LIVING IN SHANGHAI

Housing | Healthcare | Fitness | Education | Entertainment

HOUSING

Where to find apartments

It's common to use agents to help you find somewhere to live in the city. It's important to be specific about your requirements but even then, you will often be shown properties that do not meet your requirements and it's best to be honest and tell them if it's not what you're looking for rather than accept somewhere you aren't completely happy with. Sometimes, they will deliberately show you some of the poorer quality properties in the hope you may accept one of them.

There are also a few apps and websites for apartment searching such as SmartShanghai which has a housing section.

Typical Rental Terms

Rent is usually paid monthly, with a one or two-month deposit. This means you will probably need to prepare to pay 3 months' rent upfront. I highly recommend trying to minimise the deposit amount, even if it means paying say, two months' rent in advance, because landlords ofteh try their best to avoid returning deposits. If you've only paid one month's deposit, that's the most you can lose in such situations. Where the rental amount is low, it is sometimes required to pay 6 months in advance but this is more common with local tenants with rents of just a few thousand RMB per month.

Commission is usually paid by the landlord, but agents do sometimes require the tenant to also pay a part of the commision (eg 50% of one month's rent). This should be clarified at the beginning to avoid disputes later.

Where To Live

There are a few popular districts to live in for expats depending on your tastes and lifestyle / life stage. Younger singles and couples may enjoy Jing'an District with its abundance of bars and restaurants catering to western tastes as well as more accommodation that is aimed at the expat market (for example, kitchens with ovens which are rare in local homes). Areas that are further away from downtown are popular with families as kids have more space to run around - places like Hongqiao / Gubei in the west of the city as well as some parts of Pudong to the east, like Jinqiao. These areas also tend to be closer to many of the international schools.

HEALTHCARE

Hopefully, you will not need any of the services listed below during your visit, but if you do, or if you are newly settled in Shanghai, these may come in useful.

General Medical Services

There are quite a few western clinics to choose from. Here are some of the more popular ones among expats in Shanghai.

Parkway China
Parkway has several clinics and a main hospital in Shanghai.

1172 Jile Road, Minhang District, Shanghai
上海市闵行区季乐路1172号
Phone: 400-819-6622

Jiahui
Jiahui is in my opinion a fantastic option. They have a few satellite clinics and a huge hospital that covers almost every medical department. Below are the details for the main hospital location.

689 Guiping Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai
上海市徐汇区桂平路689号
Phone: 400-868-3000

Huashan Hospital
This is a local hospital but it does have an international clinic with English speaking staff.

12 Wulumuqi Zhong Lu, near Huashan Lu, Jing'an District
乌鲁木齐中路12号, 近华山路
Phone: (021) 5288 9999

Dentist

I learned the hard way that regular checks on your oral health is important. Prevention is better than cure, as they say. But if you've left it too late and have an emergency, you'll still need a reliable dentist to help you. So here's my recommendation. I'm afraid I only have one because I haven't tried any others, which isn't to say there aren't other great dental clinics around.

Aidencare Dental Clinic
I have been using Dr Oscar Sum and his great team of dentists at Aidencare for my dental care for over a decade and there's no other dentist I trust more.

Gubei SOHO 30th Floor, 188 Hongbaoshi Road, Changning District, Shanghai
Phone: +86 191 1738 6506

Physiotherapy (Physical Therapy)

I don't have much experience in this area so I only have one recommendation to share.

The Clinic
I unfortunately have recently had cause to seek out some physiotherapy and after asking around, The Clinic (a somewhat confusing name) was one of the top recommendations from several people.

118 Jiashan Road, Building B, 5th Floor, Suite A501
徐汇区嘉善路118号5楼A501室
Phone: (021) 3368 8801

FITNESS / GYMS

Some caution is needed here. Recently, quite a few fitness chains have gone bust and memberships have been lost as a result. I personally experienced this twice in two years with Terra Wellness and Wills memberships. There's no surefire way to choose a gym that won't go bust of course, but it is wise not to overcommit with advanced payments. Certainly avoid "lifetime" memberships and try not to pre-pay excessively for classes or trainer sessions. Many people have been burned from this.

I'm currently using Z&B Fitness which has quite a few locations and the membership allows you access to most but not all locations. This might be useful if say, you have one near home and one near your workplace.

EDUCATION

Most expat kids go to some kind of international school while a small number do attend local schools. There are a few different kinds of international schools available:

International Schools
These are also the most expensive and include schools such as Dulwich College, The British International School, Harrow, Concordia (CISS), Yew Chung International School (YCIS), Wellington College to name a few. These can easily cost upwards of 300,000 RMB per year and so, unless your company is covering the costs, it can be prohibitive for many.

International Division of Local Schools
These are local public schools that have a separate stream for foreign students and are usually cheaper than the full blown international schools. While these schools do typically have foreign teachers, the turnover is usually quicker and they will also have local teachers as well. Examples of schools in this category include Shanghai High School International Division (SHSID) and Fudan International School (FDIS). Fees are signifdicantly lower than international schools. Annual fees for FDIS for example are around 80,000 RMB.

Chinese Private Schools
These are privately run institutions that cater to both Chinese and international students offering a mix of Chinese and international education. In terms of cost, they tend to fall in between the other two categories, so expect to pay in the region of 150,000 per year. YK Pao is an example of schools in this category.

ENTERTAINMENT

Shows / Sporting Events
There are lots of options for entertainment in Shanghai including shows (musicals and plays), concerts, sporting events like the Rolex Shanghai Masters (tennis) in the autumn and the Chinese Grand Prix F1 in spring. Details of these types of events can usually be found on various listings sites like Smart Shanghai.

TV Boxes
One thing I really used to miss from home was simply watching TV and flicking through the channels. I enjoy watching TV shows as well as English Premier League football matches. With a TV box, you can do all of these things whenever you like. They typically offer hundreds of channels, including movie channels like HBO, ShowTime and Cinemax, UK TV channels (such as BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4), and news channels (Sky News, CNN, Fox News, BBC News, etc.).

You can watch these channels live, but they also offer playback for up to 7 days—so if you missed last night’s match, you can catch up the next day. On top of that, there’s VOD (video on demand), which gives you access to a huge catalogue of movies and TV shows without the 7-day limitation. You can watch them at your leisure, and the selection includes both the latest releases and classics like Star Trek or whatever else you’re into.

Costs vary but are around 1500 RMB for the first year and then around 650 RMB per year for renewals. There are many resellers but they are mostly offering the same service. For me personally, the TV box is a no brainer. I use it daily and it's great to have access to all of that content.

I don't know of any websites to link to, but I do have some contacts I can share, so send me a message if you're interested.