Shanghai 101 - Week 1

We've been in Shanghai for a week, and while we have been here several times before, life is somewhat different when you are actually LIVING in the city. 
With that, here are some thoughts of what we have learned from Week 1 in Shanghai:

1.  For how quickly the city has grown, the infrastructure supports it amazingly well.  YES, we sit in traffic going to and coming from work, but seeing as the city has grown to over 25 million people, it works surprisingly well.

Just a small bit of the construction going on...

2.  When walking down the street, your head needs to be on a constant swivel.  Pedestrians are the lowest on the food-chain when it comes to the street.  On our way to brekkie this morning, Jeff was nearly hit by a taxi, scooter, and spit on - all in one intersection.  It was surreal and scary.

Did you notice that it appears that they are all running a red-light?
They are, and it just works...

All of those scooters going every which way...
without warning...

And, sometimes, they are on the sidewalk, too.  Why not...

3.  The PUFFY coat is everywhere in Shanghai.  Man, woman, child...all sporting the puffy coat.  Long, short, vest, some with detachable lenghts.  The bell hops at the hotel wear them. 

4.  Pajamas are a big thing here.  And, if you're old, you can wear them at any time, in any location.  It is awesome.  Oh, and they are proper jammers, like matching and everything.

This guy is rocking his jammers on a random
day...and smoking and walking his dog, too.
We saw one set of jammers today that was
legendary, but I was too slow on the camera.

5.  Jet lag sucks.  There is no way around it...it just sucks.  I was able to make it until 10pm last night...the latest in a week - earlier in the week I was lucky to see 8pm.

6.  Everything takes longer in China.  EVERYTHING.  While there may be more people working, everything takes longer...there is a lot of checking and rechecking, then checking again.  We waited for an hour this morning for scrambled eggs (but they were good once we got them.)

7.  English is limited, at best...thankfully we start Mandarin lessons this week.  Getting a taxi driver to take you where you want to go requires knowing the address in English, then translating to Chinese characters...and hoping that they take you where you need to go.  I cross my fingers...a lot.

Any questions on which way to go?  

8.  Pollution sucks, too.  Probably more than jet lag.  The city has had a rough week when it comes to pollution.  The US Consulate publishes hourly updates on the interweb - it hasn't been healthy this week.  At all.  The good news is that the cities are taking 'emergency measures' and have instructed construction sites to shut-down, and for companies to only burn 'high-quality coal'.  And, in case you haven't seen it, the sun looks really odd when trying to shine through really bad pollution.  We will likely become tree-huggers as a result of living here.

Monday morning...not a good day for the environment.

One of the REALLY clear days we were here in September...I don't
know if you could even see across the river this week.

9.  People stand really close to everything.  Walls, buildings, other people, you name it, they stand/walk/run close to it.

Jeff providing an example of how people are normally
standing in the elevator.

This little guy has absolutely nothing to do with people standing close
to you.  I just thought he was cute! 

10.  Nice work perk - we get fresh fruit every afternoon - "for healthy body."  I think that is a great habit to get into, and it will limit my candy eating (at least I'm hoping!). 

11.  Not so nice work perk - there is sometimes dried fish on the bench at work.  I don't think it's company provided, I believe it is a personal donation, BUT, it stinks.  Especially early in the morning.  Reminds me of this night...

Dried fish, anyone?

Not so much related to this post, but a pic from
our trip in September...at Yuyuan Gardens.