Wednesday, October 15, 2014

2 years in a lane house of the French Concession

Shanghai has a 20 million population, including the suburbs and a floating population of 3 to 7 million migrant workers seeking higher wages. Economic development of the early 90s clearly changed Shanghai’s urban landscape: tunneling, skyline in constant evolution, more subway lines, many things have changed in just a few years.

So where is it good to live in such a huge and contrasted city? You are not the first who came up with this question, since more than 200 000 expatriates are living in Shanghai.

Shanghai is a strange mix of styles, divided into two main parts separated by the river Huangpu: Puxi, the west part, where you can see many vestiges of the "Old Shanghai" in historic areas such as the former French Concession with its tree-lined alleys and the Bund in Huangpu district, one of the world’s biggest Art Deco legacy. Pudong, the east part of the river, is the home of the brand new financial center made of gleaming skyscrapers: Lujiazui. This is a very fascinating aesthetic architecture. But the city "overflows" on all sides and if it is limited by the sea in the East (don’t expect to find a beach though), it pushes its borders well beyond Puxi in the West.

Many international schools are flourishing in this suburban neighborhood, both in Puxi (Minhang, Qingpu, Xujing) and Pudong. Many expat families send their children to the British or American school, especially when they are young. There are fewer expatriates who choose a Chinese education as it is possible in some posh private schools.Your choice of accommodation will be directly related to the composition of your family, school and work constraints.

You can find in international schools areas lots of accommodations for expatriates, spacious apartments in very modern and nice compounds, with sports facilities, playgrounds for children, or huge villas in housing estates designed for rich locals and expats. The foreign families who settled in the area mainly focus on proximity to schools and "international" stores, space and security for children who can ride and play outside freely.

Although our children are enrolled in French school located in Pudong, we made a different choice as we are living downtown, in a renovated lane house as there are many in the heart of the former French Concession. It certainly is a little less convenient, but we appreciate the bike rides through the old tree-lined streets and the lively atmosphere of our little alley.

We have been renting this lane house in Shanghai for 2 years now, and even if we have considered the option of moving for a place that would be closer to the kids’ school, we can’t really see ourselves living somewhere else. This is every family’s decision to make. This is a very personal decision for which there is no advice to give. Weigh the pros and cons and make sure it meets your family and personal expectations.

Our lane house is located on Fumin Road. It has 2 entrances, which is quite common for this type of houses. We have a small but pretty stylish courtyard where I love to lie down and read. The street is really quiet at night, we almost forget we are living in the most central place of Shanghai.

The greatest thing of living in the middle of the French Concession is the wide choice of restaurants, bars and cafes for all tastes. Getting out of our lane house, I just need to cross the street to have a homemade apple pie from this trendy little French cafe.

The rental contract is usually one year. It is always possible to change if you realize you made the wrong choice. We frequently see people moving from neighborhood schools to the city center and vice versa, to make life easier, to stay close to other expat friends, to change the school of children who have grown up or to have more space or suitable amenities.

An increasing number of foreign families also choose Pudong to settled down, usually in ultra modern apartments or in villas on the “greener” periphery. Pudong is developing very fast and now offers a good transportation network allowing its inhabitants to reach the west side of the Huangpu river pretty quickly. However, with its wide and empty avenues full of the same concrete buildings, this district may seem a bit sad and soulless somehow.

For those who want to find an old house in the former French Concession, I recommend Zunest, it’s well-made and so far the most useful database I have found in Shanghai.






1 comment:

  1. This blog having thorough information about Apartments for rent Shanghai. Thanks for sharing. Keep blogging like this.

    ReplyDelete