9 ways living in Shanghai has changed you

Photograph: Yiran Ding via Unsplash

‘Shanghai’s changed you’, your friends say. While at first you struggle to believe them, the signs are obvious. Shanghai is one of those cities that gets under your skin and really changes you. Sure, you’re probably not gonna be here forever, but that doesn’t stop the city having a lasting effect on you. Here are some of the ways that Shanghai might have changed you.

You don’t cook anymore

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Unless you moved to Shanghai to become a chef, we can almost guarantee this applies to you. Sure, you may make the odd meal here and there, but with Shanghai’s easily accessible waimai options plus hundreds of restaurants serving up cuisines from all over the globe – not to mention the city’s street food – it almost doesn’t make sense for you to prepare your own meals. Let’s be honest, your apartment doesn’t even have an oven, does it?

You aren’t bothered about owning things

Photograph: courtesy Mobike

Why buy a bike when you can find one on the street? Why own a car when you can use an app on your phone to get someone to take you wherever you want? Sure, not all of the bright ideas to come out of China’s sharing economy trend worked out super well – shout out to Putuo’s sharing fridge – but the influx of use-as-you-please commodities in Shanghai has probably had a big influence on your attitude towards making big purchases. 

Silence makes you uncomfortable

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The scientific term for this is habituation – the decline in emotional/physiological responses to a prolonged or repeated stimulus. What this means in Shanghai terms: you can still sleep unaffected by the sound of construction work in your apartment block, barking dogs on the street outside your bedroom window, or the old married couple across the hall having an unnecessarily loud conversation. You can’t even remember what quiet sounds like anymore…

You have incredible spatial awareness

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When you first got here, Shanghai’s zooming scooters, bikes and taxis absolutely terrified you. Nowadays, you could cross the road with your eyes closed (please don’t actually try that). You casually evade a speeding ayi like it’s second nature to you, pulling off dodges and weaves as if you were in The Matrix. However, make sure you don’t cross the road when the light is on red, you don’t want traffic police to hit you with a jaywalking fine, now do you? 

You can operate on very little sleep

Photograph: Alina Grubnyak via Unsplash

Shanghai is very much a 24-hour city and judging by the bags under your eyes, it’s clear that you already know that. You’re burning the candle at both ends, but feel like you need to in case you miss out on something. The Shanghai FOMO is real. You’re totally fine with it, though. A solid five hours is all you need. Plus, the city's bevy of coffee options keeps you buzzed enough to make it through the day.

You're a brunch monster

Photograph: Cat Nelson

Brunch is love. Brunch is life. You have ‘FREE FLOW’ tattooed on your knuckles. Every weekend without fail you assemble your troops for a mass appreciation of avocado toast. The staff at The Cannery know you on a first name basis. You have your ‘usual table’ at Tomatito. You’re a basic brunch bitch and you love it.

You’re incredibly reliant on your phone

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You’d rather lose a limb than your phone. You’d rather run out of oxygen than battery. You’d rather leave your baby at home than your… Okay, you see where we’re going with this. Shanghai is a very phone-dependent city. From mobile pay to ride-hailing, you almost need your phone for everything it seems. We tried living without a smartphone and it was very difficult. It’s fair to say that being without a phone in Shanghai can make life extremely frustrating.

You’re a coffee and cocktail snob

Photograph: Yang Xiaozhe

There was a time when you were happy with a beer at the bar and any old coffee from Starbucks, but then Shanghai sunk its teeth into you. These days you need your coffees a little fancier – sorry, Par Café – and your cocktails need to have bitters in them; whatever those are… You’re now a self-proclaimed gin connoisseur and frequent bars that made it onto Asia’s 50 Best list. You hate what you’ve become but love what you’re drinking.

You’re totally fine with telling people there are parts of town you don’t want to go to 

Photograph: Steve Long via Unsplash

Sure, Pudong is nice, but that still doesn’t mean you wanna travel over the river. You’ve never set foot in Minhang and you thought Songjiang was a myth until you discovered you have a coworker who lives over there. You’re Puxi through and through and you don’t care what people think. 

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