Home Shopping, Day 2

We have settled upon living in Pudong. The link is to a China-sponsored website, and as such offers a glowing review with a very small dose of reality. But if anyone feels like doing some research, its a good place to start. Also, just putting "Pudong" into google should get you some good finds... when you're outside of China.

As I explained earlier, Shanghai splits at the Huangpu River. West of the river is Puxi, the downtown area. Think of this as Manhattan. Dense buildings, busy sidewalks, congested streets, loads of shops, old and new buildings clustered on top of each other. An exciting, vibrant place to live and work. The center of culture in Shanghai.

East of the river is Pudong. Think of this as, well, like nothing I've ever seen before. Ten years ago, Pudong was rice paddies. This is no exageration - those communists / dictatorships can get things done reallly fast! Now, it is home to some of the largest buildings in the world, loads of expensive housing and shopping, and a futuristic skyline straight out of a sci-fi movie.

Like Puxi, Pudong is a very large area. Many expats choose to live in Jinqiao (pronounced jin - chow), which is about a 30 minute taxi ride into pudong. We are choosing to live in Lujiazui (pronounced loo - jha - zway), which is on the river's edge. We will be within easy walking distance of the Oriental Pearl Tower and the promenade along the river.

We've chosen Pudong and Lujiazui because the traffic is less, the sidewalks are larger and our budget buys more space. The apartments we looked at in Puxi were reliably 150 square meters. The apartment we have settled upon is 187 square meters, in a complex with over 30 other buildings. This provides room for green space, fountains and playgrounds in the midst of the compound. If you saw our slide show in April, this is the place we expected to live.

I'll send more details about what we hope will be our home once things are solidifed. At this point, we have just entered into negotiations. The list price matched our housing allowance, but our agents say we can bargain it down to be able to include other things in the price - new furniture, DSL, possibly utilities. Next week is a major holiday in China, so no negotiations will take place after today. It will probably be 2-3 weeks before the apartment is ours. More details on it then.