French Concession at night

In 1849, French diplomat Charles de Montigny got this proclamation from the governor of Shanghai to cede over a piece of land for French settlement. Most of the architecture remaining there is from the 1920s, when it was considered the premier residential area of Shanghai. Today, it's sort of a tourist trap.

Nestled in a normal-looking Shanghai neighborhood is an intricate maze of alleyways festooned with bright lanterns and elaborate decor. Small shops hawking memorabilia, small gifts, photographs line the corridors.

Throughout the Concession are various nooks featuring restaurants and bars with prices rivaling those of XinTianDi. It's a tourist trap, alright. But these establishments attracted foreigners and locals alike.

I actually prefer the atmosphere here over that of XinTianDi. If you're looking for a rowdy bar, this really isn't the place. The tune here is far more moderate and relaxed. The way I see it is, you go to XinTianDi to meet Shanghai girls. And you take them to the French Concession for a first or second date.

Chinese New Year is only a day or two away, depending on what part of the world you live in. It's the year of the rabbit, so these freaky-looking bunnies are on sale...

This place has a completely different feel during the daytime. One of these days, I'll show ya.

Out and about

Rather than risk a short circuit by using the dryer, I hang my freshly-laundered clothes on the balcony. I'm on YongJia Road, right where MaoMing South Road intersects. It's a pretty decent location. Subway lines 1 and 10 are about a ten minute walk away. The French Concession is roughly 5 minutes. And XinTianDi is about 15. A decent view to match too. They're building a new performing arts center right across the street.

The streets out in front are usually pretty packed with pedestrians, bikers, and drivers. It looks slightly deserted now because of Chinese new year. Most out-of-town folks have gone home to spend it with their families.

I'd mentioned the cold before. Case in points: 1) Gathering my dried clothes this morning, I nearly slipped due to the icy balcony floor. 2) I wear a sweater and a vest (with the heater on) inside the house. And 3) For those who can't bear it, motorbikes come with optional wool mittens! Woot! Woot!

A taxi to work would run me about $4.00. Comparatively, it's $0.50 cents to take the subway. The closest stop is South ShanXi Road Station. One stop west is the Shanghai Library station. I ventured out there today to get some exercise and got lost walking home. This ugly brick of a building is the Shanghai Public Library.

And this is where people get their cars fixed. The red words say "auto repair shop," but really, it's just a black sign leaning against a telephone pole in some alley. Innovative advertising?

After that long walk, I treated myself to some pork and corn dumplings with hot sauce. This is my little nook of a kitchen. The gas stove doesn't light itself, so I light a match and hold it to the gas hoping I don't end up a pile of ashes each time I have to cook.

Until next time!

Testing the taste buds

This is my setup. Really basic, but looks really cluttered. It's the only place in the house with enough table space for me to spread, access to a decently stable internet connection, and within reach of the heater!

Some relatives took me to Carrefour yesterday afternoon, and I went on a shopping spree buying things like shampoo, toothpaste, frozen dumplings, snacks, etc. This bag of hot and sour fish soup flavor Lay's potato chips came highly recommended, but it's actually not that good. Guess my taste buds have yet to adapt to some of the local flavors. I heard that in China, KFC outperforms every other foreign fast food chain, McDonald's included. Wonder what the Chinese would do after watching Food, Inc. Probably just shrug and continue living their lives...

"Intense & Stimulating?" I think not...

Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Shin Ramyun at the market. My favorite brand, but in shrimp flavor! Actually, not as good as the spicy one that I normally have.

I've reached a conclusion with regards to food. Eat out more often. It's cheap, it's probably not that healthy, but it's definitely delicious! I don't even know what to call these in English, but they're 生煎包 and they're great. I used to think the ones at Bird's Nest on Norwalk in Cerritos were pretty good, but these (from 小陽生煎) pretty much blow them out of the water. And they're about $0.20 cents each. $2.00 fills you up real good.

The awakening

I think I'll start out with this: Dinner was... 5 pints of Guinness. That's it. Apparently that's what goes on in Shanghai on Friday nights. In truth, it was a rather productive day. Jet lag had me up at 5:00AM in the morning. I got my physical exam taken care of (results to come out on February 9th). The majority of Chinese tend to be on "vacation-mode" the week before Chinese New Year. I met, and had lunch, with a couple of my future coworkers. They're all cool, at least with first impressions. Stopped by the office, met the team, and really eager to really get to know each and every one of them.

After lunch, a fellow future coworker took me shopping... for a wireless router. Gotta say, one of the key cultural differentiations between China and the USA is haggling. Basically, what I would have done was picked out the router that I wanted and paid for it. This guy, on the other hand, really pressed the sales representative on "how much of a discount can I get for this router," and "what else can I get for shopping in your store?" Turns out, it worked. I was able to "procure" a marked 339RMB router for 299RMB, and a pair of headsets! Gotta learn from this dude!

Came home pretty winded. Must have walked at least 5 miles thus far, and it was only 2:30PM. I tried setting the wireless router up, but got hit with problems galore. Still not working right now. I'm hardwired, in more ways than one.

Got a dinky cell phone. "Miro," or some shit like that. You ever heard of it, Andrew? It's made by Lenovo. I was like, "Hey man, I've never heard of Miro," to the sales lady at China Mobile, "Are you sure it's legit?" She was like, "Yeah, it's by Lenovo." Basically, it's a prepaid phone. But the structure of the deal is completely different from that of the US. 900RMB paid. 450RMB gets credited back to me over 18 months (that's 25RMB a month). If I go over, I can add minutes to it from just about any convenience store. If I don't, there's no rollover. The first minute is 20cents RMB, the second minute is free, and from then on, it's 10cents RMB. I straight told the lady they need better pricing analysts.

Then there's dinner. The 5 Guinnesses. My future boss texts me to meet him at Kabb in XinTianDi. It's this joint that a bunch of expats hang out. Met a couple of people from Amsterdam, the UK, and of course, local Shanghai girls. Something about those girls, man... Didn't eat anything partially because no one else ate, and partially because food there would have been crazy expensive. I'm not going to be able to save anything if I keep going to places like that. Gotta find myself some 狗不理包子 around the corner instead. Hey Em, I know it's only been a day, but I really need to find that "go-to take-out" place.

I'm trying to keep tabs on what I'm spending on. Got a pretty delicate Excel sheet going taking into account the current rate of exchange and stuff. And, oh yeah, Shanghai drivers need to keep their horns in check. Sick of hearing the unending honks. I nearly died, FIVE TIMES, today! When the light turns RED, it means STOP! YES! Even for the first ten seconds!

I am sorry about the lack of pictures, Darkwing Duck, though I did lug my camera around all day. It's enough effort exerted on my part trying not to make logical, grammatical, and spellatical errors.

Bags are packed

The time has come. I'm ready, but not emotionally. You know how I know that? Because I haven't teared up saying my goodbyes to people. Actually, I think that only happens with my immediate family.

Anyway, packing didn't take long, as expected. While I was gone in New York, my parents bought me two brand new suitcases. After I got back, I unloaded everything from my closet, shelves, and shoe rack, and my sister helped me fold, roll, and stuff everything into a big corrugated box, my two brand new suitcases, and a small carry-on.

Aside from the usual effects, I now have in my suitcases floss and vitamins. I've heard from various family throughout Asia that floss and vitamins are very expensive there. In the shipping box, I have an assortment of pens and pencils, post-it notes, my stapler, tripod, alarm clock, and an assortment of cables and wires that might come in handy once I'm settled in. For the box, I'm using XSbaggage.com, the aptly named company that ships your excess baggage.

Tonight, I'm having dinner with my grandparents (whom I won't be seeing for a while), and then heading out to a bar to catch the Lakers game (which I won't be able to watch for a while) with some high school friends (whom I also won't be seeing for a while).

Next post to be from the Motherland.

Bumped

Originally, I was going to spend a couple of weeks in Texas before heading out to Shanghai sometime late-February. That's scratched. Instead, I'm flying out of Los Angeles on the morning of January 26th, and arriving in Shanghai on the evening of January 27th.

How do I feel about having my schedule bumped by a month? It kind of makes things a little more hectic. I'm still taking a trip out to New York. But upon returning, instead of having a week's time to move to a different state, I now have a day's time to move to a different continent! Guess I should start packing, considering...

I went to the hospital earlier this afternoon to visit my grandmother, who checked in last night due to irregular respiration. She was asleep when I got there, but awoke soon enough and began talking. I see her pretty regularly, but not like we talk on a daily basis. As I'd just found out myself about the schedule bump, I hadn't had a chance to tell her yet. She gave me a nice, long lecture on what I should expect when I got to Shanghai, what her expectations for me and my future were, and so on, and so on.

No tearful goodbye or anything like that, but a pretty interesting realization as I was about to leave that it would be a while before I saw my grandmother again. She joked that she would come to Shanghai to visit me. Actually, I'm not sure if she was joking or not, but I don't think she's going to make that trip. I can only hope that her health, and my grandfather's for that matter, hold up so that I may see them many times again in the future.

Pre check-in

The Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles is located at 443 Shatto Place. The Passport & Visa Office is on the 3rd floor at 500 Shatto Place. I sat through late-morning traffic on the more-oft-congested-than-not Southern California freeways to go and apply for the Employment (Z) visa today.

A couple of Falun Gong members were peacefully protesting outside the building, while others were handing out pamphlets to passersby. Funny how there's a Truth on Falun Gong link on the Consulate General's website. 

Here's me checking in at the Consulate...

In a big room with one wall lined with service windows and plenty of seating space, I took a ticket and sat down waiting to get called. The night before, I got everything ready: My passport, filled out application form, color photos, visa notification form, and both original and photocopied Alien Work Permit issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

There's no appointment necessary, which is swell if the wait isn't too bad. If time and money are no object, you can actually have a travel agent drop off your application and pick it up a few days later with receipt. From what I hear, travel agents charge about $10 for the service. Regular processing time is 4 business days. I chose to have my application expedited (for an extra $20), so I'll be heading back there tomorrow to pick it up.

Back in the day, there were a couple of entry choices you could select: Single Entry, Double Entries, Multiple Entries for 6, 12, and 24 Months. As far as I know, they've gotten rid of the rest except for Multiple Entries for 12 Months, even though it says otherwise on the visa application form. All application fees are $140 for US citizens, but vary for citizens of other countries. The rest of the application is pretty self-explanatory... Personal information, your reason for visiting China, health information, and contact information.

Seems the entire visa application process is akin to obtaining a drivers license. It's not hard, just tedious, frustrating, obtuse, and obscure.

I'm an alien

An alien in the sense that I'm a foreign national seeking employment in China. Got my Alien Employment License of the People's Republic of China via UPS today. Very official-looking.

Just like the international students in my MBA class who were seeking employment in the US and needed a company's visa sponsorship; I'm in their boat now. Of course, this is just one of many steps. I also got my photo taken at FedexKinko's today, and will drive down to my local Chinese embassy next week to apply for the Employment (Z) visa.

Over the last few weeks, I've been e-mailing people I know in Shanghai just letting them know that I'm going to be joining them pretty soon. One of my contacts offered to "lend me his personal assistant to assist me with anything" I need. Interesting, no?

The air over yonder

One of the concerns that a lot of people have been bringing to my attention lately is the air quality in Shanghai. There's an air pollution index used by the Shanghai Environment Monitoring Center where readings of below 50 are considered "excellent," 50-100 are "good," and 100+ is "polluted."

Date	PM10	SO2	NO2
2011-1-6	98	80	47
2011-1-5	99	73	63
2011-1-4	75	59	38
2011-1-3	32	21	24
2011-1-2	61	37	31
2011-1-1	70	58	36
2010-12-31	117	50	27
2010-12-30	115	54	45
2010-12-29	92	52	43
2010-12-28	88	57	57
2010-12-27	85	52	43

According to this chart, over the last week and a half, there's been one day of "excellent," and two days of "polluted." A report from China Daily mentioned that on November 13, 2010, the index hit 370! The highest level reached in the last decade. That's nuts!

Though the bad air quality in Shanghai is something I already knew about, it's disappointing nonetheless. I mean, one of the things I was looking forward to was getting my fair share of exercise walking around the city. In fact, I was having lunch with a friend yesterday when he told me he thought Shanghai was one of the more depressing cities he'd ever been to because he could never see the sky. I've been to Shanghai twice before: once in the winter when it was freezing cold, and once in the summer when it was crazy hot. Funny I remember thinking the high-rise skyscrapers looked stunning against the cloud-spotted blue skies. Of course, that was over four years ago, and we all know how fast things change in China.

Who knows? Maye they'll have those oxygen bars like the ones they have in Las Vegas. According to the United Nations, the terrible air quality is the result of heavy dependence on coal as a source of fuel for both industrial energy and residential heating. Shanghai also has the highest cancer mortality rate in China. Whoopee!

Administrative hassles

I've been working with this HR lady based out of Shanghai for the last couple of weeks trying to figure out relocation and visa-related issues. My sister has been urging me to make a list of things I need and need to get done. I've resisted up until now. It's getting a little hairy...

1. Get a haircut
2. Go to Kinko's and get four 2-inch color photos (hence the haircut) 
3. Go to the DMV and get my Pennsylvania drivers license changed back to a California drivers license
4. Wait for HR in Shanghai to UPS me my alien work permit and Z work notification letter
5. Take color photos, California drivers license, alien work permit, and Z work notification letter to Chinese embassy in Los Angeles to apply for the Z work visa
6. Arrive in Shanghai
7. Go to the local police station to get the registration form for a temporary residence permit
8. Make an appointment for and take a medical exam

Like I said... Hairy.

My Shanghai bucketlist

There are a few things I'd like to do while in Shanghai, in no particular order. Some are touristy, some aren't. Here goes:

• Learn to speak Shanghainese
• Have a personal relationship with a good suit tailor
• Find a go-to takeout place
• Become a worthy haggler
• Do early-morning taichi at Fuxing Park
• Get a foot massage
• See the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe
• Obtain quality counterfeit Rolex, Patek Philippe, Breitling, Tag Heuer, Omega, and Piaget watches
• Take the 4-hour HuangPu River cruise
• Know the city like the back of my hand

In the beginning

That's a lame blog title. Four days after closing the door on 2010, I've decided to begin yet another blog. But unlike my previous "Ahh, it's the new year and I might as well get a new blog" blogs, this one actually serves a purpose. Sort of...

I'm still about a month and a half removed from actually relocating to Shanghai. Yet the realities of moving away from everything I know and am used to still haven't quite hit me. In fact, in the peak and trough sense of things, I'm still very much in the 'beginning to get excited' phase.

Back to the purpose.

My one new years resolution for 2011 is to live consciously. As such, I've given serious consideration to closing down my Facebook and Twitter accounts, which have morphed from daily dallies into serious drains on my TLC (time, life, and consciousness), but haven't gotten around to even summoning the gumption to actually do so.

Anyway, as I shutter out these virtual distractions and remove myself from the physical realm of family and friends, I still need a way to keep in touch with those I love and care about. VeryShanghai will accomplish that, and more. At least that's my hope. Aside from serving as a medium through which my parents can see just what the hell I'm up to halfway around the world, it's also an outlet for me to display what I'll be seeing, eating, feeling, eating, doing, and oh yeah, eating, in Shanghai!