Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

I am sure I will never make it as a copy editor:) but these were the words that came to mind reading a classified in the SH magazine.

A [tag]pawn shop[/tag] or individual offering its services to poor foreigners. A niche I never thought of before.

The only time I wandered into a pawn shop was in Bangkok. For some reason most of the pawn shops in Asia are run by [tag]Chinese[/tag] and they carry without exception a Chinese name and a localized version.

A little bit hesitant I noticed all sorts of rings, other jewelery, electronics etc. Even wedding rings had found their way, maybe left behind by divorcées or in exchange for supermarket money. Who knows. I didn’t stay long as it had a sad feel to it.

Fortunately I have had no need yet to exchange any valuables for some hard cash but in case you’re in that situation I delved in the online information world of pawnshops.

The offer of our “[tag]pawnshop[/tag]” classified seems rather excessive. 50% of the resale value should be the minimum you should be able to get. The term of 30 days is average. 90 days is the most often cited, at least in the United States where there is even a National Pawnshop organization.

Incidentally, in the first “new” classified section of SH, the very knowledgeable Mr. Know-It-All answers a question about pawn shops.

There is a pawn shop chain called “Oriental Pawn”. I gave them a call using the example of the question for Mr. Know-It-All and this is what they told me.

You’ll need to bring

• the receipt (fapiao)
• warranty (if available)
• your id card (passport)
• The item you want to pawn

They will

• Set the current value of the item, probably less than you expect.
• Give you 100% of said current value
• Tell you, you’ll have a month to come back and pay 4.62% interest

The 1 month is especially for appliances as they decrease in value fast. Some items can be pawned for a longer period. The interest will add up though.

Oriental Pawn, Address: 381 Xietu Lu, Mengzi Lu, [tag]Shanghai[/tag], Tel: 63055888

As an alternative you can of course always advertise your stuff on eBay or other online auction websites or just place an ad in the expat magazines. It may end up next to the one of our classified pawn shop.

Read more about pawn shops here, in case you’re interested.

There are many places I like to avoid and on top of the list are [tag]shopping malls[/tag]. I don’t enjoy spending an afternoon in a cramped overcrowded environment. Makes you wonder why I live in [tag]Shanghai[/tag] but that’s another story.

It is inevitable to go their sometimes. W. likes them more than me so I tag along as a bag carrier.

I know that at least half of the population, and it’s no different in [tag]China[/tag] (ok, less than half), enjoys this activity.
8days has a nice overview of the “best” shopping malls in Shanghai.

My personal favorite is [tag]Plaza 66[/tag] on [tag]Nanjing Xi Lu[/tag]. It’s spacious, too expensive to buy anything, the toilets are one of the cleanest in Shanghai and in the summer it has great airconditioning.

Source: Store Wars

The local expat magazine 8days has a great article on [tag]swimming pools[/tag] in [tag]Shanghai[/tag]. It includes prices, pics, opening times etc. Although most of the swimming entrance fees are slightly steep, I’ll probably try one in the coming time.

One of the best deals is the Olympic-sized [tag]Pudong[/tag] [tag]Swimming Pool[/tag]. It costs 25 [tag]Renminbi[/tag] for 90 minutes on weekdays.

See the overview.

Lately a lot of visitors ended up here because of searches in Google for “Walmart Shanghai”. I wrote a very short post about their coming here a couple of days ago. – see my post ‘Walmart Shanghai is coming“

I thought I make a list of my “favorite” supermarkets in China.

1. Mom and Pop Shops

In Shanghai these are the shops that make a neighborhood lively. Run on 20 square meters or less, some specialized in all forms of nuts, the next one selling anything you might need one day, from a new water tap to cigarettes. If you ask for it they definitely will also have some phone cards in their drawer.

As the building craze continues here in Shanghai they slowly disappear. Instead huge apartment buildings, made of pure concrete and ready to crumble down in about 5 to 10 years take their place.

New high rises means less shops, less life in the street besides people going and returning from work. If you go to Pudong you can see what the rest of Shanghai may be one day. Huge dormitories and no shops around. There, you have no other choice then get into the car and drive to a supermarket
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