Greetings From Shanghai

We have just entered the second month of our new life in Shanghai. Daddy started work almost immediately (on 2/1) after we touched down on 1/1. While daddy was at work, mummy and I “hibernated” in a hotel for almost a month! Oh yes, for the first month, we stayed in a nice and luxurious hotel (provided by daddy’s company) while house-hunting and school-hunting. Our house and school search ended pretty early in the second week of our arrival so we basically relaxed and enjoyed our hotel stay to the max!

We finally moved in to our “new home” on 26^th January. It is a very small but cosy 2-room apartment conveniently located right across a big shopping mall (with familiar tenants like Parkson, Carrefour, H&M, Uniqlo, McDonald’s, KFC etc.) and a lovely neighbourhood park. The Metro subway station is just 10 minutes’ walk away.

So far, we are adjusting well to the new environment and lifestyle here. The weather has been good and kind to us – it’s cold but not too extreme. We love our new home and the neighbourhood, the food here is not too bad and shopping (esp fresh fruits and veggies) is cheap!

We visited 6 international schools during our “Great School Hunt”. International schools here are very, very costly with tuition fees averaging between 70,000yuan to 120,000yuan per year (RM35k-RM60k). We picked the one that is nearest to our home, which also turns out to be the most expensive one! *daddy sweats* I will start school after CNY.

In the meantime, I have been “doing nothing” at home. Besides doing Maths practice, bina ayat for BM and watching tv at home, mummy and I walk to the shopping mall (only 5 minutes’ walk away) almost everyday hehe. Everytime mummy walks into Carrefour, I will sulk and complain I’m bored because she takes forever to buy groceries. There’s just too many new stuff to see and browse!

Here are some random photos to do the rest of the talking…

Relaxing at home

The nice park just across our home

School-hunting in one of the schools with the nicest and most impressive compound 

A weekend stroll in the famous Nanjing Road... can you spot me and daddy?

Lepak-ing at The Bund

The famoud scene at The Bund

Night scene at Nanjing Road

Resting our tired feet in a tram

Playing with giant Lego bricks at a Lego roadshow in the mall... they are currently running a contest to win VIP entrance passes to Legoland Malaysia ;)

Smaland in Ikea... yes, they have Smaland here too *big grin*

My favourite local food... tang bao (soup dumpling aka siu loong bao). Eating out can either be very expensive or very cheap depending on what and where we eat. For example this meal here for a family of 3 cost only 29yuan (RM14.50)... the noodles come in big portions and can be shared. Cheap, eh?