Our house

A couple of people have asked us about our home and the district we live in - so I thought I would take you on a bit of a tour! 

As you may recall from an earlier email - Russ and I live in Pudong - which is on the east side of the river - a "new district" that is primarily the financial district and residential district. 

We live in one of the many tower block precincts.  Ours is called Shimao Riviera Gardens.  

This is our "name card" - it has our address
in Chinese and a map on the back to help
taxi drivers get us home! 

It is a massive complex comprised of 7 tower blocks - 48 stories high - housing around 350 apartments in each tower!  The grounds themselves are massive - with loads of gardens and a man made lake. 

The facilities include 2 gyms, a swimming pool, a small grocery shop, beautician and a restaurant.

Majority of the residents are Chinese- although you do see some western expats walking around. 

Although many would say the Pudong area lacks true soul - there is something to being a little removed from the crowds and frenetic, non stop activity of Puxi! 

Our apartment is a 2 bedroom apartment up on the 28th floor. It's quite spacious with 2 bathrooms and a western style kitchen come laundry.  Chinese kitchens don't usually have ovens whereas the western style kitchens do.

The lounge dining area currently has a fabulous view looking back across the river over to Puxi.  At night the boats light up and travel up and down the river and the buildings on the other side treat us to a fabulous light show every night! 

Unfortunately our fabulous view of the river is fast being built out with the construction of another large residential compound.

On the other side of our apartment we have fabulous views to the west - right over to the old city.  As you can see this precinct has a lot of space and greenery to enjoy! 

View from the study - looking back to Puxi.  The building
on the left of the photo is one of the Shimao towers. 

View from the master bedroom

This image shows Russ at the entrance to the complex.  The complex itself is surrounded by local housing and small businesses.  There are Chinese supermarkets,wet markets, small businesses,  bottle shops, cafes, an English pub and eateries all within walking distance. 

The bus stop for Russells office is right outside the complex (which is handy)  From there its about a 10 minute bus trip for Russ to get to work. 

Our nearest metro station is a 15 minute walk - or a 10 minute bus ride.  So we can get anywhere we need to go using public transport . 

The public transport is really cheap - we pay 2rmb (about 40 cents) for each trip (regardless of the destination! ) 

Our apartment block can be seen off in the distance - to the right of the dark
grey group of buildings right of centre.  They appear as 2 buildings standing
separate to each other. The gold Aurora building left of centre houses one of Russells offices.   

In a future blog I'll take you for a walk around our local neighbourhood and introduce you to it's people, the shopping and our favourite spots! 

Until next time 

Take care 

Kate and Russ. 
xx