Job Discussion Forums

[prufrockwakes]

Any areas to be avoided more than others? I'm surfing for rentals and finding cheapies but wonder about the safety. East nan jing? People's square? Hongkou? Jing An?

Any info's appreciated.

[quanxie]

Personally I feel that every district in SH is safe and I have been almost everywhere in the last 7+ years of coming to SH. Things important to me are access to the subway and getting food from the veggie market. I live in Luwan district now, but I am looking to move soon, not easy to get veggies from here, maybe Changning. The biggest trouble is that rent is expensive (for an English teacher salary).

[Lobster]

I think you need to define what kind of danger you're talking about. In terms of physical danger; being assaulted, mugged or otherwise attacked, as quanxie notes there aren't any places in particular one could consider dangerous. It's more of a situational thing; usually when copious amounts of alcohol are involved.

In terms of danger to your property; having things stolen or being pickpocketed, most of the tourist spots are places that demand extra caution. Nanjing Road, the Bund and the area around the Oriental Pearl TV Tower seem to be places for thieves to congregate. On Nanjing Road in particular there are many scammers who target fresh westerners; usually with some kind of invitation to go for a drink (on them of course). After the drinks and a few snacks arrive at the table, the "friend" vanishes on some pretext and leaves the foreigner to confront the owner of the "restaurant/bar" with a ridiculously high bill.

Other than this, a heightened sense of awareness is necessary in crowded places; getting onto busses, the subway, and most certainly around the downtown train station.

Here's my advice:

Never carry your wallet in your back pocket.
Never carry your phone in your jacket pocket.
Never carry anything of value in a pack on your back.
Hug your bag in crowded places.
Beware of theives working in pairs, where one bumps into you or otherwise distracts you while the other makes off with your possessions.
When you are out with friends, keep an eye on each other.

Shanghai is a safe city, but there is a great deal of petty theft. I dropped my motorcyle helmet and it split almost in two. As an experiment, I attached it to my bike lock by passing the lock through the chinstrap (the only part left that wasn't damaged beyond repair) and left my bike and helmet, with the huge crack clearly visible, at the subway station. Sure enough, when I returned with my new helmet in a couple of hours, I found that someone had cut through the strap and stolen the useless, broken helmet.

RED

[TexasHighway]

Shanghai is safe to the point where it is easy to get lured into a false sense of security. On Friday afternoon, I witnessed the aftermath of an attack by a metal pipe-wielding man on two foreigners right in front of Shanghai Center on West Nanjing Road. It looks like the two guys weren't hurt badly and luckily they had overpowered their attacker and had him pinned to the ground when I arrived. Police were quickly on the scene and I watched them handcuff and drag away the deranged man. In Shanghai, as anywhere else, always keep your wits about you. Unfortunately, not everyone loves us out there. Unprovoked attacks against foreigners are not unheard of and this one occurred in broad daylight.

[Mister Al]

You may be right but how do you know it was unprovoked if you only encountered the aftermath? I suppose you would only have the foreigners word for it.

OP, I don't think any particular area could be classed as dangerous. If you go looking for trouble you can get it anywhere but if you don't then Shanghai is one of the least likliest cities of its size to encounter it.

[TexasHighway]

Mister Al wrote:

[prufrockwakes]

i appreciate it. i never go looking for trouble. i have been in tokyo 4 years (s. korea 2 years before that) and love the safety. i was reading a few posts on shenzhen about dangerous places there and thought, "well, shanghai is a big city....."

nice (and relieving) to hear it's safe. thanks for the good advice too. my docs are being processed by starbugs academy at the moment and the anticipated arrival is mid-april. first round's on me cheers

[YAMARI]

crossing the road is the biggest worry in Shanghai