Shanghai has a little bit of everything, depending on where you spend your time. Culturally, you can retreat to the comforts of home, or you can venture out and experience the local life. High end places in the city like West Nanjing Road, Xintiandi, and Hengshan Road are places filled with people in high fashion going to high end stores like Versace, Tiffany’s, Chanel, and a huge Sony gallery. Other parts of the city show much more of a mixture of class and dress, but with a tendency towards cosmopolitan hipness not found in other parts of China.
Shanghai has a culture of activeness, a busy city where aside from the daily commute to and from work, people make the time to run to the fresh market for daily groceries, walk around the city and maybe do a little shopping, and even take part in early morning exercises in parks and other pedestrian areas. There are also dance and exercise groups in the evenings, most notably in People’s Square, in front of YuYuan Garden, and also at Zhongshan Park.
There is a professional sports scene in the city, and Shanghai is renowned for its Chinese Basketball Association team, the Shanghai Sharks. The team made international news when the player Yao Ming was picked up for the NBA’s Rockets. Shanghai has hosted international tennis tournaments, and also has a professional soccer team.
People in Shanghai value good food, and have a taste for the exotic, so many foods can be found like Brazilian barbeques, Hong Kong specialties, Japanese cuisine, and even specialties from Turkey. This is in addition to restaurants with all Chinese cuisines. Try to venture beyond the typical outlets for foreigners, and be sure to ask about the cuisine. Of particular note are Hot Pot restaurants, where the broth is cooked at your table and you add the foods you’d like to eat to the broth. Other Shanghai specialties include pork dumplings filled with meat and a soup broth called Xiao Long Bao.
Performing arts can be found all over the city, especially at the Shanghai Center, located in the Ritz Carlton complex, and the Grand Theater, which is found in People’s Square. Performances range from plays, operas, touring international musicals, to concerts from international superstars. Chinese opera and acrobatic shows are also featured in the city, and cinema complexes are found all over the city.
Shanghai strongly values education and competition, and on weekends it is common to see contests on tv and around shopping centers in the city. Competition can range from English speaking contests to music competitions or modeling competitions. The people in Shanghai are in a race to get ahead, to make more money and give their children a better education.
It’s important to keep in mind that there is not as much customer service sense in China, so be patient. This is changing, and the level of service that you see in Starbucks and other foreign companies is showing up in local establishments.
In this financially minded city, a final value to reflect on is the bargain. People value bargains, and also value the fine art of bartering. It is important to get a sense of where you can bargain. While some places like department stores do not allow bargaining, street stalls, small boutiques, and large stores that rent out counters often do allow bargaining. It doesn’t hurt to try, and it is a safe bet that if the person is trying to talk you into looking at their wares that you can bargain with them.
