| Jianshuo's article reminds me the smell of Shanghai...Autumn should have come to Shanghai and it is the best season in my memory. As a Shanghainese who grew up and experience the dramastic change during recent 20 years there, I do have a strong and deep feeling to this city. As Jane have mentioned, we have so much to be improved such as the air quality, the green land and people's aggressive attitude. I complained it before when I was living there. But now everything of this city is just so warm to me. You can always find the food you like, you can always feel the warmth in the crowd...As a city of developing country, Shanghai has lots of problems, I wish they could be fixed in the future. I agree with jianshuo that the winter of shanghai is humid and cold. People use air-conditioning instead of gas. Sometimes you will feel the tempreture is not even in different rooms because nobody installs airconditioning in bath room. Here is some information about the monthly rental of the apartments in downtown area, wish it helps! The apartments in downtown area are different from North America and Europe...There are two type of apartments in downtown area. First type of apartments were built decades ago and owned by local shanghainese. After they bought new apartment, they will rent the old one out. Usually the average monthly rental of a two bedroom one bath is between 300USD to 500USD. The one bedroom (or studio) cost around 200USD a month. The only facilities you can expect are bathroom and hopefully a small kitchen. As i know 3 or 4 years ago, foreigners who lives in chinese community were sometimes the focus of people. Now i don't think so, Shanghaineses have seen too many foreigners in this city. The other type of apartments are built by real estate company, they are sold or rent to foreigners because their income are relatively higher than local people. Usually these apartments are in high rise building, like hotels. The monthly rental is between 1000USD to 2000USD. Your neighbor should be rich local people or employees of foreign company. Usually if the monthly rental is above 1500USD, there should be swimming pool, gym, hopefully u can enjoy a small grass land in front of building (the land is so expensive in downtown area, people use all of them to build apartments:-( I guess one bedroom or studio costs around 500USD to 800a month. Actually the rental is pretty close to some areas in America. Be careful before you rent the apartment, usually you will need to find an agent. Sometimes they charge the commission from you, sometimes from the landlord. Pay attention to the contract and ask them to bargain the price for you so that you can get a good deal. Remember, this is in China, everything is negotiatable... Good luck! |
Relocating to Shanghai