Hello, Shanghai!

7 min readJan 2, 2021

In November 2020, I relocated to Shanghai in pursuit of a new job. Growing up in a Tier-2 China’s city, I always dream about living in Shanghai for the thrilling metropolitan lifestyle. I’m enjoying the excitement of my new journey. Many friends are curious about Shanghai, so I decided to write a piece to document miscellaneous things that I learned about Shanghai. I’m loving this city!

Skyline of Shanghai, Photo by Freeman Zhou on Unsplash

How’s space in Shanghai?

People have different requirements for space, and whether a city is crowded or not would depend on individual benchmarks. As far as I’m concerned, in spite of a 24.28-million population, Shanghai has a lower population density than many places that I used to live in, such as San Francisco and Paris. Compared across the globe, Shanghai’s population density is lower than other metropolitan cities like New York, London, and Tokyo. I don’t know the commute situation by subway on weekdays because I go to work by scooter. On weekends or holidays, I almost never experienced crowded subway situations. The human flows might be heavy in popular sites, but overall, I’d say the space feels comfortable in Shanghai.

*Cities with asterisks are places I used to live in.

Is Shanghai safe?

Many Chinese friends expressed that it’s feeling safer than before in general in China. Since more surveillance technologies are deployed in public, the likelihood of getting traced down is higher, increasing the risk of committing crimes. I feel safe while walking alone at night in Shanghai city center. Below are some statistics on the safety of selected metropolitan cities, and Shanghai is very similar to Boston.

Walking alone at night in Huangpu District

Is Shanghai expensive?

There’s no correct answer to this question. Shanghai’s cost of living is ranked in the 7th place in the world according to Mercer’s 2020 cost of living survey, but the weight of expenses really depends on budgets and needs. Families might have more expense categories to consider than unmarried people. As an unmarried person, my living cost is lower in Shanghai than in San Francisco, in spite that San Francisco ranks lower in Mercer’s findings. Below is a snapshot of prices of living essentials from Expat Arrivals, and I converted the prices from RMB to US Dollar.

Is Shanghai cultured?

According to CNN Travel, Shanghai is among the world’s top three in terms of the number of different cultural establishments, including national museums, public libraries, bookshops, second-hand bookshops, cinemas, and video arcades. The percentages of residents attending museums and cinema admissions in Shanghai are also among the highest. It just doesn’t have as many theaters as New York, Paris and Tokyo do.

Independent coffee shops are also popping up rapidly in Shanghai in response to the growing demand for good quality coffee and the hipster lifestyle.

Aunties and uncles dance in a park in Shanghai on weekends.

Some folks are fishing by the river at dusk.

How buzzing is Shanghai?

The quality of nightlife is an important consideration indicating how “buzzing” a city is. Eating and drinking out is my favorite activity on weekends. So far I was able to try different cuisines each time and didn’t duplicate. I also found different styles of bars in town like Izakaya, Speakeasy, or European.

Speak Low — A speakeasy bar near Shangxin Nan Road

Shanghai has more restaurants than other cities in China, and its number of restaurants ranks in the 2nd place in the world following Tokyo. Some more recent sources say that the number of restaurants has reached 100,000 in Shanghai. In terms of nightclubs, there were 1,865 establishments in Shanghai in 2012, ranked in the 2nd place between São Paulo (2,000) and New York (584).

Christmas markets popped up in different parts of town for the winter festivals. This year, I went to a German Christmas market by the Bund, where half of the booths were run by foreigners. I chatted with an Iranian merchant who was selling handcrafted pillowcases, and he spoke fluent Mandarin. There were well-decorated Christmas trees, stylish establishments for photo-taking, and fabulous lights. I felt very satisfied with Gluhwein and chocolate.

The Bund, with Oriental Pearl TV Tower in the back

How convenient is life in Shanghai?

Food ordering: I rarely cook at home and sometimes order food on weekends. Food ordering in Shanghai is very convenient and easy, powered by two major tech companies — Meituan and Eleme. The army of food delivery workers is a view on the street because they wear vivid color uniforms and helmets — blue from Eleme or yellow Meituan.

Garbage classification: Some newcomers might feel the garbage classifying requirements inconvenient. The policy is enforced strictly, and garbage should be classified into four categories: dry, wet, recyclable, and hazardous. Additionally, residents could only throw garbage at certain hours. Anyone who fails to comply will have a $30 fine. It is very inconvenient, but it feels great doing it for a good cause. There are dedicated workers, typically hardworking aunties or uncles, staying near the station to help further classify your trash if you don’t do a nice job. I learned once that the workers like collecting the recyclable garbage because they could trade it for money. The auntie in my community asked me to call her anytime I tried to dispose of any big cardboards. Since then whenever I have some cardboards, I call her and she always happily comes to pick them up.

Going home when calling it a night: Shanghai’s life is agreeably very convenient. But if I could complain about one thing, that would be the subway’s early closing time. The last train in my metro line is 11:15 pm. I missed the last train once and I had to take Didi home (Didi is Uber’s equivalent in China). I was shocked to find that there were more than 90 people in the queue before me for a Didi! The waiting took about 40 minutes, and it was quite frustrating.

Are people pretentious in Shanghai?

The “vibe” of people in a city is a very important dimension. For me, I’d appreciate a place that is authentic and inclusive. The first time walking in popular areas, I was amazed to find ungentrified local stores and hipster stores standing side by side, such as convenience stores, vegetable stores, butcher shops, etc. I saw an unfancy but proud local tobacco store in a central and busy subway station like Shanxi Nan Road. The kind of gentrification that has stormed many big cities in the world didn’t seem to have happened here. The local stores make the city look very authentic and approachable.

The city of Shanghai seems to support that not everyone could afford cars or public transportations. There are dedicated bicycle and scooter lanes on most streets, which makes scooters and shared bicycles very popular ways of commuting. I own a scooter, and it only costs 2 RMB ($0.31) to fully charge the scooter battery which could support my commute for a week.

Bicycles riders running on the bike lane

People don’t feel the pressure of pretending to be fashionable. One day I asked my French friends who are living in Shanghai what they think about Shanghai. They like the fact that people freely wear whatever they want and don’t get judged. Apparently, they saw people wear pajamas or Pikachu onesies on the street.

The city is lovely!

I’m speaking for my own feelings to Shanghai here and now, which might not represent other people’s. The city is big enough that various things are happening, but it’s attentive enough so that people feel included. Living here feels safe and convenient. I really like encountering people from all walks of life, especially those hard workers like garbage workers who smile constantly and always look satisfied with their lives. I appreciate the fact that I could see a lot of old stores keep their places. I like not having to share the lane with cars while riding a scooter. Most importantly, I love the restaurant and bar scenes!

I would keep you updated along with my adventure. Stay tuned!