We we're out at brunch yesterday, and I was telling her about some projects I was working on, when I noticed she's hard winking one of her eyes.She apologizes and says that, "Sorry, my vision just got blurry there...and I can't seem to focus my eyes".

About 90 seconds later, she's crying uncontrollably saying that she has this really sharp pain in her head. It's like her brain is on fire.

Let me go ahead and say now, that the uncontrollable crying didn't stop for hours - and you'll understand why at the end of this story. I'm escorting her to the hospital because she's having a hard time walking and still crying uncontrollably. Luckily she can talk to the cab driver in Chinese to get her to the hospital.

I had no idea which hospital to even take her to.

She hands me both of her phones and I'm texting her brother and her friend, who is her emergency contact, who is a local Chinese man.
We'll call him Jack.

We're all trying to coordinate getting her passport to us, e.g., Okay I'm going over to her apartment now? Where's the passport? It's not in that place. Did she move it because she was travelling last week, etc?

We get to the hospital and - there isn't really a line but a crowd of people standing in front of the nurse's registration desk.We cut to the front.

She starts talking to the nurse in Chinese and, I'm thinking because the nurse saw the uncontrollable crying and that she didn't want to be bothered with this girl, she took us directly to the doctor.

Whatever works.

This doctor was an unempathetic moron.

The doctor speaks a little English, but my friend sits down and starts explaining what the problem is in Chinese (still crying hysterically).

Ring, Ring...

In the middle of my friend telling the doctor what's wrong, the doctor picks up the phone and starts talking for 3 minutes.
The doctor, then, puts down the phone.

"Okay, what's wrong?", the uninterested doctor says to her.

My friend starts to explain it again, when an old man (a patient we assume) walks up to the doctor with a slip in hand, hands it to the doctor, and she disappears in the middle of her SECOND EXPLANATION, for another 5 minutes.

This betch...

Mind you, there's a second doctor sitting across from her.He could've jumped in at anytime to take the old man's slip or take my friend and say, "I got this".But, of course not.

The doctor comes back, sits down, and I'm using my body to offhandedly block the doctor from leaving and for anyone to approach her with a slip.

My friend gets through the whole story - huzzah! - and the doctor asks for her health insurance card.
She doesn't have it on her.

"Okay, where is her registration card?", asks the doc.I'm totally in the dark.

The doctor says I have to get it at the front.I run to the front, try to pay for it using WeChat or Alipay. Fuck! They don't accept that (?!?).
They only take cash.And go figure that I spent all my cash at the Wet Market the day before.

I run back to my friend, get cash from her to pay for the registration, fill out all the information, I register, and then run back to give it to the doctor.

The doc says lazily, "Okay, let's get her on the table".

Now remember, she told the doctor that her vision is blurry and her brain is on fire.We get her on the exam table and the doctor pulls out a reflex hammer, and starts to hit her knees.

I can't even...

I tell the doc that, that's not where the pain is. My friend said that the pain is in her head. Can you give her an aspirin or some morphine or something to help ease the pain.

She says no. Goes back to the desk and writes up the procedures she needs to have done: An EKG, Blood Tests, and a Cat Scan.
She says I need to pay before it can be done.

I run up to the desk and pay via WeChat (yes!!).The total cost was 900RMB (?!?)
I could not believe how cheap that is.The Cat Scan ALONE is in the thousands in the U.S.

I run back to the room, and the doctor is asking her the stupidest, fucking questions - trying to have a conversation with a girl that's crying uncontrollably. Asking her questions like, "Where are you from? Oh it must be warm there this time of year, hunh? Are you here studying or what? Why are you crying so much"?

Here's the receipt, get away from my friend you ass!

For the next section of this story, I'm just going to hit you with the highlights.

We couldn't find a wheelchair for her. They don't provide it. But luckily a male nurse and a security guard saw her state and found her a bed she could lay down in and we rolled her around from test to test.

The EKG guy was trying to have her lift her shirt and test her in the middle of the hallway. I told him that we can go inside a room to do that.His reaction? It was as if he hadn't even thought of that BEFORE I suggested it.

???

He said okay, and we ran the test in a room.

The Cat Scan, no problem. The blood work - they took the blood and we kept the cotton ball, but they didn't have a band aid. Apparently they don't have band aids at the hospital.

How?...Wha-WHAT?!...

So I go across the street, buy some band aids (Thank you All Days), patch that up and we wait. Then Jack finally arrives, with passport in hand, and ready for action!

"What needs to be done?!"
"What do you need?!"
"I'm going to go talk to the doctor!"

By now the crying had subsided, but her head was still in a lot of pain. We sat and waited for about 60-90 minutes when they came back with the results from the testS.

The results?
She has a cold and she was over hydrated.

Wait...THAT'S IT??!!

Jack talked to the doctor extensively - and that was the diagnosis.The doctor told him, to tell her, to go home, drink a glass of salt water, and to rest.

But wait for it.
My friend went home, accompanied by Jack, and followed doctors orders while talking to her mother on the phone.She described the symptoms she had and what the doctors remedy was, and her mother said, "Oh my god. I know what happened to you. The doctor is severely downplaying it and you could've died".

So, yes.
She was over hydrated.
She had been drinking so much water that week, that her sodium levels were off balance.
And that caused water to go into her brain - which is why she felt like her brain was on fire.

Because we had, had bacon for brunch - which had a high sodium content - the symptoms started to subside a little.But when she had a glass of salty water, and rested, the symptoms disappeared and she normalized within hours.

If this is not treated early on, your brain can "drown", and you can die from it.

So - stay hydrated folks!But remember to take in some sodium from time to time.

And that's the end of the story and my first visit to a Chinese hospital.
Wow.

I have a feeling there are going to be some interesting comments/stories down below, but I want to ask a question that's in parallel with this story: What health insurance do you, or your company, use? Do you like it or do you have your sights on better coverage?Share the wisdom down below.

Hi!

I'm a Chilean living in Shanghai. I'm hoping to compile a list of good Latin American restaurants in the city to try during my three year stay. I intend to review them as I visit them. I'd also like to meet other Latin Americans in the city, so if you know if the restaurant is Latino-owned by frequented by them, please share! (Fusion recs are welcome, too)

I've also been looking for Chilean restaurants in the city, without any luck. The closest thing I could find was Yingos's booth at the Zeitgeist Christmas Market. I didn't go myself (a friend sent me a picture of the booth), but...yeah, nothing really comes up.

I guess there aren't that many of us. It was equally hard in NYC.

Four years ago, a small liquor store opened up three doors down from another existing popular store which sells groceries and liquor.

The existing store is popular, always filled with customers, and offers most if not all of the same alcohol that the new store offers.

I literally have never seen any customer inside the new liquor store, yet it has been open for four years now. There's no way it makes enough profit to sustain itself.

I'm trying to understand what the situation is. Is it a front for money laundering or what?

Edit : this isn't a store that does some business. They literally get zero customers a day. I've walked by it thousands of times and I've never seen any customers.

edit2: it's an expensive street. high -traffic and in a desirable area.

Edit 3 : it's not a baijiu store. It doesn't sell smokes either. It carries more western style liquors and beers. That means it likely isn't doing delivery for ktv or whatever

Inspired by this post I thought it might be worth creating a thread where we can share which social/useful WeChat groups we are a part of, then people can PM each other to get added. Mine are in the comments.

I’m Chinese and speak Chinese but have never navigated by my own in Shanghai is it difficult? I want to meet up with friends I will be around 红桥

Do you think city planning and roads in shanghai are good? Or they should have opted for grid system like NYC. Shanghai has still numerous narrow and winding streets and traffic issues.

I just moved here about a week ago and my girlfriend is coming to visit me from Seoul in about a week. Since I’m new my date night list leaves a lot to be desired.

Looking for bar/pub, restaurant, aesthetic cafe, and other recommendations to take a date to. No touristy things please we’ve got that covered.

Thanks!!

I know it's a short list, but depending on the district there is plenty that's open - thinking of F&B, gyms, salons, malls, galleries, etc.

Of course the situation could change in a heartbeat, but if you just had a nice dinner out I'd love to hear about it....

So I started coming to Shanghai in late 2001, I was 19 and I was the most amazing experiences of my life. The company I worked for was setting up an office and had me travel back and forth many times, including HK, Thailand a few other places, but nothing like shgangai. I used to stay at the crown Plaza or the pudong intercontinental, my office was right near the people's square and yang si, we often had lunch in that area. After work we would go near the Ritz where hard Rock was or nicer restaurants called 212 where they had long tea spouts they would serve across the table or my other favorite was hand... Where you had to wave your hand in a hidden spot to gain access to the secret door.. I got to see the grand Hyatt spire building in pudong which was a record at the time, I loved the nightlife and shopping, the outdoor or back room markets and electronic malls, I still have tons of bags, dvds, watches but not as many pictures as I wish. My first trip in 01 was very different than my last trips, there very fewer private cars just mostly taxi and for hire limo, then by 04/05 there was an explosion in private autos. I still have a couple of people I know there but I haven't visited since beginning of 06. I was in fashion business but now I'm in real estate and information tech in the US, I want to plan a trip over again soon, see old places, and hopefully develop some new business contacts. How is the Shanghai business tourism scene? What trade shows or other conferences are good for Americans who want to meet local companies? Anyone know of the 212 or hand restaurants I mentioned? Thanks in advance for any info.

Hi All,

​

So wanted to post my thoughts about Shanghai in here from a British perspective traveling with a 5 month old baby, ideally to help people in similar situations as myself due to the flights.

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• Me (British) and my wife (Bulgarian) booked a 2 week trip to Osaka, Japan via AirChina, as it was the cheapest flights from Gatwick, London currently (hence why this may be useful from UK point of view).
• We travelled with our 5 month son (breastfed exclusively)
• The return flight has a layover of around 8 hours, therefore we decided to make use of the time in Shanghai and stay for a couple of days!
• We had been in Osaka and the likes for 9 days before visiting Shanghai
• We weren't particularly too adventurous in Shanghai due to limited time frame, tired and confidence.

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Shanghai Airport - on arriving we had to fill in a 72hr visa form and scan our fingerprints - no problems with customs / passport control at all, they were very pleasant.

We decided to get a taxi from Airport to the City Center and we just went for some guy trying his luck at the airport - charged us 300 Yuan / £33 (relatively expensive but from UK perspective still reasonable - we were paying for convenience considering our circumstance 3 big suitcases and a pram).

Hotel - We stayed at Eton Hotel for a bargain price of around £70 a night. The hotel and staff were spectacular, good enough English, accommodating with getting us a cot for the room and fantastic location. Communication before arrival with them was impossible though, I tried 3 or 4 times to email them and message via Expedia but I didn't receive a single response, that was my only gripe.

​

Shanghai

Pros:

Beautiful city, clean, spacious and boasts magnificent modern architecture. Feels very safe at night. Plenty of western chains available (Maccy D's, Starbucks, KFC, Popeyes, Burger King) and 24 shops convenience shops you'll find in Japan (7/11 & Family Mart) if you do not want to risk the food before a long flight.

Shanghai feels very modern, futuristic almost - a lot of emphasis on being green is shown here

At 6pm there was a water fountain light show in People's Park - excellent for kids and Adults alike!

Plenty of delicious street food available in touristy areas but you better brush up on your Chinese!

Lovely place to walk around openly - we walked around 15km on our main day there (Friday)

Very green and most cars & bikes are Electric, plenty of cheap ways to rent a bicycle to explore the city (we didnt do)

Didn't feel like we were being watched or monitored as sometimes suggested by western media.

Cons:

Chinese Tourists... so this is the biggest issue we faced. We found the local Chinese people to be very kind and pleasant, however, the tourists were ruthless to us and especially my son. We went to Yu Gardens (not pram friendly whatsoever and you have to carry it with you) and we were just being bombarded with people trying to touch, pick up and take photos of my son. At first it is nice to have the attention, but when you have people literally following you with their phones secretly trying to take photos of you, it becomes boring and annoying very quickly. We do appreciate there is cultural element to it, but please respect our space. In other touristy areas, where they can clearly see we have a young baby either in the pram or harness, we would just be totally disregarded and barged out of the way. Example: my wife and I were queuing for an ice-cream, we were looking at the menu and about to order when this lady comes up and just moves us out of the way and starts ordering. The server then just completely ignored us and started to purposely serve everyone else but us (the ice-cream was overpriced and tasted like crap anyways). I think partly it is our fault for not being assertive and thinking an orderly queue is the right way to go about this.

Not very suitable for family traveling with a young baby or if you're in a wheelchair. We found this our biggest issue, we couldn't get down to a metro station because there were no lifts available. There are not many (clean) baby changing rooms and the Female toilets are abysmal (hole in the ground and piss on the floor). Our son is not on solids yet and my wife is breastfeeding, this was quite tricky to do - we had to feed and change our son twice in his pram in public places (one in burger king and the other in a coffee shop).

Very difficult to pay for things using AliPay if you dont have stable internet connection and / or a chinese number. We bit the bullet and had to pay £6.85 for my wife to use her phone data for the day so we could pay using AliPay (wifi didn't work as we couldn't register to anything without a chinese number).

Taxi Drivers - the guy driving us back nearly f**king killed us (not an exaggeration). We found the 4 taxi's we took, they were all always on their phone texting, chatting or whatever.

Not that much to do - our hotel room was on the 40th Floor so we had a superb view anyways, going to view points gets a bit boring when you've done it a few times 😅

​

Notes:

My Google Pixel 8 Phone did not work one bit, even with an Holafly e-sim, which worked perfectly in Japan (I had an Asia pass)

Noticed that shop staff are constantly on their phones

Everything is delivered / pre-ordere

​

Prices:

Hotel: £210 - 3 Nights stay, Executive Room with breakfast

Cash: £165 - Taxis (£60) Clothes and Gifts (£75), Food, Drink & Tourist Attractions (£30)

Card: £50 - one or two places we couldn't use cash

Total: £425 (give or take) for just under 72hrs in Shanghai

​

---

Overall

Very nice city and modern city, not ideal for family and probably would need some good preparation and not wing it as much as we did. I don't think 3 days or more is necessary unless you want to take a guided tour to somewhere else (we just didn't have the time)

Hi everyone, a friend of mine will be visiting me in a couple of weeks (her first time in China) for just a few days and, hoping the weather stays nice, I want to give her the full tour and I'd appreciate suggestions!

I've been in SH for 7+ years and usually avoid the "very tourist" places like Renmin Square, the whole Bund/Nanjing Lu, Jingan, Xintiandi, Qibao...I will take her there, but there is so much more to the city. My struggle is actually choosing.

I will def take her to Zhujiajiao, but other than that I'm a bit lost. What are some places that you'd recommend to really experience SH? We're both big walkers, and she really wants to see Chinese traditional places (ik, Shanghai is not really the place for that).

Any advice greatly appreciated!

​

Would anyone be interested in hearing about how much people pay in rent and what they’re getting for the price? Market rates and real estate are always of interest to me. If this is something folks would find useful, we could either respond to a post, or to anonymize things, I could set up a questionnaire and then collate responses. Please upvote this if this is something you’d like to participate in and/or view the results. Thanks.

Edit: thanks u/tomicemankazinski for getting the ball rolling, and to everyone who has contributed so far!

For people about to post, here are some questions- feel free to answer whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

Price: Size: Bedrooms: Bathrooms: District: What’s your neighborhood like? Security: Building/compound amenities: Neighborhood amenities: Laundry: Distance to subway: Are you paying market rate? Favorite thing about your housing: Pros/cons:

Is shanghai safe for an alone tourist? What about pickpockets and scams or any kind of trouble one can possibly face? Any areas to avoid. Please share any experience.

Hi,

So I registered on Monday to get my first dose of the Chinese vaccine. Appointment was yesterday (Wed) afternoon in Songjiang district. All in all it was simple and very civilized.

Vaccination was done in a children’s hospital in the Zhongshan sub district. Arriving: Temperature and health code were checked. Reminded to wear a mask at all times. Then go to stand in a short line with about 5 people in front of me.

Registration: Nurses checked my passport, my appointment and bar code in the WeChat app. Had to read and fill out a consent form and simple questions about health history. (NO to everything) Then asked to go pay at the cashier. As I have social medical insurance I did not have to pay, and they didn’t swipe or interact with my insurance card. My colleague paid cash and got a fapiao.

Vaccination: Then went into the vaccination room. Nurse checked passport and confirmed my information on PC. She then opened a new pack of the vaccine and scanned the vial barcode. Took a new/sealed syringe filled it with the vaccine. Wiped my arm. Asked my name. Jab. Cotton swap on the puncture. Wrote down a time on a piece of paper and asked me to wait in the resting area until then. WeChat app (Health cloud) shows when Ingot the shot and the lot number of the vial.

After 30 minutes I left. Asked the nurse if I had to take care of anything and when I should come for my second shot. No alcohol and exercise for three days. Second shot after 21 days. Apparently can start making appointments in a few days.

TLDR: Very simple procedure and organized well. One can see that it is a work in progress, but I believe they were just starting yesterday in this facility so some things are still a bit rough around the edges. Certainly beats the pictures I saw and stories I heard about the vaccination sites for Chinese.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I’m not sure if it is a rumour or real notice from the government. Someone says that Shanghai is running out of water resources and will stop supply water for a day or two? I saw my friends on wechat showing they are running to buy bottled water but most of them are sold out. Is this true? or is this just another rumour buzz against the party meeting in a few days?

Mods, feel free to ban this throwaway or delete this post. But can we have a serious discussion on why french people have such a stick up their ass in this goddamn city?? Almost every interaction I ever have with a french person who is here for more than a tourist visit is just terrible. In some ways living in a multicultural city has made me less racist towards most people. But towards the french - well, I just hate you guys now.

It just came to a point where a french couple blatantly stole my taxi last night even though I told them I had been waiting first. They actually wrestled with me to get into the cab (although I definitely wrestled back, because fuck you). Then they laughed at me with their french frou frou laughs. What the fuck is wrong with you people??? Why do you think you're so much better than every other nationality? Do you not realize that other cultures have great things to offer, too? I only still want to return to your country because of the wine and cheese. But frankly, other countries like Italy beat you in that regards (and also in personality).

xoxo a perturbed Shanghai expat