West meets East

Why did you leave Cat­alo­nia?

The first time, I went to im­prove my Eng­lish in Dublin and met my hus­band. So, the sec­ond time I left Cat­alo­nia was to go to live with him. To be hon­est, it made sense for me to go there and not for him to come to me, as job op­por­tu­ni­ties were great there, and I would not be where I am now if I hadn't gone to Dublin.

Why did you choose Shang­hai?

Ac­tu­ally, I didn't! After five years in Dublin, just mar­ried and sick of the rain, we de­cided to take a sab­bat­i­cal and go to Viet­nam, and this al­lowed us to visit other coun­tries in South East Asia. The next step was meant to be Aus­tralia, but the visa thing was get­ting over-com­pli­cated, so sud­denly we went to Shang­hai in­stead. Re­ally, it was never in our plans.

How long have you lived there?

We have been in Shang­hai for about three and a half years. Ac­tu­ally, my son was born in Shang­hai: half Irish, half Cata­lan, born in Shang­hai... imag­ine when older and some­body asks him where he is from, he'll say: “It's a long story...”

Are you happy with the job op­por­tu­ni­ties you found in your adop­tive coun­try?

In Shang­hai there are so many op­por­tu­ni­ties. I found a job with an Irish multi­na­tional just after ar­riv­ing, and it has al­lowed me to travel around Asia vis­it­ing fac­to­ries. Food safety in China is a funny job, be­lieve me!

What do you think is the best thing about liv­ing in Shang­hai?

The peo­ple I've met, our Shang­hai friends. The cul­ture is so dif­fer­ent that we end up hav­ing some­thing in com­mon with peo­ple we wouldn't nor­mally have had any kind of deal­ings with at all. I am rais­ing my kid in a com­pletely mul­ti­cul­tural en­vi­ron­ment. His friends are mostly from mixed cul­ture cou­ples, too: the US, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Italy, the UK, China (of course).

What do you con­sider the high­lights for any brief visit for the first time?

Ha! Truth be told, I found a job quickly and soon after I was preg­nant. So, I have not done that much tourism my­self. Of course I've seen the typ­i­cal spots (the Bund, Yuyuan Gar­den, Qibao town, the French Con­ces­sion, and so on), but I am not the best per­son to rec­om­mend hid­den gems.

And if vis­i­tors have more time or make a re­turn visit?

I would not rec­om­mend stay­ing in Shang­hai for many days. I would rec­om­mend vis­it­ing Guilin in the south, Xi­a­men by the sea­side, Bei­jing and the Great Wall, the Ter­ra­cota war­riors in Xian, Harbin dur­ing win­ter... To be hon­est, in China I have seen more fac­to­ries than sights.

What do you miss most from home?

Food... you can find nearly every­thing here, but not all. And what you find is at stratos­pheric prices! Also, the clean air. It is kind of movie like! And si­lence. Chi­nese cul­ture is very noisy.

Do you plan to go back to Cat­alo­nia?

I would love to, per­haps not in the near fu­ture, but I would like to have some kind of plan to go back. But if job per­spec­tives do not im­prove... I would go back, but not at any cost.