Exploring a bit

Apartment

As promised, here are some photos of the apartment! Apparently we have one of the best apartments. Our housemate is Belgian too, from Brussels, and a really nice guy. Luckily he speaks good Dutch, haha! He also knows lots of other people here in Shanghai. We invited a few of them over and they were all jealous of our big, nice apartment! Unfortunately they were all Walloons, so we had to dig out our French after all!

Information and exploring

Yesterday we also went to Hutong School to get some more information. Apparently there's a delay with the internship visas. What it comes down to is that I'm free this week and next week. Next week I do start an intensive Chinese course from 8:30 to 12:30, but that still leaves me free for almost the whole day.

Yesterday, when we were done at Hutong School, we also went exploring. Below are a few photos I took. Of course we saw a lot more, but I'm not going to walk around the whole time seeing Shanghai only through my camera!

The parks were pretty busy, but not the way you'd expect. There were lots of little tables and some kind of fitness equipment, almost all of it in use by older people. At the tables they were all playing card and board games. There were Chinese grannies who could almost put their leg behind their neck, grandpas doing pull-ups, … But there were also younger people running in groups through the park. Either way, the park was used to the full. That wouldn't be the case at all back home.

My photos are almost all of parks, but you really see everything here. From skyscrapers to grand European buildings to small Chinese houses, all mixed together. But it's a very safe city. Hutong told us so too: about the worst that happens here is pickpocketing, and even that hardly happens. There aren't really neighbourhoods you need to avoid in Shanghai either, but of course that doesn't mean you can walk down every alley without paying attention.

The food is also very cheap. For full meals I've paid between 2 and 7 euros, in (little) restaurants. Grocery shopping isn't expensive at all either, unless you want chocolate or milk. Apparently the Chinese hardly eat those, so it all has to be imported.

In other words, it's really nice here in Shanghai!