Pictures at

http://cid-669fc800331258fe.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Monenlaista%20Shanghaita%202010

Greetings from Shanghai

At the beginning of 2010, I ended up taking a two-year leave of absence to spend in Shanghai as my husband was sent there for work. 

Spring rushed by as Shanghai prepared to host the EXPO 2010 world fair, which was opened on the 1st May. Dress rehearsals went on in the EXPO site for five days, attended by some 1.25 million locals. From our home windows, we could follow the final rehearsal for the opening fireworks, and according to a conservative estimate, the number of fireworks exploded that day exceeded what would be used in all of Finland in ten years.  The EXPO site was serviced by four ferry lines, five underground-train lines, and 36 bus lines, in addition to over 4,000 new EXPO taxis that were introduced into the city (in addition to the already existing 45,000 taxis). Locals were given free tickets to the EXPO to ensure that the goal of 70 million visitors would be met. The Finnish pavilion, Kirnu (churn) was featured in the first EXPO Daily issue by Shangahai Daily – with picture and all (it was the only one besides the Chinese pavilion that was featured with a picture).

A new beginning 
 At first, the hardest thing was to adjust to the 'scale'; everything is so very large and there are such a lot of people everywhere. Our building association consists of eight 60-floor high-rises, a total of 5,600 apartments, two clubhouses with pools, gyms, sports grounds, etc. In the building site that we can see from our window, the foundation was being cast, and one day, 45 concrete transport trucks were lining up to the building site at once.  Shanghai is China's second largest city when it comes to population (around 20 million), and there seem to be dozens of shopping centres like Itäkeskus or Jumbo.

I haven't experienced any greater cultural clashes, since our everyday life at home is very like our life in Finland. When you move to China, you don't expect things to like they are in Finland, anyway. This meant I managed to keep a positive attitude towards the noisy (but surprisingly calm) traffic, the children in trousers with openings (they do their business fairly freely in the streets), the people who admire and photograph Otso and Paavo, the warm water that takes its time coming out of the tap, the 20 plumbers that visited us during the first week, the driver who always answers 'yes, yes' (though he has no idea where we want to go), and the second reminder from the electricity company though we haven't even received the original invoice. After a couple of months, I realised that the Chinese 'squiggles' don't tire my eyes as much as they did at first, and I'd stopped marvelling at the people using their bare hands to pick out the meat and chicken legs at the meat counter in the shop.

The bureaucracy concerning such matters as residence permits, health inspections, and movers was handled very well by my husband's employer, ABB. We did not really have to deal with any of the official formalities, but then, we probably couldn't have since we do not speak the language. The language is the worst problem when trying to deal with things, since very few speak English here. We've had to resort to bad English and sign language to communicate in the shops, with the driver, the ayi (maid), the plumber and the electricity company. This gave us the motivation to learn basic Chinese from the start. The spring weather in Shanghai was somewhat strange: the temperature varied between 5 and 25 degrees according to whether the wind was blowing from the south or the north. In the mornings, you never knew if you would need a woollen cap or a sunhat. We had a lot of rain, too, though the rainy season was supposed to come later. On the other hand, the rain freshened up the otherwise dusty air.

Pleasant surprises

We have also experienced a lot of pleasant surprises in our everyday life. Shanghai seems like a very safe city and the Chinese are very friendly. They also love children, which we experienced at the airport when we first landed, as we were directed to the passport control past all the lines. The children are greeted, admired and considered in the streets and in restaurants. It wasn't long before the boys were greeting people they met with 'Ni hao' and saying thank you in Chinese, 'Xiexie'. The children have learned and adapted quickly in other ways, too. The teachers were promising us that Otso, who went straight from pre-school in Finland to the first class in the international school, would be fluent in both Chinese and English by next winter.
  Shanghai is a very western city, and there is hardly anything you wouldn't find here. Prices vary very much from shop to shop. The international brand shops have international prices, but at the cloth market you can have a shirt made to measure from the material of your choice for around 10 Euros, and a men's suit for 60 Euros. On the weekends, we have toured the sights in Shanghai, and will probably not run out of sights during our two-year stay. During the first couple of months, we have visited, among other places, the Shanghai World Financial Center (the 2nd tallest building in the world), Junmao Tower (another tall building), Yuyuan Garden (a stone garden in the old city), Century Park (a large central park), Shanghai Ocean Aquarium (with the longest shark tunnel in the world), Shanghai Wild Animal Park, the Bund, the People's Park, Xintiandi, and many different markets. And we have continued touring after the summer holidays with our Finnish guests.

We were pleasantly surprised by the Brasilian bakery in a neighbouring street, where rye bread and Karelian pies are made according to a Finnish recipe. In general we have been eating fairly Finnish food at home, but naturally we have bought a new wok pan and tried some Chinese flavours. The selection in the markets ranges from turtles to chicken feet and seafood, which you can select directly from an aquarium. I will confess that we sometimes enjoy visiting a Pizza Hut or McDonald's.

Some six months later

The EXPO ended at the end of October. I visited it four times and a total of some 20 pavilions. In the end, over 70 million people visited the EXPO, and over 5 million visited the Finnish pavilion, which was awarded the best one in its category.

Life as an expat is rewarding and tightens your family bonds, but it is also tough. Though my husband could spend more than 24 hours a day at his job, the whole social life here could be characterised as temporary. New expats arrive and old ones leave every week. A strong Finnish expat community is an immense help in adjusting to the city. It also feels important that we are not completely forgotten by friends and family back in Finland. I have learned to make most of my grocery shopping online, to eat with chopsticks (but not such things as pork intestine or chicken feet), and to speak a tolerable Chinese with the ayi and taxi drivers. When necessary, I can also say with authority that my son does not like to be photographed. I will never keep up with Otso in the learning of the Chinese squiggles, though I take classes twice a week. It is wonderful to watch as my 7-year-old enthusiastically writes the signs, completes the 'dead easy' homework in a jiffy, and got 75/75 for his last Chinese exam. In my defence I have to say that my classes concentrate on speaking in everyday situations.

I survived the summer heat of over 40 degrees (the maximum on our thermometer was 48 degrees), and I can say that I do not recommend visiting the city in that kind of heat. I have also learned that things here seldom go according to plans. If you cannot get a taxi, you cannot get a taxi (how can they run out of taxis when there are tens and thousands?), and you will be late even if it is open doors at your child's school, and no one will think the worse of you. I am also starting to realise how big the city is: it takes at least 45 minutes to go to a one-hour class at the Finnish music school, and you cannot see all the sights and markets in Shanghai in two years. Every week, I hear about another great and cheap place to shop where someone visited.

As a life experience, these two years are surely different and will widen my horizons immensely. In Finland and the western world, there are so many things, people, places, and customs that work and I miss, but not everything is there, is it? It is interesting to find that things can work, even if it seems improbable at first.

Lots of love and warm wishes for the season!