Awesome SH trip bec/ of ShanghaiExpat, Yu888, and Julie1984

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potentiated

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Joined: Nov 22, 2007
Posts: 466

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Posted: Dec 14, 2007 - 08:30 PM
Post subject: Awesome SH trip bec/ of ShanghaiExpat, Yu888, and Julie1984

Thanks to ShanghaiExpat, my visit to Shanghai from Nov 29 to Dec 13 was the best trip I've ever taken. ShanghaiExpat is easily the most informative, active, and meaningful forum for expatriots in China on the internet.

Moderator Yu888 and others gave me answers to questions BEFORE my trip. When I arrived, I went to the Coffee Bean get-together at Zhongshan Park inside the Cloud Nine Mall the very next day, and there was Yu888 (and many others) giving me important advice that made my stay very smooth over the next 2 weeks (e.g., what banks, money exchange, interesting places, what to watch out for, etc.). After coffee and tea, a group of 8 (led by Yu888) ate lunch at a restaurant inside the mall, which prepared me for what to expect in Shanghai in terms of food, service, and price.

After that first lunch, my language exchange partner, Julie1984, whom I met on ShanghaiExpat in the Learning Languages forum, met up with me at the Cloud Nine Mall. Little did I know at the time that she would be the key to my stay in Shanghai. Julie is a graduate student at East China Normal University and wants to improve her English so she can go abroad in Europe to do her Ph.D. She is extremely warm and generous and took me to many places like the Old City, Bund, French Concession, Xin Tian Di, her university (which was my favorite place, if you can believe that), Muse and Baby Face (I like Muse better). She taught me how to use the Metro, bus, and taxi. Julie is not motivated by money but rather by a genuine sense of empathy and compassion and a desire to improve her English WHILE making new friends. She spent an enormous amount of her precious time for me. I believe she and I will be life friends, and I would like to recommend her to others on this forum.

Because of my super positive experience in Shanghai, I now intend to return next year with the purpose of setting up a test prep school focusing on SAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, and TOEFL. My plan is to live semi-permanently in Shanghai. My conclusion is that this unexpected chain of positive events started with this forum.

SnappySammy

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Joined: Nov 01, 2007
Posts: 11031

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Posted: Mar 31, 2008 - 11:37 PM

Yes This is a wonderful forum.

What were some of your Shanghai Adventures that makes you want to live in Shanghai

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yu888
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Joined: Jan 25, 2003
Posts: 18198
Location: ZhongShanParkArea SH

Posted: Apr 30, 2008 - 12:48 PM

wow, i just finally saw this post today. Smile

you are absolutely welcome! Its why amny of us do what we do in this community. Glad we can help!

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Thoughts & updates about Shanghai On my Blog for more details:Random Thoughts about Living in Shanghai...and more

potentiated

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Joined: Nov 22, 2007
Posts: 466

Status: Offline

Posted: Sep 17, 2008 - 08:32 PM

Hi Ed and Sammy and others,

Sorry, I haven't been back here in several months.

The reason I wanted to possibly move to SH semi-permanently was because (1) I'm chinese american, (2) burgeoning economy, including in my industry, and (3) Shanghai is so big and has so much to offer that it would be difficult to get bored within a few months.

But when I was in SH, although I had the best trip of my life, I wasn't able to connect with the people that I think I needed to in order to do a startup in the test prep industry. It would be very difficult, so I'm not sure I am in position to make it happen in SH.

Still, I want to take another vacation trip back to SH. I miss the Hainan couple who have 4 kids and make noodles for 4 rmb from a cart til 3 AM every night across the street from my hotel (no, I did not get a stomachache!). I miss my friends Ted and Hema who just had a baby daughter (Hema went back to Germany to have her daughter). And of course, I miss hanging out with Ed and the rest from SH Expat at the Coffee Bean in Cloud Nine Mall (Malone's on Wed wasn't bad either). I miss eating all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ and shabu shabu (hot pot) for 49 rmb! I miss getting to the metro too late from Cloud Nine Mall and deciding to walk 4.5 miles down Zhongshan Bei Lu and finally seeing those mythical barber shop slash massage parlors described in tourist guides at 1 AM and taking a picture and having 3 girls in pink robes chasing me down the street demanding me to erase the pics.

Also, the challenge of finding ONE, just one chinese woman, who doesn't see a foreigner as a source of money and way out is something I find motivating. LOL. If I go back to SH (I might like to see Thailand first), I would definitely volunteer at least 1 day of my time for a SH Expat event.