Relocating your family to Shanghai can be both stressful and exciting, we spoke to the Bernard family who have recently relocated from the south of France to Shanghai to ask them about their experience and any advice they have to give to families moving to Shanghai.
When and where did you get the idea of living in Shanghai? One of our friends had already relocated to Shanghai, so when the opportunity in my company to expand into China and setup the Shanghai office came along, we went for it, without actually knowing what we was letting ourselves in for, but with the terrible economy situation in Europe, we thought it was the right decision to make.
What do you love most about living in Shanghai? I think the fact that its very international, our daughter is growing up with friends from all nationalities from all over the world, we feel this experience is good for her understanding of the world.
What frustrates you about life in Shanghai? Some things can be very difficult to get done if you dont know how to do it, but our main concerns must be food safety and the driving standards here.
What frustrates you about life in Shanghai? Some things can be very difficult to get done if you dont know how to do it, but our main concerns must be food safety and the driving standards here.
What would you have liked to know that you didn’t before coming to live in Shanghai? If we knew what we know now, we might not have came to China, which would have been a huge shame. Now we are living in China we get to see the good and the bad and learning new things all the time.
What are three tips you can give people planning to move to Shanghai?
1) Moving personal items to China can get be expensive if you use a courier, we had to pay very high import duties for our personal items, since then we just bring things in our suitcases.
2) Find a trusted and reliable real estate agent, otherwise you could waste lots of time and money. We hear all the horror stories of people who have used unlicensed agents they found from a magazine listing.
3) Beware of eating street food and in local restaurants, there are many of food scandals in China which can be harmful to your health, especially try and avoid restaurants that use recycled oil.
