Shanghai

We headed over to Yùfó sì, or the Jade Buddha Temple as it's called in English, famous for its two white jade Buddha statues. They were brought to China from Burma (Myanmar) by monks to Zhejiang Province in 1882 with the idea to build a temple dedicated to house them. They later came to Shanghai in 1918 when they had finished constructing the temple. The statue of a reclining Buddha which lies on a redwood bed, represents Buddha's entry to nirvana and is very rare, however, the other showing Buddha seated encrusted with jewels is probably more famous. The temple is one of the city's most visited tourist attractions.

The temple is still active and is situated in the northwest of the city, less than a mile from downtown Shanghai. It attracts large numbers of visitors, both local Chinese and overseas tourists and is actually one of very few Buddhist temples in Shanghai.

Though the original temple was destroyed in 1928, the giant Buddha, along with a smaller, recumbent version of the statue were both rescued, and now rest at the rebuilt temple.

The Jade Buddha Temple also include an impressive collection of rare cultural relics that are housed there. We decided to save them for next time and focused on just enjoying the experience of the temple. The giant jade Buddha is the real draw here, the other artifacts are supposed to be worth a visit by themselves, but I don't think that anyone comes just for the porcelain artworks and ancient paintings that are also stored here. There are also over 7000 Dazang sutras kept in the Jade Buddha Tower, unfortunately its not supposed to be such an impressive sight as it sounds. What we really enjoyed was to just see people worship, hear the monks sing and experience how natural the religious life seemed in this tourist attraction.

Another factor that adds to the spiritual element at the Jade Buddha Temple is the classical architecture style in which the temple was designed, and especially unique in the middle of the Shanghai of today.

There is also a souvenir shop with the reclining Buddha just outside and a vegetarian restaurant (which we of course had to try).

Its well worth a visit and of course we will go to Yùfó sì with anyone who comes to visit us. ;-)

Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

We booked a day trip through "Le Tour" hostel, where we stayed on our arrival to Shanghai. Early in the morning our "guide" came to pick us up. He only spoke a few words of English (like Hello) which was much more than what the driver knew. We went in a pretty worn down van and on the way, (actually totally in the opposite direction but anyway), we picked up an old Chinese couple who were also going.

They say that to visit Zhou Zhuang is to visit historical China. It's a tiny town with about 4000 inhabitants located between Shanghai and Suzhou, in an area with abundant rivers and lakes. There are several towns with canals in China but this one is today definitely one of the most famous. This ancient town has a history of more than 900 years with many houses built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

There are nearly a hundred well-preserved old mansions and over 60 gateways made of carved bricks built during the Ming or Qing dynasty. The mansions were named after owners ' surnames, such as "Zhang", "Zhou" or "Shen". The great mansion is "Shen-Ting" (Hall of Sheng) and was built in 1742 by the descendants of Shen Wan-Shan, the wealthiest person in the area under the Ming dynasty. The two-story mansion has more than 100 rooms and is an extreme example of how the rich lived during feudal China. The house has also been used as the set for several Chinese movies.

The other is the Zhang-Ting (Hall of Zhang) residence, which was built later during the Ming Dynasty. It is one of the few well preserved mansions in China and the oldest one in the city. Whereas the other houses in Zhou Zhuang are built along the streams and rivers, the Ruojing River actually runs through Zhang-Ting so that small boats can enter the house through its backyard.

We took it pretty easy, strolling around just soaking it in. We had rented audio guides just to have some information as our guide wasn't going to be of any use.

There's a gondola service for tourists to take the city in from another perspective and get a quick tour of probably the most famous attractions, the 14 stone bridges built during the Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. The Double Bridge being the most visited one. The Double Bridge, two bridges positioned so they form a right angle over a canal, was first built during the Wanli Reign (1573-1619). The other noteworthy bridge is Fu'an Bridge, which supposed to be the oldest bridge in the City having been built in 1355. You pay for the whole boat so we shared our gondola with some other people. It was over in about 30 minutes but it was very nice.

Apparently Zhou Zhuang is now solely dependent on tourism (great shame, I've even heard a lot of locals don't even live there anymore!) though the day we chose to go was perfect, as it was relatively tourist free throughout the day.

The local specialty dish here is pork knuckle, a rather gruesome lump of pork knuckly meat covered in fat. We ate together with the old couple and they helped us to order. Conversation was scarce but they were so friendly.

After we had eaten lunch and then strolled around the narrow shopping streets for a while, we went to the outdoor stage to wait to be picked up. We watched a little Beijing Opera, without understanding too much of the story, and were then picked up by the driver.

It was an interesting drive back. The countryside, if you can call it that just outside Shanghai, doesn't get boring to watch. There was quite a lot of traffic but we got back fairly quickly anyway.

Bye for now!

Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

I (Fredrik) did the move while Sabrina was at work. She had not had time to pack so I just shoved her stuff into her back-pack and in bags and filled the taxi. The taxi driver looked at me in amazement and could not believe that he would just be driving me and not a whole family. I got off at the new place and as I unloaded (with the help of the taxi driver) two of the neighbors started talking to me. We had a pretty short conversation before I lugged the stuff up to the 3rd floor, but nevertheless it felt nice with their curiosity.

There is a doorman living under the stairs in the entrance. He is almost always around keeping an eye on the place, and there is supposed to exist some kind of management but I don't think they have ever cleaned the stairs. :-) Our apartment is nice though.

When you visit, the first thing you see, after having taken off your shoes and jacket (and put on your slippers), is the Living room. Working as a division between the Living room and the Diningroom/Study, is the shower. It's all glassed in an in the middle of the apartment. The kitchen is to the right and is fairly small. It has a large sink, a gas stove, an oven and a regular size refrigerator/freezer.

The fact that you can see through the shower (but not the shower curtain though) makes the apartment feel bigger and brighter. There is a pretty small wardrobe for two people, but luckily we don't have that many clothes. There is also a storage closet.

The dining room is pretty big so there is also a desk there and therefore also works as a study. We have had our friends over for a Sunday lunch, something that we hope we will be able to keep up.

The bedroom is at the far end of the apartment and there is kind off a small passage that you have to go through. It has many windows and is in the corner to the back. The bedroom has many windows and is very bright. There is also a window from the bed room in to the dining room which spreads that light in to the rest of the apartment. It's also good when it's time to get up. You can knock on it, make funny faces and annoy the one who doesn't want to get up, (me, Fredrik).

The neighborhood

The area is in Pǔxī (浦西), downtown, which includes a pretty large chunk of the city. As we mentioned earlier the area is in the Old French Concession (法租界). You can still see the colonial influences and the buildings are lower. There are many small streets, alleyways and shops. There are many good restaurants in the area, even just outside the door or in a 200m radius are enough restaurants not to get bored of any. There are still many that we have not had time to try yet! There are small local supermarkets just around the corner, a fruit stand and DVD-salesman (open almost 24 hours). A guy who makes copies of keys, etc. There are shopping malls and shopping streets within walking distance. The only thing that is not ideal is that our gym is 15 min away.

If you want to know more, just pop by and have a look!!!

By for now,

Fredrik and Sabrina

After having viewed 45 apartments in 5 days we were pretty exhausted. We had contacted one agent specialized on providing real estate search for expatriates. They were eager to get started and came to pick us up at the hostel early on a Saturday morning. We toured the city looking at about 10 apartments that day. We weren't particularly impressed, especially since they totally ignored our instructions on where we wanted to live and showed us appartments all around town. Also there was a funny thing about the prices. They were all roughly the same price, independently of size and standards. The agency had asked us for our budget and we had given them a broad range but the strange thing was that the appartments were all just exactly our maximum budget or above. What a coincidence don't you think! Well, we have heard from numerous people that this is fairly commonplace here, so we contacted some more agents to show us appartments and finally our best option came from a local agent who we didn't tell our budget and who just managed appartments around where we wanted to live. During the 5 days we saw everything from 200 sqm fancy places with clubhouse, gym and views over the city to 50 sqm lane house appartments in construction and with no views where you had to walk through somebody's kitchen to get in.

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The apartment we eventually decided to take wasn't as big and fancy as the other ones, but quite enough for the two of us and definitely to our taste. It was a newly renovated flat in an old building (1930s) which was also cheaper than the other ones we had looked at and the best part was that it was located almost exactly where we had said we wanted to live. It is located 15 minutes by foot from Sabrina's office and it is exactly in the middle of 3 different metro stations from the two main lines, so it is really easy to get to almost any part of the city.

We live where the Black/red/white spot is, just over where it says Old French Concession

Apart from that it is located in the middle of French Concession which is in our opinion the most charming part of town. There are many good restaurants and there are many buildings still standing from the 20s and 30s. It simply has more soul than many other places in the city.

Old French Concession
French Concession is a name that does not exist on any street maps. The name is from the time the British, Americans and French had forced China to declare Shanghai a treaty port and had taken up their own autonomous concession zones in the city, each of which were independent of Chinese law. They all brought their own colonial influences to the city, which can still be seen today in the European architecture of the buildings on the Bund and in the old French Concession area. The French Concession was once home to the bulk of Shanghai's adventurers, revolutionaries, gangsters, prostitutes and writers, though ironically, not many of them were French. The majority of the residents were in fact British, American, White-Russian and Chinese. Shanghai's nickname "Paris of the East" stems largely from the tree lined avenues, the Tudor mansions, and the French influenced architecture of this district.

Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

The name of the city is a western invention. Shàng 上 hǎi 海, means "by the sea" and its advantageous location, on the banks of the Yangtze River delta, a transport way into the mainland of China, has been extremely important for it's success.

Some history
Before 1842, it was a small fishing village. The conclusion of the Opium War meant that China was forced to admit defeat to the British armies and as part of Britain's terms, China was forced to give up Hong Kong and concede some other ports as treaty ports, Shanghai being one of them. Other Western powers soon claimed the same privileges in these ports.

After the war, Britain declared Shanghai a treaty port, and the village was all of a sudden starting to transform into a city with many foreign influences. The British, the French, and the Americans each took up their own autonomous concession zones in the city, independent of Chinese law. Their colonial influences can still be seen today in the European architecture of the buildings on the Bund and in the old French Concession area.

Shanghai soon became an important industrial center and trading port in China and Shanghai gained its reputation for being one of the most cultured and sophisticated cities in the world. The rich, foreign tycoons or "taipans" led self indulgent lives by gambling in casinos, going to cabarets and spending money in brothels. Shanghai in the 19th century was one of the most glamorous, decadent and cultured cities in all of Asia. It was a cosmopolitan metropolis. From this period of roughly 100 years when foreigners had special privileges in the city, that is from 1842, when, as we mentioned, China had lost the Opium War, to 1949, the year the Communist rule started. It is from the time during these 100 years that the famous nicknames given to the city comes, such as "Whore, or Pearl, of the Orient" and "Paris of the East".

During this period there was however a big economic and social divide in the city with la ot of corruption and forreign exploitation. Marxism soon became a popular ideology among Chinese intellectuals, and in 1921, the Communist Party was first formed in Shanghai. Among it's members was a young Mao Zedong. The Communist Party and the Nationalists initially formed an uneasy alliance to reunify China under Chinese sovereignty. Shanghai was then invaded by the Japanese just before the start of World War II.

In 1949, the People's Republic of China was declared under Communist rule by Mao Zedong. And Shanghai's reign as the most cosmopolitan city in China ended when the city for some time became isolated to the world outside of China. In 1990, Shanghai was chosen as the city to drive China's economic progress. And it has responded with a booming construction industry, increasing private businesses, rising personal incomes and growing foreign investments. With it's economic progress, Shanghai is undergoing a complete revival and the city's government has set goals on overtaking Hong Kong as Asia's leading financial hub.

Shanghai today
Shanghai is the city in China which is most like a "western" city. This is true for the architecture, as well as for the business life and the food. Of course there are many things particular to Shanghai, not least food wise, but there are also unusually many restaurants from other parts of the world. Shanghai is also probably the city in China where the English language skills are the best.

After having been closed off to the outside world for years, Shanghai is rapidly regaining its reputation as a cosmopolitan city. Beijing is of course the capital, the center of politics, culture, but Shanghai is widely regarded as the financial center of China, a progressive enterprising city, open to new ideas.

According to the Shanghai Daily today, migrants to Shanghai have increased the official population by 11% in 2005 to a total of 17.78 million (only 13.4 million have permits to live in Shanghai). In 2006 about 130,000 children were born here. Even though Shanghai does not have the largest population in China, it has the highest density of population in the country. Here live in average 2,800 people per sq km. Just in the Huang Pu area live 126,500 people (8 sqm/person). In 2006 Shanghai had approximately 51,000 foreign residents (expats).
The average income in the city is about 2 200 RMB per month. Considerably higher than in other parts.

During 2006 Shanghai's financial sector grew approximately 17,6 % and the service sector 11,6 %.
The value of the Shanghai stock Exchange was doubled to 5,8 billion RMB.

During the first week of may 2006 ca 30,000 couples were married in Shanghai. The average cost for the wedding (including party, clothes, rings, travel and photos) was 150,000 RMB.

Weather
The City can be boiling hot during summer, and freezing cold during winter. That does not necessarily mean that the temperature will get colder than -10 C but even with +5 C, the combination of high humidity and winds makes it feel so much colder and makes people shiver between December and February. Very few houses have central heating and insulation is almost non existent so sometimes your best bet can be to put on your coat, socks and gloves to watch TV. In June, July and August, when the temperature rises towards 40 C, many people seek refuge in cool shopping malls or restaurants and from there directly into air-conditioned taxis.

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