karen that it looked pretty short, me declining a close shave with a seemingly unsantitized straight edge razor, and parting with the equivalent of $1.32, I walked out with a fresh buzz to deal with the Shanghai heat.

Karen's hair experience was a little more polished - a visit to the gay Malaysian hairdresser in the clubhouse of our apartment complex. She went shorter, got some highlights, and came out looking good. I think she payed a bit more than $1.32, but clearly it was worth it.

How Big Is It?
Last weekend, we went down to Shanghai City Planning, which is essentially a museum dedicated to the relatively amazing scale of urban planning and deliberate growth that is modern Shanghai. The most impressive part of this museum is a huge scale model of Shanghai, including what seems to be every building that currently exists, as well as those that are planned for construction between now and 2010 in the central part of the city. It is pretty amazing.

The first picture is of the model, taken from the perspective of our apartment. If you can see it, look at our actual apartment building in the red oval at the bottom/middle of the photograph. The picture is looking northwest across this miniature Shanghai. The next picture is of the Huangpu River, more or less looking north. The area to the left is Puxi and the area to the right is Pudong. The red arrow points to the direction of our home. Lastly, the other picture is of my hand and a closer shot of the model, just to show the ridiculous detail of this creation.

Is It Crowded?
I have been asked, with good reason, if it is really that crowded in the country with the largest population in the world. The land area is comparable to that of the US, but China's population, at about 1.3 billion people, is over four times that of the US meaning the density is quite a bit higher. The density in Shanghai (and other eastern cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzen) is even more impressive as 70 or more percent of the population lives along the eastern coast of China. Here are a few pictures to show what it looks like when we wander around in Shanghai on the weekends.

It is insanely crowded almost everywhere we go. People are out, walking in every direction, smoking, arguing, trying to sell their wares, buying stuff, spitting, spoiling their only child, and trying, next to us, to hail a cab. There is a distinct and noticable shortage of taxis in Shanghai, although (in my non-scientific estimation) they constitute about 40% of the four-wheeled vehicles on the road. In busy locations, they attempt to go off meter with negotiated and inflated fares, but there is a way to deal with this. It goes like this: 1) when you can, jump in the backseat, even if the guy is trying to ask you where you are going before you get in; 2) play dumb, like you don't understand any Chinese (not that much of an act); 3) tell him where to go and ask for the meter; 4) when he says no and tells you to get out, don't and start dialing the number on the back of the seat to report the driver's misconduct; and 5) wait for him to grunt and give you a disgruntled ride wherever you are going, on meter. A short ride costs about $1.40 and a 30 minute ride across town costs $4 to $7.

These pictures are from last Sunday on a shopping trip to Puxi. The top one is simply of a crosswalk on a busy street and the second one is of the entrance to some relatively non-descript shopping mall. Next, we have a shot of Nanjing Road (Nanjing Lu), supposedly and likely the busiest shopping street in all of China. This is a normal day - nothing special is going on here.

Finally, in terms of crowds, there is a picture of the ever faithful McDonalds, which, as you can see draws crowds and sells ice cream even here. Actually, I think the people that work at McDonalds here are considerably less miserable and grumpy than the people in the same jobs in the US - it is probably regarded as a pretty decent job to have here. Also, McDonalds sells green bean pies for dessert, offers a spicy cucumber cheeseburger, and won't sell you a cheeseburger meal because only the double cheeseburger comes in meal form (not even for the same price). Customization and substitutions are almost too challenging and unlikely to try in China.

What Does It Look Like?
Shanghai looks busy, dirty, interesting, modern, old, and chaotic. It often smells, and grosses you out by dripping on you, bumping into you, or splashing you somehow. As I've said before, we live in the newer and more western (although it is east) part of Shanghai. Here are some shots of the other side - Puxi. Here is what essentially every taxi in Shanghai looks like - they are all Volkswagen Santanas - more or less like an old Jetta. Interestingly enough, all the cabs in Beijing are Hyundai Elantras, as it is much closer to and developed some automotive technology partnership with Korea. Above the taxi, you should take note of the crazy number of power lines, the messily installed exterior condensing units (for air conditioners), and the laundry flapping in the wind. These things, especially hanging laundry are ubiquitous here - no one really has or uses clothes dryers (except us, I guess). The apartment building itself is typical - fairly run down and generally not a place you would eagerly enter, but certainly functional and probably home to more than you would guess. There are bikes everywhere - pedal bikes, electric bikes, cargo bikes, etc. Here is a picture of a guy maneuvering his cargo-bike with a huge piece of pipe through traffic. Things like this, although scary, are not really surprising - you just get used to it. Next there is a very typical row of junky old single-speed bicycles on the sidewalk, with people walking everywhere, and clothes hanging from a ragged apartment building overhead.

This story wouldn't be complete without including something on street vendors and food. Pirated DVDs and, less so, CDs are for sale everywhere. In the back of shops, out of boxes on the ground or mounted to the back of bicycles, in giant stores - it doesn't really matter. The quality ranges from perfect to a handheld recording in some other language in a movie theatre, during which people actually get up and walk around in the the theatre - you can see their silhouettes! The prices go from about $0.80 to maybe $3 for a good quality one, which is always a gamble. You haggle hard and see what happens when you pop it in the player. I guess its illegal here, but you wouldn't really know it.

This guy has a hot-plate cart with skewered squid or something on it. The air around this cart stank, but obviously someone buys these snacks. And finally, an amusing food advertisement we passed the other night - when you come to visit us, maybe we'll take you to dinner at The Farmyard - we've heard good things.

Who's Getting Old?
We are. The unsettling reality of turning 30 has hit us, here in Shanghai. This past weekend was our big birthday weekend. Scattered thunderstorms (per the internationally incorrect weather resource of weather.com) kept us from having our celebratory BBQ on Saturday. Nonetheless, it was a weekend of worthwhile reflection about getting old and being in this funny place. The primary objective of the weekend was to have some fun and avoid my greatest fear at a time like this - becoming old losers.

Fortunately, we narrowly escaped this curse (maybe next year) and took care of each other on "our" days. There was the Friday morning fresh fruit and pastry breakfast, during which Karen was presented with her latest addition to her global jewelry collection - a set of pearl earrings and a pendant from the South Seas (China is a good place to buy pearls!). I think she liked it. We went out that night and had some good Thai food and a bottle of Australian red, followed by some Starbucks.

Then it was my turn. First, an all I could eat 'hot pot' and sushi and all I could drink (Chinese beer) dinner - the deal of the year at $13. This was followed by vastly overpriced beers at a cheesy German brauhaus rip-off in the ultra-trendy tourist trap of Xintiandi. See that giant beer in my hand? It honestly cost $16. And Karen's cost $10 - ridiculous and not worthy of a second round. The next morning (my real birthday, China time) - Karen made me a nice breakfast which included blowing out the "3" and the "0" candles stabbed into a fried egg sandwich (check out the blurry picture). Not exactly a birthday cake (I guess that fell apart - literally), but a good birthday meal nonetheless. Today we wandered around and had ice cream sundaes to top off the inaugural weekend for our fourth decade of life. Cheers!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

The Pad - Our Place in Shanghai

Shanghai is both a city and a province in China. Depending on where you look, the population of the metropolitan area is between 15 and 20 million people. The city is divided by the Huangpu River - the area to the west is called Puxi (poo-shee) while the area to the east, where we live and work, is called Pudong. Pudong is new (basically built in the last 20 years) and has wide streets, a fair amount of open space, and the Lu Jia Zui financial district. Puxi is more like what we would call traditional China, with lots of people, crowded streets, and a more vibrant night-life.



Our apartment is at a complex called Seasons Villas, which is more or less a compound full of expats. It is located about 20 minutes (with no traffic) southeast of downtown Pudong, where Matt's office is located. The Yew Chung International School, where Karen works, is located across the street and is basically a part of our complex. Everyone we talk to is very curious about what things look like here - both in and around our new home, so here is our response.



We live on the 10th floor of one of 12 apartment buildings within a community of homes, townhomes, and apartment buildings. A photo of the building next to ours (ours looks the same) is provided and there is a yellow rectangle around the part that we live in. After this are a series of photos with commentary that provide a visual tour of our apartment. According to our real estate agent, who provided incomplete and incorrect information as a matter of practice, our apartment is about 1,400 SF. This is probably a stretch, but we haven't measured. Regardless, it is much larger than either of our places in Denver and Evanston.



Fortunately, there is an elevator to take us up to the 10th floor. It is interesting to note that there are no 4th, 14th, 24th, or other such floors in China because the written character for 4 looks something like the one for death (at least this is what we've been told). The buttons in the elevator just go from 3 to 5. Anyhow, when you get out of the elevator and walk through our front door, you see our main room (entry/living/dining room) - see the first picture below.



There is also a photo looking the other way, which shows our cool spiral staircase (strangely reminiscent of our condo in Denver). The place is basically fully-furnished so we are not missing our shipment too much. You can see the painting that we bought during our time in Vietnam on the wall to the left in the first photo (negotiated purchase price at random art gallery in Hanoi, Vietnam - $200; price quoted by an art gallery in Boston for the same painting - $2500).



Next, you'll see the kitchen, which has a very small outside deck off of it. The kitchen is fully-equipped, which is definitely not normal here. We have an oven/range, dishwasher, microwave, and an almost full-size fridge. Most apartments are missing one or more of the appliances we westerners typically regard as 'essential'. Ovens are not common because Chinese people usually cook with woks. Actually, most kitchens we saw when apartment hunting were where the wash machine was, usually in the place for the dishwasher. Dryers are not common because most Chinese people hang their clothes to dry. Actually, hanging clothes seems to be some kind of an iconic symbol of life in China and is rumored to be the reason that the Chinese government banned the movie Mission Impossible 3 from airing in China (they didn't like its portrayal of Shanghai with clothes hanging everywhere).



Anyhow, this little deck is where our washer and dryer sit - what a luxury after a year in Evanston without in-unit laundry facilities! The outdoor washer/dryer concept might be less exciting when winter comes. You can also see our office-type water cooler. It is not a good idea to drink the water here. At the office, at the restaurant, and at home, bottled water is the norm. Depending on the day and location, water from the public system here is questionable at best and sometimes has an odd coloration and even an odor. So far, we have not had issues with the tap water at our apartment.






Next, you can see a lovely shot of our one bathroom. It is nice enough and has hot water (which took us two or three days to figure out how to use). However, the best parts are that it has a reliable supply of toilet paper (China is largely a bring-your-own-wipe kind of place) and there is actually a toilet to sit on (no squatting required.... another Chinese norm).



On either side of the bathroom, are the bedrooms. They are pretty plain but have large closets and decent beds - one with a queen and one with a king. In the lower photo, Karen is relaxing under the covers talking to our friends Aaron and Ulrika in New Zealand on Skype (I love technology). The other shot is in the second bedroom and shows Karen's morning make-up area (her precious vanity space), which is also the location of our Vonage phone (the one with the Chicago number). So if we are talking to you on that line, odds are that we are sitting there using the green phone you can see on the desk.



The next area, which is much more exciting to us, is the upstairs. We have a small loft room with a storage closet and a huge roof deck. To Karen's joy, we purchased (after 5+ years of talking about how great it would be) an elliptical machine. In addition, we got some small stairstepper contraption and a jump rope to complete our home gym area. In case you're wondering, wall-to-wall mirrors are on order. Next to the gym we have a decently comfortable, queen-size futon (the red one in the picture). We want to take this opportunity to point out that we have two queen beds, a couch, and a lot of floor space to accomodate guests - think about it.



Next, we'll take you outside to the roof deck, which by the way is where the picture of Shanghai at the top was taken from. We have made outfitting our roof deck with cool amenities a priority. We have trees that are supposed to be able to survive the winter (that is a surprisingly difficult question to draw and get a definitive answer to non-verbally - read: manifestation of the language barrier), some lounge chairs, a table and chairs (came with the apartment), and best of all, a big stainless steel barbecue and a fire pit. The BBQ, aside from being a strange and necessary symbol of manhood to Matt (maybe its the Kellogg nostalgic value), has actually a been pretty nice place to cook good meat the way we like. Life here has been pretty light on meat we actually want to eat - fat, bones, skin, and other foreign parts are omnipresent. The fire pit, certainly a silly impulse buy with minimal function, enticed us with visions of hanging out on our cool roof deck roasting marshmellows with friends. We still have to figure out how and where to buy wood; wood imported from Canada costs about $2 per log - ouch!



Anyhow, from up here, we have a nice view of the complex and some of the city. The picture with the clearly visible houses in the foreground gives you an impression of what our community looks like. There is a building towards the upper left of the picture that has a red rectangle around it. This is Karen's school and you can basically see what a nice 'commute' she has (a 5 minute walk). The other picture shows you a small amount of the enormous Shanghai skyline. The needle enclosed in another red rectangle (click it to see) is the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower (AKA TV Tower) downtown. This is a few blocks away from Matt's office. You can also see the clubhouse and outdoor pool for our community in the picture (in the larger red rectangle in the right foreground).



Sorry this is a little long and very detailed. Hopefully those who were curious now have a pretty clear understanding of where we live and what we see. We'll post more soon on daily life and what we see away from home. Thanks for reading, have a great Labor Day weekend (you Americans, that is... we don't get that here), and we'll talk to you soon.