The Shanghai Enigma

For anyone who has never lived or been to Shanghai it can be quite a new
experience. For the next month I’ll be interning and living here in Shanghai, and
in this time I want to try and crack the enigma that we all know as Shanghai,
from its culture and lifestyle, to food and fashion.
Fast forward to the end of my first week, where I start exploring, working, eating
and volunteering:

Work:
For my month program I was placed to work in Maxxelli Real Estate as a
marketing intern. My supervisor is an expat from Canada and just like the
stereotypes is a generally really nice guy, but more importantly I was amazed the
amount of involvement I had when it came to the projects I was assigned to. For
example, interviewing a brewery owner so I can write up a blog for our website,
or performing market research on our competitors in 2nd tier cities. I am really
happy to say how appreciative I am of the opportunities I have been provided in
this internship and will do my best to seize them and can’t wait to see what the
rest of my program will be like.

This is just down the street from my office on Madang road, its like walking
through a time machine as you move from modern buildings straight to a very
homey cultural feel, a lot of China is like this and it definitely creates an air of
nostalgia as you walk down the streets.

Food:
Now my personal favourite section of this blog would definitely have to be the
food, and just a precaution now that all my future blog posts would most
definitely have a food section. Shanghai or China in general is known for their
cheap stuff, food is no exception, legit food here is cheap cheap CHEAP!, for
reference lets consider our exchange rate to be 1 aud = 5 rmb, an average meal at
a local restaurant can cost you around 15-30rmb, I’ll let you do the math and give
you a moment to let that value sink in. So now you must be wondering what kind
of food Shanghai has on offer, you my think its just dumplings or noodles or
takeout, but its so much more diverse than that which I will explain in a future
blog post, but for now here is some of the amazing food I’ve tried so far:

Now this was my first dinner in Shanghai as soon as we got off the plane, we
were staaaaarviiiing. So we rock up to this place near the hotel and not knowing
a word of mandarin (they gave me weird stares, after seeing me who is full
Chinese not speaking in their native tongue) and just pointed to whatever looked
the best on the menu, this noodle dish came out and it was delicious, definitely
worth the 12 RMB.

Now this here is the highlight of my trip thus far. Shanghai is known for their
dumplings, in particular their Xiao Long Bao or what we know as Soup
dumplings. These extraordinary pieces of heaven are soup filled pork dumplings
and are a must try in Shanghai, so I actually tried 4 different places before
finding this small hidden gem, for 14 RMB you can experience 12 mouthfuls of
heavenly bliss. I cannot emphasise how good these dumplings are and I would
legit live off these for the month I am here.

Volunteering:
Within my first 2 days here we were offered a community outreach volunteering
program where we helped Children at a School, so being the adventurous person
I am decided to volunteer, and it was honestly such a fun and eye opening
experience. We were driven to a school that was around an hour away, and it
was really eye opening seeing the whole landscape change from high rise
apartments to open farmlands and shacks, but once we arrived, the children our
doubts faded and instead was replaced with bliss and joy. We spent around 2
hours playing with the kids, and even though there was the massive language
barrier the universal language that everyone understand is fun, so we did what
we do best and just have a good time with the kids. We spent the afternoon
building toy sculptures, playing in the playground, playing soccer and taking part
in some local games. All in all its was definitely a rewarding experience where
both parties benefitted, and I would volunteer again if the opportunity every
arose.

Here are a group of us at the community outreach program where we helped the
kids. They were so fun to spend time with and would definitely volunteer again.
Stay tuned for my blog next week as I review my trip to Hangzhou and of course
more food adventures!

Bonus Photo Gallery:
Just some random photos I’ve taken so far, and some from our volunteering
outreach event

Here is the view from my apartment(Penthouse view), on the opposite of us is
the Bund, and we are surrounded by a lot od residential high rise apartments
similar to ours.

Here is a picture taken at the bund and it is a view of the pudong area.

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