Where would I choose to live in China for a year?

 Dear D.,

You said you'll bring your daughter S. to live in China for a year, starting this Fall. You asked whether I can recommend a region, city or town.

I have met many Americans who once lived in China for a sustained amount of time. They lived in big cities or small towns, in a big spread of China. They all seem to value their experiences just the same. If you've read the book River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, you must have seen how much its author Peter Hessler got out of his experiences living in a small college compound in the small town of Fuling.

I think you, just like Peter Hessler, are the type who makes the most out of a cross-cultural experience, no matter where you are.

So, it seems that I don't have a recommendation for you. But if you would change your question into "Where would YOU live for a year in China?" I already have an answer.

I will live in Shanghai, in the city, or one of its suburbs, or one of the nearby towns.

ONE.

A year is long, but not that long. One thing I definitely want is to maximize my social and cultural gains through my stay at a place. In the US (I guess at other places of the world), it's very easy to run into people who are from Shanghai. They may be directly from Shanghai, or they trace back to their parents or grandparents or great grandparents who left Shanghai and went to Hong Kong or Taiwan or other places, and then overseas. It'll be nice to find myself click with more people more often over a shared place and the associated knowledge and memories.  

TWO.

Shanghai is like a multiple layered cake of its own unique design. I can get so much already just by focusing on one layer, let alone if I tackle multiple layers. 

I can taste a bowl of the cheapest (but delicious) noodle soup plain 阳春面 (yáng chūn miàn) but also learn about how restaurants invented it to cater to the rickshaw pullers and dock laborers who came from nearby areas of Shanghai and gave the emerging city fuel and life.

I can take a stroll on the bund, taking in the views of the Huang Pu River 黄浦江 (huáng pu jiāng) from my left and the Western-look buildings from my right, and I can also read books such as the Global Merchants by Joseph Sassoon that reveals how the Sassoon family made a fortunate out of Chinese and opium but committed to building a modern Shanghai.

I would definitely go to the Shanghai harbors to see who and what are there these days. But I may also try to find out the exact harbors used from 1850s to 1950s. This way, I can stand there, imagining I was seeing the diplomats, soldiers, students and workers boarding and getting off ships, entering China or departing from China temporarily, or permanently. I would include this 22-year old young man who in 1863 snuck onto a ship in the Shanghai harbor to get to Britain to learn navigation. Thirty-one years later in 1894, he led the Japanese army to completely destroy the Chinese Beiyang fleet, and in 1895 he earned 200 million taels of silver and Taiwan for Japan through Ma Guan Treaty. The young man was Ito Hirobumi.

THREE.

On the weekends or during a short break,  I will visit Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Haining, Jinhua, all are between 25 to 100 miles from Shanghai, a 1-2.5 hour drive or train ride away. They offer top notch nature, food, and history.

I leave it to you to google its nature and food. 

For history, this region was the capital area of a brilliant Chinese dynasty, South Song (1127 - 1279), when international ocean shipping business was a civilian matter, most of the known Chinese inventions materialized, and a well-rounded social welfare system was set to work.

In recent Chinese history alone, this region produced the following individuals, without whom, China's literature, arts, sciences, politics and government would not be the same at all. 

秋瑾、陶成章、章太炎、 蒋介石、 蔡元培、金庸、鲁迅、徐志摩、郁达夫、朱自清、茅盾、艾青、张乐平、丰子恺、王国维、范文澜、钱玄同、马寅初、夏衍、钱学森、钱三强、苏步青、竺可桢 (the list goes on but I'll stop here)

I knew these names growing up. But no one told me that they all were from this small patch of land. Talking about disproportion. The size of this land and the influence of its people on China. That's disproportional, extremely disproportional. 

You may not know these names, but isn't it nice to know that the beautiful views and delicious food you enjoy were once shared by many children and youngsters who would grow up to toil in great agony and dignity to shape the Chinese lives?

FOUR.

From Shanghai, it's very easy to get to anywhere in China. You can go down the coast to Fujian and Guangdong. You can go up the coast to Shandong and Liaoning. You can get to Beijing by train in 4 hours, and you can fly to the last stop of our Silk Road Trip, Urumqi, in 5 hours. If you have more than a few days, you can take a cruise to go upstream along the Yangtze River to reach Hubei and Sichuan. In the communities of Shanghai, you can easily run into people who have done in-depth travels in the most obscure places of China. 

So much are my thoughts now. Hope you find some of these useful. If you don't end up living in Shanghai, make sure you go to visit it (might be again for you) and its surrounding areas. 

Best wishes for you and S.!

Gisela