10 Ways Shanghai Does it Better Than London

I lived in London for 4 years before moving to Shanghai, so when I was asked to write this article I rolled my eyes big time. But then I started to think about it… I live in Shanghai… I love Shanghai… I don’t want to go back to London any time soon. In fact every time I am reapplying for my visa I fight really hard to stay here. So there must be some things that Shanghai is doing better than London…

It’s Cheaper

This is pretty much the crux of the whole thing. London is SO expensive. There are no words to sum it up. Imagine the streets are paved with gold and you personally have to pay for every slab. A single journey on the tube in London costs RMB25 minimum. It’s a nightmare.

Taxis

Again on the cheaper front, in London black cabs are great. GREAT. They have to do something call ‘The Knowledge’ which sounds pretty Harry Potter but it is a legit thing. It takes them four years to study for it and it involves memorizing the names of 25,000 streets, landmarks and businesses. It has been called one of the most difficult tests in the world. Whilst this is pretty amazing, it does mean that you really pay for you taxi journey. They deserve it, but it means getting a cab can feel like taking out a mortgage to buy a 3 bedroom flat with a garage. At least in Shanghai you can hop in a cab without even thinking about it.

Houses Have Living Rooms

Due to the very very high cost of housing pretty much everyone in London lives in a shared house. A room in a shared house in central London will set you back around RMB8500 a month. So to get the most out of their properties landlords convert living rooms into bedrooms. This mean you have zero communal space apart from the kitchen which is usually tiny, and the bathroom which is not good for hanging out in.

Safer

London is a pretty safe city as capital cities go. However there are certainly areas you don’t want to be wandering around in late at night. Basically anywhere south of the river can be a bit of a no-go. (I lived south of the river for 4 years and was fine, but it's a bit sketchy.) In London you would never walk home from a club late at night on your own, whereas here you’re pretty safe.

Chinese Food

When I move back to London (one day in the distant future) I am really going to miss baozi, Sichuan food and xiao long bao. ‘Chinese food’ in the UK is a sweet sticky mess that has very very little in common with anything that has ever been consumed in the middle kingdom.

Fake Stuff

FAKE EVVVVVERYTHING. Why would you spend HUNDREDS of pounds on a hand bag when you could spend a couple hundred RMB. (1 pound = RMB10 roughly) Okay of course bootleggin' is not ideal, it's stealing intellectual property, its counterfeiting, its rips off designers etc… But still…

No Brexit Concerns

Gah. Brexit. The (in my opinion) worst thing that has happened since Thatcher the Milk Snatcher was in power and stole all the milk from the children (if you don't know what I'm talking about look it up.) In fact Brexit is really a lot worst. At least living in Shanghai you can pretend that isn’t happening… You can just head in the sand like a baby ostrich. 

More Opportunities

There are lots opportunities in Shanghai for those who are willing to reach out and take them. China has be likened to the ‘wild west’, come and grab your part and find a way to make it work. You need a lot less capital to open a business here which makes it much more feasible that it is in the UK. If you want to start a bar in London you need to be rich. Very rich. Or have very very very rich investors. 

Better Sense of Community 

One of the best things about being an expat in Shanghai is the expat community here. We all have two things in common, first thing, we are all people who live in Shanghai. Second thing we are all the sort of people that pack up our lives and do something crazy like move to China. This is something that binds us all together and provides the space for strong, family-like, friendships to blossom.

That Mystical Shanghai Something

Sure we all grumble and have days where we feel like China has slapped us in the face with a giant wet saggy ball sack. BUT that aside there is... something about living here. Maybe it's the way that pollution hangs over the city like an ethereal fog… Maybe it’s the way the sunshine twinkles through the leaves in the French concession on a Tuesday. Maybe it's battering through a thousand people on a Saturday morning at the Avocado Lady, or trying to dry out your feet in the loos with all of your other colleagues after a big rain. No matter what it is Shanghai keeps us captivated and I’m certainly not going anywhere anytime soon. 

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