Housing in Shanghai

At first glance, you would think that housing in Shanghai should be the easy part of the transition.  Well, in checking into the options, I thought it would be nice to live in downtown Shanghai near the night life, social activities and great restaurants.  As most assumptions go, this one was not to come to fruition.  Initial investigations showed that a 1 to 2 bedroom apartment in downtown would cost around $1,000,000 US dollars; (Yes US DOLLARS!!).  And here I thought this was a developing country!  I guess my comparison to New York City was more appropriate than I thought.

The nice thing about the city is that it is really all new and has a lot of parks and a great metro system.  So we are planning to locate on the outskirts of the city near the metro line so that we can access the city when we want to.  Also I do not want to be too far from the office so that I don't have to spend all my free time commuting.  Fortunately my friend in Shanghai has lined up an English speaking real estate agent to show us around next Saturday and Sunday.  She has already been in contact with us and assures us that we will find a nice place near the city..  This will be a great help  in adjusting to Shanghai.