30. Three month review

3 months living in Shanghai

The three-month barrier is a funny one. For me it is the difference from doing something short-term and moving on to doing something long-term. Girlfriends, jobs, and consequentially stays in foreign cities for me all come under this bracket.

For others of course, people whom I’ve met will laugh in the face of three months, whilst others I know will find three months quite a monumental feat. In any sense it takes a day to pass, but for this post I will try and evaluate my time in Shanghai so far.

Living has gone well. The apartment although not boasting the best views in the complex has a superb movie viewing sofa and TV, heats up nicely and recently we’ve found how to pump hot water from the shower by increasing the pressure.

Working well standing in front of a class of 40 kids and giving a lesson seven times a day has been quite an exhilarating experience and one you get used quite quickly. Working at my language school on a Sunday has been slightly more frustrating because of the syllabus and the odd kid who holds back the whole classes potential.

The Chinese staff though have been altogether excellent.

My most enjoyable age to teach is 13 to 17 because they have a greater outlook on life and involve themselves in class in the ways a teacher wants students to interact by challenging each others ideas.

Shanghai as a city

I read the BBC world news occasionally and Shanghai crops up quite a lot when I do. The worlds eyes it seems are on this city more than ever. Shanghai has an intrigue because in a period of economic downturn, this city still keeps up the monumental growth.

Having lived in  and around Winchester and York over the last 13 years of my life. I've been used to cities where their main points in history were a thousand years before. It is refreshing and invigorating to be in a city spearheading perhaps the world’s development.

Although Shanghai with a population of 25 million, has got the feel of a city overworked and overused. People come here specifically to make money. That means there is an altogether great mass of people rushing about and not a huge amount of gentle interaction. Shanghai must also be the most commercialized city in China. International brands are everywhere. What makes me happy are that there are some great British imports like Mr Bean and Sherlock Holmes that are ‘very famous’ here.

 I would like to know the extent that Shanghai can now be considered Westernized by finding out how reliant they are on Western goods. Asking whether there are Chinese equivalents to the huge number of Western brands here from watches, to movies, to fast food that can appeal on mass to the public most significantly to the younger generations.

One wonders what the future holds here.

China

It is quite interesting to be living in China at the moment. There is a lot happening.

The Communist Party of China stands at a defining moment in its history. The new leader of the country, Xi Jinping who took over for the next decade in November 2012 will instil his congresses long term plans in the next few years. The world sits and waits to see if China becomes a threat from these plans.

However in its own borders, China currently consumes at 2.5 per person to which the country can provide. It needs to become less reliant on exports and boost domestic consumption. China has had a huge property and infrastructure industry in these years of prosperity but surely this must soon be running out. The one-child policy will come into effect with the amount of people looking for property and this industry is sure to subside.

Furthermore, the youth growing up today are exposed to more foreign ideas, they are of course happy to live here now when the good times are here to be had, but there could be some serious social unrest if things turn ugly.

The new leader seems to have got early support by keeping his visits low-key affairs unlike his predecessors lavish spending on royal visits. Instead in Jinping's recent visit no roads were cordoned off which had quite favourable reviews on weibo. Yes indeed.

Of course I am interested in what happens, I don't think my job will be on the line or anything, anyway as long as there is a solid stream of hot water, internet and Western films in cinema I will be happy.