People told me there would be days like this!

OK....so when I was researching China and Shanghai prior to making the move here, I read lots of posts on various ExPat forums, and one thing that most everyone had to say was, there will be days when you think to yourself, what am I doing in China? Well today was one of those days! I used to ask myself that very question every day at the job I left before coming to Shanghai, but that's a whole other story. Today there were two plans...first to go to the UK Consulate to file the required paperwork needed for my upcoming marriage to the lovely Amy in her hometown Hukou of Chifeng. If only the rest of the day had been as simply accomplished. A short metro ride to the consulate, 15 minutes of paperwork, a 1350 RMB fee and we were all done. Then came part two of the day. Amy and I have started looking for an apartment, so we had contacted several agents with our requirements and budget. The initial response was, although I don't speak good Chinese yet, I could read it all over their faces, "your out of your mind". One thing we specifically wanted was to be close to the metro as it makes access to everything so much easier and also cuts about 30 minutes off Amy's daily travel time to work. This we were told carries a premium when related to apartment rental fees. Sort of makes sense, but I also knew from the Expat forums that there were bargains to be had, you just had to find them. So we had previously looked at a few places that were either way too expensive or just downright unpleasant, when one of the agents called asking us to view a place just up the road from Rob's apartment that is provided by HP.
The location sounded really good, as it was directly across from a major banking, hotel and shopping area, and about 5 minutes walk from the Century Ave metro station, with access to lines, 2 & 4. When we arrived at the apartment, which I knew immediately we had to have, it was perfect in every way, including the price...all the other apts we had looked at that were half decent were in the 4000-5500 RMB price range, this one was 3400 RMB. It had everything that we would need and was located on the very prestigious (so I'm told by the locals) 25 floor, with outstanding views of Pudong. Unknown to us as we viewed the apartment, the three people who we believed to be the current residents, were in fact three additional potential renters. Those wonderful agents had in their wisdom decided to have us all view the apartment at the same time, and it became apparent pretty quickly that all parties involved wanted the apartment and that's when the real fun began. Even though it was just one agency, there were two agents on site from the company, one to represent us and the other initially to represent the other interested parties. Now it maybe that I was the only Laowai so they assumed that I had $$$ spilling from my pockets, so that price suddenly increased, then rapidly decreased again as I gave our agent my best impression of a Kung Fu (Wu Shu as it is known locally) death stare. To cut a long story short, and it really would be as we spent the next 4 hours in negotiation with this agency during which again the price rose, dropped, additional fees suddenly were added, removed, reapplied, reduced.... and then we all arrived back where we started, we got into a taxi and rode to the exclusive gated community where the landlady lived. Another moment of confusion, dismay, concern as the current tenants then told the landlady that they were not sure which date they would leave, a little heated argument on the phone and suddenly the deal was done, a date of March 18th was agreed, contracts signed, money exchanged hands, and Amy & I were the proud parents of a 1 year lease on a superbly appointed apartment (pictures to follow) in Pudong. After the contracts were all signed, our agent although now somewhat brow beaten took great pains to tell Amy many times that he was able to get us the apartment over the other interested parties only because of his great Quanxi with the landlady. It maybe true, and if so all power to him for securing the apartment, but boy what an exhausting process.
To end this post I'll add one last little anecdote...as Amy & I rode the bus from her apartment to the metro station at 5:30 AM this morning, about a 20 minute journey. The heavy rains continued and the bus windows were all obscured by condensation, suddenly at a volume level that made conversation virtually impossible, a piece of Argentinian tango music played. Well this is China!

Catching up a little and nightime on the bund

Well it's been a few days since my post and I decided to catch up a little on what's been going on. As the Chinese new year finally drew to a close and was punctuated by the Lantern Festival, fireworks continued to be a focal point of the locals lives. There are many expats here in Shanghai who make a b-line overseas during the the spring festival if only to avoid the fireworks...well for me it's still a novelty, so any chance I can get I'll get out there and watch them. Here's a little video taken from the 16th floor balcony of the apartment I'm currently living in. Amy & I took a visit to another water town the other day, Qi Bao although not as big as Zhujiajiao Water Town, is much older at around 1000 years. A quaint little town, with some interesting alleyways where a plethora of vendors selling snacks and foods from China's many provinces. One of the staples that we see everwhere is Tofu known locally as Doufu, there are numerous ways to prepare and cook the soy bean curd and I have to say I'm getting quite a liking for it especially the slightly spicy versions. Here is some video of us eating Doufu at Qi Bao. The other night Amy & visited Bing Jiang avenue and walked along the Huang Pu river where I took a couple of photos of the Bund, see photo above.

A lesson in dumpling making

Today is a very dull and damp day outside and although the ambient temperature is around 60 degrees, its just not a good day to be out there, so I thought I'd catch up a little on the last weeks activities with a new post.
The last few days have been spent doing those tourist related things... visiting Yu Yuan gardens and it's temple. Strolling along the Bund & Nanjing Lu, a walk in Century Park and finally a lesson in making the Chinese Spring Festival staple, the dumpling.
The visit to Yu Yuan gardens was extreme, consider this, 22 million people live in Shanghai and I could have sworn that most of them were visiting the gardens and temple at the same time as us. The crowds were horrendous, there were several times when I had to physically hold onto Amy's daughter Callie for fear of her being swept away by the enormous, heaving mass of people as we walked (nay fought) our way down the alleyways that surround the temple and gardens. It appears that everyone is so fixed on their own intent whatever it might be that they become oblivious to those around them, so much so that their own goals preoccupy them to the detriment of others.
Perhaps I should start this paragraph with a little geography lesson. Shanghai is divided in two parts by the Huang Pu river, everything West of the river is in Puxi (pronounced Pusy) & everything east of the river is Pudong. The bund, a promenade along the Huang Pu river is located in Puxi and provides wonderful views of Pudong and it's famous Pearl TV tower. Nanjing Lu & the Bund provided some great opportunities for photos & shopping. Nanjing Lu is a very street that runs for approximately 4 kilometers in downtown Shanghai. Comprised predominantly of clothing and jewelry stores, Nanjing Lu is a favorite with both tourists and the new monied members of Shanghai society. At night the street comes alive with neon reminiscent of Las Vegas.

As we walked Nanjing Lu Spring Festival decorations were everywhere, as were the people!
The next day, Amy & I took some time together and visited Century park & the Science and Technology museum back in Pudong. The parks itself is very pleasant, with a large central lake, numerous varieties of plants and trees and of course so many Chinese tourists One of the highlights of the century park visit was a Chinese gent selling spining tops...which when spun at speed made a very distinctive sound. Amy was enthralled by the tops and just had to have go

The color that is Spring Festival

As the celebrations for china's Spring Festival continue, one thing becomes very apparent, color is everywhere, and plays are very important part in the chinese culture. From the Hong Bao, red envelopes given as gifts to the children, to the Golden Pig of this lunar new year, color is everywhere.

Flying during spring festival has it's advantages

Well after arriving at San Francisco in ample time, I was able to relax for a couple of hours prior to the flight to Shanghai. My trip last year was much more stressful as due to some fog in Boise, resulting in a very late arrival at San Fran and a mad scramble thru security and to the departure gate.
After we boarded the 747 to Shanghai, I was even more pleasantly suprised to learn that due to the spring festival holiday the number of passengers on the flight was well below the norm and many of us were offered the option of moving up to economy plus where we had a complete row of seats to ourselves. As you can imagine the luxury of a whole seat, allowed me to stretch out and really relax on the flight over.
I had bought an additional new and rather large suitcase to bring some extra items in on the trip. I knew ahead of time, that I was going to be well over my luggage weight allowance, however I had called United's customer service prior to the trip to confirm what I should expect to pay in excess baggage charges. According the to young lady I spoke with, I should expect to pay and additional $110 in overage charges, so you can imagine my shock when the agent informed me that the overage charge would be $390. After a somewhat intense conversation with the agent in which I informed him of my prior conversation with CS, he agreed to only charge me $100 in overages, a huge relief as you can imagine.
Upon arrival at Shanghai's Pudong airport, everything was extremely smooth, that was until it came to the retieval of my baggage. The new and large suitcase, was in a word "destroyed". A large whole punctured the outer skin, and was large enough for me to insert my hand inside the case. A sick to my stomach feeling flooded over me, how much of my stuff had been removed perhaps or had fallen out during the flight. Did the damage occur on the U.S or Chinese side of the trip? Well once I was in the position to open the case and look inside, I have to say everything was there, nothing was missing or damaged, another great relief.