Day 2

 

Tuesday 6th of August, 2019

My first job of the day was to organise my phone for China. While waiting for China telecom to open, I went for a stroll around the surrounding area. During this time, I learnt a couple of things….

#1 – The reason why escooters and ebikes are known as the silent killers. There are so many of these bikes that you really need to keep your focus and awareness of your surroundings at all times when you are walking because these things will sneak up silently from all directions on you. Truely scary!!!

#2 – The red stop light in China really doesn’t seem to actually mean stop in China.  It is a kind of “Slow down as other traffic might be coming through so beep your horns. ” Before arriving here I actually thought about buying a bike to ride around the place, however after seeing this red light chaos…. HELL NO!!!

#3 – The one way streets are one way unless you need to get to a side street close by and can avoid the on coming traffic. This is for the bikes only.

The Phone

Once I was able to get to see the phone people, I found out that this company’s sim card was not compatible with my phone so I was told to go to another company, which I did. However the instructions to find the place was not very clear. Apparently, over the bridge and turn right actually means over the bridge turn right and then go across across another bridge and turn left. Finally after 8 km walk you will be there.

The Metro Card

Thankfully the Metro card was a lot easier to obtain. I was able to buy a Metro card from People’s Square Metro Station for RMB20 and then top up the card by adding some money onto it. The Metro is basically a swipe on and off system and is exactly like the Singapore Metro but just on a larger scale. With the size of Shanghai’s population, it is wiser to avoid peak hour (if possible) on the Metro. It is just a little too cozy in the train.

The Apartment

After arriving in Qibao, I was picked up by my Ryan the Real Estate agent and taken to be shown some apartments. I think in total I was able to see 8 apartments with only one apartment that really stood out from the rest of the group. I negotiated with the agent for RMB6500, the inclusion for a bed in the spare room and to pay 1 month bond and 2 months rent plus the 35% commission fee to the agent. The contract is being written up tonight and I will sign on Thursday. I feel happy that this part is done.

So after a long day and over 25km of walking, I travelled the hour long journey back to my hotel room only to stop to pick up a Tsingtao beer to celebrate with before . It went down pretty quickly and was well enjoyed. Tomorrow will be a more relaxing day and looking for some manchester items at the shops.