Ten Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Our Life In Shanghai

From Tiffany's perspective:

10. Online bill pay is not an option…….and for some reason unknown to us, we have to pay all of our bills in cash at local convenience stores.

9. People in China love to sing and aren’t afraid to do so in any public situation. You’ll often find people walking down the street singing their heart out or taxi drivers burst into solos (these people are rarely using walkmans or singing along with the radio). In ill-fated attempts to get me to join the trend, cab drivers often scan the radio channels to find American songs to play really loud for me when I’m riding alone in their cabs. They’re particularly fond of Air Supply and boy bands…….I haven’t succumbed to the music yet, but may at some point just to see how they react.

8 When you have your clothes tailor-made, there are no tags. It’s great, because you can always pretend you’re a size small!

7. China only lets 10-15 foreign films enter the country each year, but the DVD black market is a big business. We can usually buy a high quality version just about any US movie as soon as it hits American theaters for about $1/copy. We’ve learned the good shops to go to, and how to ask for the real copies, but even we get tripped up every once in a while and end up with the handy cam version (a la Seinfeld) with crowd noise and all.

6. Staring is considered a national pastime and not considered in the least bit rude. If you look different or do something out of the ordinary, be prepared for lots of rubberneckers.

5. Our local grocery store resembles more of a pet store than the local Safeway. While they rarely have skim milk or wheat bread, they, without fail, always have low, water-filled bins (with open tops) filled with living frogs, eels and crabs. It always surprises me that there are really no measures taken to ensure these creatures stay confined. I've learned it pays to tread lightly down the aisles.

4. Cash is king in Shanghai. Credit cards are not accepted anywhere (except for western hotels) so we’ve taken to carrying huge wads of cash around in case we need to pay our bills or stop by the grocery store.

3. Pedestrians never have the right of way, even on the sidewalk.

2. One of the favorite street foods here is called Chou Doufu (literally translated to mean stinky tofu). The delicacy is served in squares on a stick and has a nauseating smell that is somewhat like sweet smelling, gamey meat gone bad. One of our friends was shocked, yet a bit relieved, to find out the smell was due to the Shanghainese delicacy and not just a really bad form of air pollution.

1. I know we’ve brought it up before, but it still blows my mind. Spitting in the street is considered a way to stay healthy during cold and flu season, as it clears your lungs of all the germs.