It’s getting easier

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

A few months ago, a message went out at work asking for our input in preparing new hires for their transition to living and working in Shanghai. What apps or information did we think were helpful, even essential, for living in Shanghai. I responded with a list. Thinking about it, I realized just how much easier things are after only 4.5 years here.

When we came we had to go out and shop for groceries and carry them home either by walking or taking a taxi. Taxis had to be physically flagged down and this was sometimes very difficult. Anytime we needed to buy something other than groceries, the big challenge was finding a store that had what we wanted. It was a multi-day project starting with research online and then a weekend expedition to find the store and hope for success.

Home delivery and online shopping existed for those who speak or read Chinese, but not so much for us foreigners. Over the years these started to appear for us. Epermarket, Fields, and Kate & Kimi online groceries with home delivery all popped up about the same time. Sherpa’s restaurant home delivery was early on the scene. Now the majority of our grocery purchases are done online and many of our restaurant meals are delivered to our door rather than eaten in the restaurant itself. We have gotten old and lazy.

Taobao, one of the major online market places for just about everything, finally provided BaoPals, the English interface that allows us to shop for just about anything and have it delivered. It makes getting baking soda and the right brand of cat food so much easier.

The most difficult transition was DiDi, the taxi booking app. It was only in Chinese initially. To entice the drivers to take the booked rides over picking up fares that flagged them down on the street, they offered more money for booked fares. This made it very difficult for foreigners to get a taxi. An English app finally did appear. I didn’t make that transition until DaddyBird was in the hospital this last January. The hospital was fairly easy to get to, but flagging a taxi home was quite a challenge. Using DiDi made life so much easier while I was traveling back and forth everyday.

WeChat Pay is the other revolutionary change. WeChat is a social media platform and is rather awkward to use for that purpose. However, the addition of a “wallet” connected to my bank account has allowed paying our utility bills in moments rather than having to figure out where the local office might be and physically going there to try to pay the bill in cash. One of our favorite vegetarian restaurants has a QR code on the table. To pay I can just scan the code and pay what we owe via WeChat Pay. No need to wave to the waitstaff to ask for a bill, etc. Money can also be transferred to any of my WeChat friends. I can transfer grocery money to my husband, pay the monthly cleaning bill by transferring to our housing manager, or split the bill when dining in a large group by transferring my share to whoever is paying the whole bill with their card.

One thing is true about China. They make great leaps forward. For the most part, they skipped over landline phones and went to mobile. They have leaped in a short period of time toward a cashless society. Paying with a phone app has caught on quickly.

When we first came to China, people had their own bicycles and the metro stations were crowded with them. Then came the onslaught of share bikes. Now, many people do not bother owning a bicycle because they can just grab a share bike and not worry about having their own bike locked or stolen. The share bike companies, of which there were too many, are falling by the wayside, but they have made a major change in behavior.

I was hard pressed to find a photo relevant to this post, so here is a picture of Oliver the Loud, Eater of Steel Wool drinking from the water fountain we ordered online and had delivered to our door.