October 2005 Archives

Zhangjiang Metro Station (near Gao Ke Road)
See more images by timbeckenham at flickr.

Here's a few scenes from the area in which I work, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. Its located deep deep in the back of Pudong, not too far from the neighbouring district of Nanhui. For those who don't know, Zhangjiang Park has the last stop on the Metro #2 Line and hence acts as a hub for traffic going to surrounding districts and deep deep Pudong. Pretty much everything but the Pudong airport (Longyang Lu is a better choice). So anyhow, Zhangjiang Hi Tech Park is a hub of scientific, technological and electronics research and development. If you know a tech brand, its here. The PRC Government subsidises this area so to attract these big names and create jobs & opportunities for Chinese citizens. That's cool. It's way better than Peter Beattie's Smart State initiative. Since its popular, everyone is building and there's a lot going on there.

One thing I'm amazed about is the amount of geeks and nerds I see on the train out to this place. But then again, I suppose I'm another face in that crowd. :)

Technorati Tags: China, expat, Shanghai, moblog

Cotton + Colours
See more images by timbeckenham at flickr.

Everyone who comes to Shanghai eventually makes their way to the (in)famous Shanghai Fabric Market on Dong Jia Du Lu - located a quick taxi ride from the Yu Yuan (Yu Gardens) or The Bund.

I've uploaded a few images of one of our visits to a Fabric market set on my Flickr page.

Prices on most materials tend to start out around the RMB30/meter range, whether that be silk or the roughest cheesecloth available - so bring your negotiation skills. And yes, silk is cheap. Lin has already had a big order from her sister Jen for lots of material for various 'projects' of hers.

Getting items made is another story. Suits, shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, shorts and whatnot can be made - and the quality can vary. There's a lot of hearsay about the best stalls to visit to receive good tailoring, but this fashion-luddite wouldn't know a decent stitch or join to save his life. When we first arrived, I did get some shorts copied here for RMB50 a pop (excluding material at RMB20 per metre), and yes I do think I got ripped off. But the shorts are still together to this day and were desperately needed at the time.

Clothes can also be bought off the rack. Dadan found a spiffy new cord jacket when we visited - I think it is missing leather elbow patches, but see my earlier stated opinion on my fashionista credibility.

Another good thing is that the place is indoors, so on dodgy wet days (like the one we visited), everything is 'relatively' dry inside.

So pop down to Dong Jia Du Lu - have a squizz and see if anything strikes your interest.

Technorati Tags: China, expat, Shanghai

With seemingly every Shanghai blogger making new fancy updates on their websites, I didn't want to be left out. I think my new page on stuff Shanghai-related might help people out as a starting point to finding things in Shanghai. By no means is it an exhaustive compilation, but I did find I was spending more time than not looking at the RSS feeds from certain sites, as well as visiting other webpages for information about Shanghai and my expat life inside of it.

More information on how I built this page is listed there, so here it is. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: China, expat, Shanghai

I've been slack in the last week by not writing in this blog. I have been busy though. Here's an update to what I've been up to.

• Making a new page on this site. It is a collection of things Shanghai-related. Its not 100% yet, but its not far away.
• Bought a FlickrPro account - and with some help - I'll be able to move my 2005 Gallery images + my pre-2005 Gallery images over to Flickr sometime soon.
• Reign Design notched up their 0-4 record in the SIBL league - despite our big improvements over the past few weeks.
• I played squash yesterday with DaDan, Matt-man & Jean-Michel, breaking my Shanghai losing record!! (I went 1-3 in the round-robin games).
• I've been cycling around Shanghai with Lin, and observing how chilly it is starting to get, and how my normal choice of clothing is susceptible to weather.
• Went to Ikea for a desk for a new study area in our spare room. Its quite lovely.
• I've done some writing.
• I have been enjoying my research at work - finally doing something a little more enjoyable and closer to my expertise.
• I went to Zapata's on a Wednesday night (free Margaritas for the woman-folk of Shanghai). Oh my gawd! Debaucherous. I felt like I was in the middle of movie-shoot. A special movie shoot.
• In Ultimate Disc, I was 'drafted' from my team ACP into a new fifth team called Team M.A.O. I have still not been part of a winning team in that sport yet. Coincidence? No.

So that in a nutshell is what I have been up to. And well work. And more of that.

If you made it this far, you must agree that this is a completely boring update.

Technorati Tags: China, expat, Shanghai

my 28th birthday cake - thanks lauren!
See more images by timbeckenham at flickr.

Dan and Lauren gave me some really nice presents for my birthday this year - laohu (tiger in Chinese Mandarin). He's a fancy new addition to our animal menagerie inside our apartment. Before our landlord gets too upset, the collection consists of myself (no surprises there), Swimmy the Siamese Fighter Fish, and the transient cockroach that visits our bottom draws (splat!).

They also gave me an awesome birthday cake (pictured), which took Lauren almost half a day to cook in her micro-oven - a standard Shanghai expat issue appliance the size of an overgrown toaster. It was tasty and it ROCKED. Awesome. Thanks Lauren!

Technorati Tags: China, expat, Shanghai, moblog

Watch out Shanghai - I now have a bike!
See more images by timbeckenham at flickr.

Yeah, I finally took the plunge and got a bicycle. In fact, I didn't get the bicycle - Linda bought it for me for my birthday. Its cool. And I have really enjoyed cycling in Shanghai for the past 2 weeks. Shanghai is a flat city - really flat - and the cars are slow, and there is safety in numbers for the average pedal-pusher - so really I don't know why I resisted getting a bike for so long. Part of me felt it was not going to be a permanent part of my life here as numerous bicycles get stolen in Shanghai each day. But now I've gotten over the 'whatif' and have embraced dragging off scooters, LPG bikes and even taxis at the green lights around Puxi. A bike with gears in Shanghai isn't really necessary, but hey, its red and its fast. Its the sports performance machine within budget.

PS. I'm giving flickr a shot - everyone seems to be doing it, so I thought I'd go with the masses and see what it could do.

Is this what living in Shanghai does to a person? Reduces them to actually wanting socks for their birthday? I think so. Given the stocking-like quality of socks available to the Everyman here in China, I'm actually quite glad to have asked for, and received a bounty of socks for my birthday.

I also believe that as I creep closer towards the big 30, my propensity to ask for good socks, good jocks, and 'clothes that fit' will increase. Perhaps I'll also start asking for Michael Bubl?© & Delta Goodrem CDs, peace & quiet, & maybe a yearly subscription to Time Magazine.

Yes, my slide into responsible adulthood has started. Take pity on me.

Are you wondering about the image with this article? On an impressive note, I also received umpteen 'meal in a packet' sachets and coffee from home. Aah, more easy meals and beverages in the kitchen. Life is good. All these items are hard to find in Shanghai, or are otherwise super-ridiculously expensive to purchase. Gravox, oh sweet Gravox, why do you cost 5 times the price here than back at home? I won't get started on the price of Vegemite in Shanghai - that's just criminal in my opinion. Luckily for both Linda and myself, we have nice family and friends back home that send us such stuff every now and then.

Thanks to everyone who sent me a good cheer message in the last week! Shout out to Kerri & Evan for their card + postcard combo.

Technorati Tags: China, expat, Shanghai

What goes around must come back. And when it comes to international post and deliveries, I have a lot of karma to come back to me.

I approached my relocation to Shanghai with a good deal of uncertainty. Being my first opportunity to live and work overseas, I hadn't formed any idea about the processes involved in going through such a transition. I approached it by looking objectively at the various items involved. Visas, work contracts, sending of goods, and finding an apartment. The more enquiries I made about these tasks, the more it seemed relatively easy to meet the paper-work and move on with the big problems of transition - finding a place to live deodorant, Tim Tams and Vegemite in Shanghai.

As we left Australia, I felt sure that there would be no problems, and that it would all go to plan.

I was mistaken. There was more than met the eye, and I found myself in a spot of bother. Well, it wasn't really just me and Lin, it was me, Lin, and my parents.

Before relocating, I had asked my parents to arrange the sending of our goods to Shanghai. I asked them to wait until we'd found an apartment and were able to supply a delivery address. While Lin & I struggled to find an apartment in our first 2 weeks in Shanghai, my parent's waited patiently before making the arrangements to get our packed & sealed boxes sent from Brisbane to Shanghai.

After our arrival, I started to look into getting a local agent to handle the matters at this end. My original choice, Jetta Express, would only deliver to the airport - and considering the distance of Pudong Airport to Jing' An, I thought a local vendor might be able to help me out. I soon came to the realisation I had opened a can of worms, and luckily so. The importation of your personal goods to China can be difficult. There's a great deal of paperwork and regulations to meet before anything can be imported into Shanghai. And part of this is detailing the entireity of your packages to Chinese Customs so they can assess if any duty needs to be paid on the items in question. This was something that we hadn't counted on, and nor had the logistics companies I had contacted in Australia informed me about. I doubt that they had known either. As more of this came to light, I contacted a few relocation and logistic companies in Shanghai for their input - and for anything between AUD$2000-3000 they said they could sort it out for me. And yes, that was without payment of any duty on items!

That's far from the AUD$900 I had been quoted back in Australia. Given I was paying for the relocation out of my own pocket (and later being reimbursed by my employer), that was a lot of money for a recent student. The cynic in me was convinced that due to the big market in expat relocations in Shanghai, I wonder if the local agent's costs were a little inflated to take into account big company payments.

With new knowledge, and finding a different logistics company in Australia to handle the shipment (Allied Pickfords who undercut their Shanghai branch by ~AUD$1000 by using TNT as a handling agent), we were able to get our belongings sent to China. But to do this, everything in the boxes was painstakingly listed by my Dad. A legendary effort that no beer shall ever repay. Even with our preparations, there were still minor problems to handle at Shanghai Customs. Normal imports to China are subject to duty, however this duty payment is subject to a once-only exemption for Z-class visa holders who are relocating to China as part of employment = me!! There was some confusion over whether I qualified for this exemption, well, not in my mind, but in Custom's and the logistic's company's interpretation. After a little rigmarole, our packages arrived at our apartment one morning. Only 4 and a half months after I arrived!

So what has this entry got to do with Karma?

Given the lengths my parents went to, I owed a great karmic debt. I thought at one stage it would come back to bite me, and indeed it did. I got an email from another Aussie who was looking to relocate to Shanghai and asked me advice regarding what I experienced in my relocation. I thought this was my karmic debt - and jumped into the depths and reaches of getting your boxes from Point A to Point B. Karma debt cancelled? Nope. Next I had to deal with RobbieM's relocation back to Brisneyland. He left Shanghai with instructions that DHL would come by and collect his belongings. They'd come to our door, pick up the goods, and that would be it. So simple. No, not in reality. Rob & I soon realised that despite it being only 1 small box, but I had to deal with uncooperative agents that don't answer your questions, that don't return your phone call, that didn't give me the correct information regarding price and pickup options, and well, you get the drift.

Lin & I ended up going to the dispatch office for DHL on Changping Lu (close by to our apartment handily enough). After finally reaching someone who was helpful, they played out the situation and told me how to go through with the dispatch of the goods. It involved taking the package to a service centre, paying cash, paying any duty, and then crossing your fingers. With this knowledge, and the helpful service at the dispatch office, RMB1800, and a number of form's filled in, Rob's box was on its way back to Australia.

Even with this, I'm sure now my karmic debt hasn't been repayed. Hence, I wrote this tome in the off-chance someone might find it useful in the future.

Technorati Tags: Australia, China, expat, puppy, relocation, Shanghai

We did it. We hired someone to do our housework. We now have an ayi.

At times I feel like a superior being by employing the workers of Shanghai. This attitude of mine sits uneasily on me. Its against my nature, but I see it this way.

Lin had pushed me to get an ayi for the last 4 months. And I was reticent in looking into this. There's a lot of issues with allowing a stranger into your house. Trust & security take centre stage in my mind. But the real reason I was so reticent to do this was due to my guilt at hiring someone to do your housework. Australians do have an aversion to hiring help - unless its a plumber or an electrician you pay exorbitant sums to inform you it will take an additional exorbitant sum to fix your household's problem. It goes against the egalitarian ethos of the Australia I know knew. Times are a changing, and Australian's are becoming more and more effluent. But a maid is a far off item to check-off when considering the new 4WD, the second 4WD, or the investment home that's been negative-geared.

Lin pushed me to do this to save our time. As we're both working full-time jobs and studying on the side, she argued that anything that lightens our load a little is good for our state of mind and the cleanliness of our home. And as usual, she was right.

I now have clean clothes, a dust-free house, windows you can actually see out of (and I know my Mum would be sighing relief at that revelation), and about 4 hours free on Saturday morning which was once taken up with doing these chores and sitting around waiting for the washing machine had ended its runs.

Lu Ayi appeared in our lives care of Matt-Man and Kate. This is a well-trodden path for finding an ayi. Asking your expat mates if they know if their Ayi would like a second, third, or fourth job usually strikes gold. We were introduced to Lu Ayi, and through Kate we spoke generally about things (as she speaks Shanghaihua). And pretty much that was it. We had someone we trusted, care of our friends, and a one-day a week helper in our home.

Something that seemed impossibly difficult to arrange worked out smoothly.

Image Taken From Heromachine.Com

Technorati Tags: China, expat, Shanghai

Lin's been super-excited recently. Why? Linda's sister Mel is coming to Shanghai for the October National Week Holiday.

Apart from being Lin's truly first visitor, she's also getting to spend time with her family. It has been over six months since we first arrived (yeah I know!) and we've only had a handful of friends visit from back home. Not that this is an automatic invite to every individual I've ever met from Australia, but still, come on people - an 11 hour flight from Sydney is a short flight by Australian standards.

One thing that has struck both of us is what to do with Mel. Entertainment-wise, Shanghai is going off right now. There's a massive tourism festival coinciding with the October Holidays, the Shanghai round of the Formula 1 racing, the upcoming Shanghai Tennis Open, fireworks, a carnival with theme park rides, tourism lighting of Shanghai's buildings and attractions, etc etc. There's a heap happening.

Culinary-wise, I thought we may have struggled with Mel and any other vegetarian visitor that may pop by. Bl$^#dy vegetarians! Shanghai (and I presume China) is the anti-vegetarian state. Essentially, 'why wouldn't you eat meat?' seems to be the general reaction that most local's I've met project when the topic of vegetarianism/veganism comes up. Even vegetable dishes ordered in a restaurant come with a smattering of pork or fish just to make it 'tasty'. But I knew there were vegetarians living in Shanghai, and not all are expatriates. One of my colleagues from work is a local, a Buddhist and strict vegetarian, so I've seen that yes, you can eat vego here in Shanghai. But I hadn't taken so much notice of the vegetarian options available to the every-man. We had eaten at one true vegan restaurant, Vegetarian Lifestyle, before and we found this to be pretty good. But eating at the same place night after night? A little grating. So from my perspective, I thought that we'd be spending a bit of time cooking at home while Mel was here. And lets face it, that's not really fun either.

But a little delving into a local expat web community, and a couple of Google searches later, I came up with this list. I've double posted this on the ShanghaiExpat community website so the list may grow and grow.

Image Taken From Cyberkaos

More info...
Guides To Vegetarian & Vegan Eating In Shanghai
Happy Cow Vegetarian Eating Website - Shanghai Listing
VegDining Listing For Shanghai

Vegetarian Lifestyle (Zao Zi Shu) Ê£óÂ?êÊ®? - also known as The Jujube Tree Vegetarian Restaurant
Huaihai Lu Branch
77 Song Shan Rd (Huai Hai Middle Rd. and Song Shan Rd) near Huang Pi (S.) Rd. subway station.
T: 63848000

Gubei Branch
848 Huang Jin Cheng Rd
T: 62751798

Jing' An Branch
258 Feng Xian Lu (near Jiangning Lu)
T: 62157566

The Tiffin Vegetarian
3rd floor, 111 Huai hai Rd
T: 63910639

Zentral
567 Huangpi Nan Lu
T: 6374-5815

Vegeatery
3/F, Central Plaza, 381 Huaihai Zhong Road near Madang Lu
Ê?Æʵ?‰??Ë?Ø381Âè?
T: 63915589

Gon Den Ling
346 Nanjing Xi Lu (I've also seen 445 Nanjing Xi Lu too)
T: 6327 0218

Element Fresh
1376 Nanijng West Road, Shanghai Centre
T: 6279 8682

Jade Buddha Temple Vegetarian
999 Jiangning Lu
T: 6266-3668

Juelin Vegetarian
43 Jinlin'dong Lu
T: 6326-0115

Tian Ran Natural Health Vegetarian
456 Caoxi Bei Lu Êõ?Ê?™ÂåóË?Ø456Âè?
T: 5425-5490

L'abre de Provence
Metro, 1111 Zhaojiabang Lu
T: 6426-7698

New Age Veggie
5F 20A/B, Super Brand Mall (Zheng Da Square)
NO. 168, Lu Jiazui Xi Lu
T: 50471880

Godly Vegetarian Restaurant
445 Nan Jing (W.) Rd. (Near People's Square subway station).
T: 63270218

Tianran Jiankang Vegetarian Resturant
390 Shaanxi Nan Lu (at Fuxing Zhong Lu)
T: 6437 0602

Technorati Tags: China, dining, expat, food, Shanghai, vegetarian