I received a facebook message from a guy that read one of my posts in the "Overseas Chinese" group on facebook.
He was curious over how life is as an expatriate here in Shanghai is like and how did I find it. I then replied the below contents to him!
I'll be delighted to share some info about Shanghai with you. I do not know alot about the UK, and therefore can only use Malaysia (KL) as a comparison to Shanghai. We have to see Shanghai in 3 different manners (Work life, Culture, Lifestyle)
Let's start of with Work Life. The key to being able to adapt to the worklife in Shanghai is knowing Chinese (mandarin). That skill is essential unless you are coming into the workforce as a highly posted executive, being able to hire personal admins that can do you a very good PR job and do translations for you. Otherwise, the cunningness of the Chinese employees here will definitely overwhelm you.
Competition is extremely severe at every single level in Shanghai. From schools, to employment, to sales, to politics etc! I often know of cases of employees darting among different big time companies, eg from PnG to JnJ to Uniliver and back to PnG. The strange work life here in shanghai is that employees do not usually stay in the same company for anymore than 2 years, unless rewarded a very very handsome bonus and high salary increment with really good perks at the end of each year. Otherwise, they will leave. Companies would normally comply with these employees' wishes to retain them because so much time and money has been spent to train and groom them.
Therefore, I have always fought to justify my point about Shanghai's wages being a representation of a bubble economy, as they aren't actually worth that much, but the companies just have to satisfy their impatience for greed for the sake of the company's general well-being.
Most of the employees of multi-national companies here in Shanghai are double degree holders with Masters. I guess this is the result to their "cockiness" and therefore are daring to make ridiculous demands. One thing in shanghai is that you must always bare in mind that it is a communist country. The more conservative and less exposed ones will hold strongly to their "equality for everyone" principle. Don't you go thinking that you're the boss and can treat your subordinates like shit. It doesn't work in Shanghai unlike in the UK or msia.
Onto culture in Shanghai.. haha! I've got to laugh! It will be a MAJOR SHOCK for any expatriate at all! Traffic is horrible! You hear people blasting their honks all day long, people cutting queues, stopping on yellow boxes, not giving way to other cars coming out from junctions etc. It's an absolute catastrophe!
Service staffs in Shanghai are rude (not all and depends where you go to). The streets are always flooded with people, and as you walk along the streets, you'll get numb shoulders and get really grumpy in the event of shoulders barging you get from the fellow pedestrians. The people would care less about avoiding body contact and decide to barge right into you. Avoiding missiles (spittings) is also something that you have to be cautious to maintain good hygiene.
As soon as you arrive on your designated floor in a lift, at the spur of the moment of the lift door opening, people will barge right into the lift, compressing you to the very corner of the lift, obstructing your exit unless you yell real loud "RANG KAI!!!" (give way) Often in queues, you get idiots jumping into your line and when you tell them off they'll reply "mind your own business".
Noise and smoke are the 2 main types of pollution here. Noises from honkings and the emphatic (shouting) conversations of people; and cigarette smokes from almost 70% of the population.
The above mentioned Culture shocks could be avoided if you are the type who just like to stay in your own expat bubble (your housing compound) and only mingle with all the other expats but never get out to see the real shanghai life.
Expatriates here are normally given chauffeur driven Vans (SUV), otherwise given a monthly budget for taxi fares. Taxis in shanghai is the next best alternative for transport followed by the underground subway. (metro) If all you do is getting around the city, living in the city is best then travelling around by subway is recommended, however during rush hours... Everyone's a sandwich ;)
Living in a nice and good compound is very important to enable you and your family a peace of mind! Make sure you have good neighbours (preferably not taiwanese, koreans or local shanghainese - Koreans makes up the most in the pie chart of expatriates in shanghai). Traffic in Shanghai is always bad, so I would recommend to live somewhere close to your workplace, with good accessibility (metro).
There are plenty of International Schools in Shanghai. The top ones are British International School, Shanghai American School, Dulwich School. These schools have good facilities to cope with Key Stages 1 to 3. Anything beyond GCSE level, I'd suggest that you let your children stay back in your respective countries to complete their higher education.
Night life in Shanghai is spectacular! There are plenty of good and happening bars and clubs. Food is always an adventure as there are so so so many different type of cuisine you can choose from. The only downfall is that everything is $$$$$$$.
To get the best out of Shanghai, I normally go to the flee markets to buy fake goods. One thing about buying these sort of stuff is that the shop dealers would have their opening price more than 150% of the good's original price. (they usually do this as the government are not strict enough in controlling pricing) So it will always be a hassle having to bargain for stuff that you want to buy. You would often be filled with regret after learning that your friends have bought the same thing for a lower price. However, some people do actually enjoy bargaining!
Grocery shopping is a no-no hassle as there are a variety of supermarkets catered to expatriates, selling all sorts of imported products. Again the only downfall is that these goods will be.. $$$$$$$$$$$$.
Overall, I like Shanghai very much! It is really multicultural and truly international! You see foreign people everywhere you go. It is an exposure of a life time and it has truly opened up my mind! Having been in shanghai for 3 years, I have experienced its rapid developments! I'll give it another 5 years and it will definitely be at NY's level.
Pitifully, the people and the culture is still way way behind. to be able to enjoy shanghai at it's max, I always try to avoid criticizing them and accept them for what they are! After all, they are still developing and need more time!
PS: I have met really good China people, real modern and exposed. These are normally the ones that have lived overseas. The examples mentioned above are just the typical Chinese folks.
Cheers
Eugene
That's all for my first blog! ;)
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