Shanghai'd

Move.

As with most everything in China, Ban jia is quite different than what you may be used. Despite not having many worldly possessions here in Shanghai, we decided to take the easy route and hire a moving company to do the heavy lifting for us. Living with an Ayi has made us soft. That and the fact that 180 kuai ($24) gets you door to door service - including a ride along with your stuff to your new place. A cab ride alone would have cost about 40 kuai. Once again, you can't afford NOT to take advantage of the convenience.

The moving crew of 4 guys and a big truck (we had only ordered a small truck and 1 guy) arrived right on time and set to work, literally forbidding me from lifting a finger. These guys seemed personally insulted that I would even consider attempting manual labor in their presence, so who was I to argue?

They made quick work of our sparse belonging, especially with the back-breakingly effective method of strapping several boxes to their hunched spines.


After leaving our old apartment it became clear why they brought the extra manpower. We weren't heading straight to our new place, but rather killing two birds with one stone by swinging by another house that also happened to be making a geographically similar move. We were mildly annoyed by this until we realized that our co-mover turned out to be a co-worker of mine who I had just met for the first time a few days ago! Pretty long odds in a city of 20 million.

Once she was all loaded up, including Mom, niece and husband in the back, we were on our way.