Photo shoot with Anna (Part 1 of 3)

Published on Saturday, February 20, 2010

090315anna_2963w

These pho­tos of Anna in Shanghai were taken in March 2009, nearly a year ago, but I didn’t get around to edit­ing them un­til now. (Sorry Anna!) First time I met Anna I thought she looked just like a cat, and it’s not every­day I meet some­one who looks like a cat so I asked to take a few pho­tos of her. The shoot got plenty of at­ten­tion from on­look­ers. Thanks Jenny and Joe for helping!

» CONTINUE

Hooters Girls in Shanghai

Published on Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Went to Hooters in Lujiazui last night. Every few min­utes the wait­resses would all do a lit­tle dance in uni­son. (See above video.) They do this at the Hongqiao restau­rant also. I don’t think they do this in the US (at least not at the two I’ve been to in the Bay Area), but they should. Men want to be served food by danc­ing cheer­lead­ers. Would be even bet­ter if they sat down and fed you.

Interesting tid­bit: I went with a friend and we both look Chinese (you know, slant eyes and all), but we were greeted and served in English. In fact I think all of their wait­resses speak English pro­fi­ciently. Plenty of American fran­chises in Shanghai but I think Hooters is the only one that tries to re­main American. Or maybe Hooters doesn’t get many Chinese customers.

Curious how much a Hooters Girl makes in China? According to their em­ploy­ment page, 3500 to 5000 RMB per month for a full-​​timer. Roughly the same as what a new grad would make in an of­fice, but prob­a­bly with more op­por­tu­ni­ties to meet whities.

Fireworks from Huangpu River

Published on Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Chinese New Year! Gung hay fat choy! And to all my Jewish friends, fe­liz navi­dad! Rode out on my bike last night for Chinese New Year’s Eve fire­works. At mid­night I was on a ferry cross­ing the Huangpu River. Nice view on the boat. Got to see fire­works all around. Recorded some of it in the above video. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, happy Valentine’s Day too, if you’re into that crap.

D.Kwan Likes: Samurai Spirit by Artgerm

Published on Saturday, January 23, 2010
Samurai Spirit 7 by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau

Samurai Spirit 7 by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau

Cost of living in Shanghai (2010)

Published on Monday, January 11, 2010

My cost of liv­ing in Shanghai is now the low­est it’s been since I moved to this city two years ago. This is af­ter quit­ting smok­ing and drink­ing, and mov­ing into a 70m2 apart­ment in down­town with two chicks. Here’s a break­down of my ex­pense, with 1 U.S. Dollar be­ing 6.83 Renminbi.

Rent: 1000 RMB/​mo ($146/​mo)
Utilities: ~300 RMB/​mo (~$44/​mo)
Ayi: 100 RMB/​mo ($15/​mo)
These are af­ter split­ting three ways. Normally I don’t like liv­ing with oth­ers but this re­ally saves a lot of money. And both girls have good hy­giene so I don’t mind. When I see piss on the rim of the toi­let, I know it’s my own. I also like how the rooms smell nice. Not sure how we spend so much on util­i­ties though.

Dinner: ~1100 RMB/​mo (~$161/​mo)
That’s an av­er­age of about 37 RMB per night for din­ner, usu­ally for two. No sur­prise, Chinese food in China is cheap. And in down­town Shanghai there are web­sites (in Chinese) where you can or­der from a huge list of lo­cal restau­rants. No need for Sherpa’s, un­less you’re a white guy with­out a Chinese girlfriend.

Lunch and snacks: ~500 RMB/​mo (~$73/​mo)
I’m a loner and usu­ally have a sim­ple lunch by my­self. This ranges from 8 RMB for eight dumpling-​​like things to 30 RMB for a Subway’s sand­wich of the day, foot-​​long. Once in a while I’ll have a sand­wich from Pier 39, which is lit­er­ally next door to where I work (for now), but nowa­days I con­sider spend­ing 45 RMB on a meal for one extravagant.

Commute: ~260 RMB/​mo ($38/​mo)
That’s for tak­ing the metro every­day, and oc­ca­sion­ally tak­ing taxi. I’d ac­tu­ally get to work faster if I ride my bike or even walk the whole way but that’s too much leg ex­er­cise. I need to work on my belly, not my legs.

Well that’s about it for what I con­sider my “liv­ing ex­pense.” Adding clothes and mo­bile phone ser­vice, and ex­clud­ing mis­cel­la­neous spend­ing like web host­ing bills and flight tick­ets, the total’s about 3000 RMB or $439 each month. This works for me, and I imag­ine it would work for any­one who’s not mar­ried, isn’t a snob about food and shel­ter, and prac­tices the Chinese art of Zhái. A great thing about Shanghai is you can be fru­gal and live a very com­fort­able life at the same time.

A cou­ple links you might find useful:

  • Shanghai cost of liv­ing — My post from October 2008, back when I lived in the boon­docks, thought 100 RMB open bar was a good deal, and pre­tended to be so­cial. Nowadays I have bet­ter things to do than see my friends.
  • Living Cost in Shanghai (2007) — Wangjianshuo’s post, which says for the amount I’m pay­ing for rent my place “must be a pretty old one, with smell, and dirt.” I’m sure he meant “must have char­ac­ter, aroma, and soil of the people.”