House Hunting & Hairy Crab Thanksgiving

While America celebrated Thanksgiving, we spent our first Thanksgiving as a married couple exploring Shanghai’s neighborhoods as part of our official “look see” preview trip. We met Juliana from the relocation company, who took us by surprise with her ability to flawlessly communicate in English, German, and Chinese.
The day started with apartments in the French Concession. This was the neighborhood everyone kept telling us we should live in as a young couple without kids. First stop: a brand new high-rise apartment with heated floors, Olympic size (mosaic) pool, daily breakfast, and beautiful views. While it sounds like a hotel, it certainly didn’t feel like it. The only issue was the location – a bit far from the main nightlife. We’ve decided we need to be in the middle of activity to motivate us to explore.
The other spectrum was an apartment in XinTianDi – a restored shopping district. GREAT location, tiny apartment with overly modern décor (read: red plastic with fake white fur!). Our favorite of the day was a newly restored 1930s French art deco building. It was a great location, the right size (3BR/2.5BA – big enough for guests!), good view, and nice furniture. Unlike Lila’s expats in Tokyo & Hong Kong, every Shanghai apartment comes furnished. This makes it difficult to find a place – you have to like the location, the apartment, and your Chinese landlord’s “decorating” skills.
While the 1930s French apartment was our favorite, we saw a handful of other locations where we could imagine living. We closed the day with a drive by tour of HongQiao neighborhood where many young families live in compounds. For example, our relo lady lives in a neighborhood of Canadian houses with all buildings and furnishings imported from Canada. The compounds vary in style (Japanese, American, etc.), but all have houses on small plots in a gated community which allows kids to have playmates and play in the compound streets.
After our “compound overview,” we stopped by Carrefour – a French-owned mega store that’s reminiscent of ‘Wal-Mart meets Costco.’ It appears we can find many US things here – with the exception of good California wine (hint if you ever come visit us!). We returned to the hotel for happy hour, where Lila discovered the secret to purifying ones throat after a day of pollution: a gargle of Johnny Walker sanitizes the body. While enjoying this discovery, we weighed our Thanksgiving dinner options carefully: turkey at Hooters, or Chinese Hairy Crab – both in season for a very limited time.
We opted for hair crab at a Chinese banquet restaurant. We entered the non-English speaking restaurant and were given a number while being escorted upstairs. After sitting for 5 minutes, we found our way to the room of fish tanks and raw vegetable stalls. With a bit of pointing, we were able to get our dinner ordered. However, we have to learn how to order preparation methodology outside of “stir fry with garlic.” We agree with local consensus: hair crab tastes great, but is far too much work to enjoy. Like every other evening, we closed the night with a very long walk to further explore our “home to be.”
ps. happy birthday Nabeel!