In Shanghai!

"As seen on TV" - ShangWOW!

We flew out of Asheville, NC Thursday morning and arrived safely in Shanghai on Friday afternoon quite haggard and disheveled – 16 hours non-stop in coach – ‘nough said. We spent the weekend living 'upside down' trying desperately to fall in sync with the rhythm of our new lives. My husband was especially thankful to have the long weekend to adjust. He left out this morning for his new job a bit anxious, but rested.

First impressions of the city: Cleanest airport I’ve ever graced, the ride from the airport to JinQiao in Pudong boasts superb infrastructure, and the city of Shanghai feels like the largest city I’ve ever visited. I am overwhelmed in many ways but mostly by the number of dwellings; in every direction there are multi-level apartment complexes as far as the smog permits visibility. And that is the other first impression, the air quality appears to be the poorest I’ve ever witnessed, even more so than a bad day in Mexico City.

View from the bedroom on sunny morning. Apartments as far as the eye can see.

I’m happy to report the VPN (virtual private network) is an absolute Godsend and anyone entertaining a move to China should seriously consider subscribing to a service. I am using Witopia. I’ll spare everyone a tech talk – but for those interested select the link to learn more. We are able to connect to paypal, our US bank, Face Book, Skype, Youtube, Yahoo and Blogger. These sites are either permanently blocked are randomly blocked by the Chinese firewall without the VPN.

I’ll report on our market visit next. The experience warrants its own entry. A trip to the supermarket restroom is where I first learned of the significantly different style public ‘potties’ in China – stay tuned…