It’s hot, humid, crowded, oh and did we mention it’s very hot? Yes, we have arrived in Shanghai where we’ll be leaving for the next 9-10 months. Alvin and I both finished University and didn’t feel like we were ready to enter the working world so we both decided to live in China for a few months and finally learn Chinese.
We arrived on a very hot day of July (Actually, there’s only hot days in July in Shanghai) and were greeted by some of my father’s friends. As we were waiting in line for a Taxi, we were sprinkled by a mist of water they installed close to the waiting lines so people don’t get dehydrated. That is how hot it is!
So far we didn’t do much since the heat is really getting to us. We visited places near our place and some of the downtown (maybe 1/100 because it’s so huuuge).
Although we really haven’t do and see much, we thought we should share what are first impressions of Shanghai, goods and bads.
- Don’t come in July. It’s so hot you will literally melt. The air is thin and you’ll have difficulty breathing and you’ll dread every time you’ll have to spend more than 10 minutes outside.
- It’s big. You could ride the metro for hours and still be in Shanghai. Yes, it’s gigantic and that’s why Shanghai is one of the biggest city in the world.
- It’s relatively clean. For a city that big with that much people that honestly don’t really care about cleanliness, it’s surprisingly pretty clean. We went to downtown Pudong and were pleasantly surprised.
- They can speak more english than we thought. In most places, you’ll find someone speaking english. Back when we were in Japan, people would mostly understand what we were saying but never did we hear a full sentence in english, but here in Shanghai it’s more common.
- It’s expensive. Lucky us, my grandpa lives in Shanghai and had an extra room to spare. If you’re gonna have to look for an apartment, be prepare to spend at least 2000$ CAD to find an acceptable apartment and well located. Food is also expensive unless you always eat Chinese food, which we don’t plan on to.
- It’s very modern. We’re from Montreal and Shanghai is seriously making us feel like we’re from a village. Big shiny malls, new subway with AC and skyscrapers so high you can’t even fit them in your selfies.
We’ll be posting more on our Shanghai Adventures so don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to stay updated!