First Days in Shanghai

I have been in China for 2 1/2 days now, and am getting settled in to my new environment. The apartment is very nice and large, in fact bigger than any of the other apartments we've had before. It is on the first floor of a multi-story apartment building (thus no stairs to climb) and is in a Chinese-style gated community. Although the complex is right off a main street, there is a gate and security hut (with 24-hour guards) which separates it from the city. Inside the complex are 4 multi-story apartment buildings (perhaps 20 stories high each?) and landscaped grounds, including a small park with exercise equipment. Thus, we have views of trees and shrubbery from all the windows: also, it is very quiet (especially considering the general noise of the city!). Maintainence and garbage service are included, so unlike Taiwan we don't need to meet the musical garbage truck at night. There is no obvious place to recycle: however, according to B, late at night human scavengers turn up at public garbage facilities wearing thigh-high boots and wade through the liquid waste looking for cans and plastics, so I suppose at least this reduces waste.

The apartment itself has hardwood floors, a full kitchen (including an oven! which we did not have in Taiwan), 3 bedrooms, and a laundry room. We don't have a dryer, as they are not really used here: instead, there is a ingenious clothes-hanging apparatus operated by pulley. Unfortunately the washing machine is Chinese-made and thus eats clothes on all settings except woolens. The neighborhood is also nice: it is right next to one of China's most famous universities (Fudan University) and thus there are (at least for China) many foreigners here, although you wouldn't really know it walking down the street, as the Chinese population so far outnumbers everyone else. There are tons of restaurants, several grocery stores, Walmart, parks, and two Starbucks within walking distance. I bought a bicycle yesterday (it was about $44), so now I will be more mobile if I want to venture further.

The first full day that I was here I went to the local police station and registered with them: they have a full wall of files on each inhabitant in this district, so that the entire population is supposedly accounted for at all times (of course, this is theoretical due to the large number of illegal immigrants from other parts of China in Shanghai). You are required to do this within 24 hours of arrival, and they do come to the house to ascertain this (B already had a visit to check on him: our next-door neighbor works for the police, so this is especially important). However, they did not give me any trouble.