5 Things I Will Miss About China

Not all is bad in China. At least not all the time.  It took me longer to write this post than originally planned. I guess after the rather negative previous article, karma stepped in and since then China’s been a little more sadistic than usual. I guess it’s easy to say that inspiration failed me in writing about the things I love here. However, seeing as this is supposed to be an “optimistic” post, I’ll spare you the details of my past week and jump right into being positive.

I have this aunt that told me once, the only way you’ll truly be happy in life is if you change and start to be more positive. "Positive things follow a positive attitude", she said. "Even if you have to fake it, try to be positive every day." I am a person who likes to hang out on the melancholic side of the tracks, but her words never left me. Similarly to what the United States says: “we don’t negotiate with terrorists”, I’ve come to realize that you can’t negotiate with Life either. There’s no meeting each other halfway. You have to go all the way. Which means you have to be positive all the time if you want some good luck for a change. Frankly speaking, that sounds too exhausting to me. How about I just stick to one positive article for today and then I can gradually work my way up?

1.   The Food

I wouldn’t call myself a foodie, but I do love a good meal. I was a regular at the local Chinese restaurants, in both South Africa and Germany. I go nuts over fried noodles with chicken or duck. You can imagine how overwhelmed I was when I arrived on the food scene in China.  There are at least 13 regional cuisines in China and most of them are very different. It wasn’t until I was here, that I learned those great Chinese dishes I had in the West are in fact, “American Chinese” and not authentic Chinese at all. The Chinese who settled in the States invented fortune cookies, the people here have no idea what they are. Also, in Germany and South Africa, we ordered typically Western: every person orders his or her own plate, whereas here you share dishes: which means more to try. So not only do you get more variety in taste and style, but you also get more food every time you dine. It sounds like a win-win to me. What type of food will I miss the most? Definitely the local Shengjian dumplings. These are large, steamy dumplings delivered to us straight from heaven. 

2. Shanghai

Mostly when I praise things about China, I’m actually talking about Shanghai. This is where I spent most of my time; got most of my experiences from and this is my home. Shanghai is the Paris, New York, Venice and Milan of Asia. And rightly so, Shanghai has so many faces and layers that it is an adventure to live here.  You can squat next to the road with the locals and eat beef noodles, and shop at the world’s most luxurious brand stores, all in one afternoon. Shanghai has the charm of old imperial China, colonial Europe, and modern urban cities. Here you can do anything except hiking, but for that, you can catch a bus 3 hours outside of the city and hike to your heart’s delight at Moganshan.

This city is like that eccentric aunt you sometimes can’t stand, but also can’t get enough of. You always look forward to seeing her, and even though you want to throw her out of the house after a few days, but then you’ll welcome her back again with open arms the next time she comes to visit. You don’t have an aunt like that? Well, let me explain it like this: Shanghai is cool but can get hectic. This isn’t just a university city, or a historic town, urban giant or quaint village, like most other places. Shanghai gives you your fix on culture, education, nightlife, amazing dining, community activities, rurally living and opportunities to rub shoulders with celebrities – all in one day. This one city with 24 million people (that’s half of the population of South Africa and more than Belgium and The Netherlands combined) is a chameleon of opportunities and has possibly ruined me for any other city in the world. I’ve met tourists from New York, Rome, Berlin, Rio and Mexico City who would move to Shanghai tomorrow if they could.  I will dearly miss the beauty, sheer size and different faces of Shanghai.

3. The Ease of Transportation

My biggest hobby is traveling. Everyone’s seen these posters on Facebook that make fun of people with different priorities. For example, “All my friends are celebrating their babies’ first birthday, while I’m planning my next holiday”. That’s my husband and me in a nutshell. We love exploring. And doing just that is actually easier in China than most of you might have thought. Not talking about how simple (and cheap) it is to travel within Shanghai and the fact that they have one of the world’s longest underground railways, but also traveling to the smallest village in the armpit of China is easy to do. There’s always a bus, train, minivan or a local willing to take you. Hitchhiking is an easy and safe thing to do here but the main idea is if you need to get somewhere, be assured there is a way.

4. Cheap Living

Shanghai offers a cheaper side of life to many. You can travel around the city and only pay 4RMB one way (0.50EUR or R7). Let me take you through a day on a budget. First, you'll start off your day with a cheap but filling breakfast pancake that will cost you around the same (4RMB), cold noodles (one of my favorites) for lunch for 6RMB (0.70EUR or R11) and a steamy bowl of beef noodles for dinner for 12RMB (1,50EUR or R21). You can have 3 meals and travel to work and back for a meager 30RMB (3,70EUR or R53). I don’t need to mention why I’ll miss the cheap living here, right?

5. The High Life

With the affordable comes the ridiculous. Shanghai is known to have the most millionaires living in one city. The list of elite nightclubs, restaurants and lavish things to do in Shanghai, are endless. There are constantly over the top and opulent launch parties or exclusive events where the world’s rich come to show off their wealth and status. But the great things for us mere mortals are that you can walk down the shopping street and bump into Angelina Jolie or go for a drink at a view bar and sit across from Paris Hilton.  This hasn’t happened to me, but I have, on occasion, stumbled upon a high-class event or two. Once, we popped across the street to buy some groceries and managed to find ourselves in the middle of a red carpet launch party for something or other. We live behind a shopping mall with a grocery store, and used the back entrance, as usual. I guess on that day they didn’t think to lock up in the back and that’s how we ended up spending the evening drinking French champagne, eating five-star confectionaries and bumping into local celebrities. 

Another fun thing to mention is that even though I never met any celebrities (or at least ones I recognized) I could still live the life of a celeb while spending a night out on the town. These exclusive bars and restaurants I told you about pricey but not impossible. The highest entry fee we’ve paid was 100RMB (12,50 EUR or R178) and then you have the whole evening to enjoy stunning views, mingle with the high society and most often you get a free drink or two with your entry ticket. And voila! As simple as that you’re enjoying the same sky bar that the prince of England or Julia Roberts might frequent at.

And finally…

It really is a bittersweet experience. If you compare this list with the other, it really can be a back and forth struggle on whether you’d either move here or want to stay longer. For moving here, I’d say “do it!”. Nobody has ever regretted living in China. Some might have hated it, but they never regretted it. This country opens your eyes to so many things about yourself, your life, and your goals. It teaches you discipline, patience and humbleness. And these experiences and my time in shanghai, I wouldn’t trade for the world. I’m a stronger version of myself after living/surviving here.  I guess that should go as number 6 on this list. You grow in China. It’s unavoidable. It’s so completely different from what you know that you need to pull all your resources to just stay afloat. Every day is so beautifully insane and wonderfully bizarre but then there are also days that are grey mixed with exhaustion, dysfunction, and thoughts of murder. I guess they go hand in hand: the good and the bad. Life in China is nothing short of a rollercoaster. It's rather unfortunate that I suffer from motion sickness, but the ride has definitely been worth it.