As a foreigner living and working in Shanghai, I am enjoying the benefits of being an expatriate of a country which is far wealtheir than the one in which I reside! I dine in expensive restaurants. I have a chauffeur who waits downstairs and fetch me to work every morning. I eat sushi at least once a week. I travel accross China. I call ah yi (maid) to clean my apartment up when it’s dirty. My life is nothing different from other thousands of foreigners in China. We all come here for the “China Experience” and still live our lives with the advantages of being a foreigner.

But what is it like to be one of the 6 million rich Chinese residents of Shanghai, especially those wealthy white collar? They bought several properties for investement. They invest in stock market. They buy car and paid in full CASH! Yes FULL CASH, and they paid for a cup of Starbucks coffe with credit cards! They bring their whole family to Milan for a vacation. They have chauffeured car. They wear real gold Rolex. The Chinese are rich especially those who can travel outside China. (most of the mainlanders never travel in a plane!) Trains and buses are widely use in China.

Working in China is challenging. Things like communication problem, different working style, presentation format, plans & drawings, … etc. That’s not the hardest…. IT’S IN CHINESE!!!!!!!!!! ALL stuff and the specifications are in CHINESE!!!!!! Can you imagine all architecture and design terms are in ChinESE!!!! Being new to this, I was obviously blown away by the various jargons… and ended up as confused as a hungry infant in a tittie bar.

Thank GOD that I have a team of designers and draftmen (with a translator of course)!

Granite = ???
Marble = ???
Stainless Steel = ???
Sections = ????
Display = ???
Air Conditional = ??

I got really MAD with all the building materials in Chinese terms!

There is never a proper office attire in China. People are way MORE casual when it comes to office attire, especially the ladies in my office who seem to have a completely free reign, it’s hard to determine if they are dressed for a friday’s night in a pub, or a day’s work in the office. Sleeveless blouse, tank-tops, mini skirts, some even wear running-shoes, hello-kitty tee and jeans. And for the guys, jeans and the old-fashion working pants are common, with RMB19.9 short sleeve shirts. (I’m not complaining or whatever, when I said a 19.9 short sleeve shirts, you’ve got the idea of which kind of shirt it is). For designers, t-shirts and jeans are acceptable as designers always need a more fashion or stylish attire.

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