I will be moving to Shanghai in July and am trying to figure out what kind of things I should bring. I know the basics; deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, extra shoes, vitamins, meds, etc. What I want to know is what made it into your suitcase? What do you wish you brought? What do you find hard to find/expensive that should be brought from home? Any info is greatly appreciated!

Sarah

Skip the shampoo & toothpaste.
Western foods and eating out can be very expensive. Availablity is always in doubt.
You can check prices here:http://www.cityshop.com.cn/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TopCategories1_10601_10551_-1

Oral B toothpaste, deodorant and Tampax. Maybe some med's but that depends on you really...

You can get most shampoo's etc here so no need to pack it. Or just maybe bring small travel bottles for your first couple of days until you find you local shops and get your bearing's etc. You can't swing a cat without hitting a shoe shop here!

4-ply toilet paper.
Pears soap.
Macleans toothpaste.
Hair product.
Certain herbs and spices for cooking.

Clothes and shoes, some OTC medicines (esp stuff for my kid) and cosmetics are about it for me. Maybe I'm coming form a slightly different place, since this was not our fist expat gig, but I just feel like, when I am home I enjoy the things that are at home, but when I am here, I enjoy the things that are here. There's not much now that I feel like I can't get here that I need to be happy. And when I do go to the US now I find going to the supermarket kind of overwhelming. Do we really need 15 varieties of fig newtons? 10 variations of visene? I am convinced all that crap was just dreamed up by people sitting around in meetings trying to figure out how to get us to buy more stuff, rather than any response to consumer demand. Sometimes less really is more. Try to figure out the smallest possible amount of "must haves" you must have, and then pack just those.

Yep, definitely herbs and spices!
Essential oils
Natural insect repellents
Ombrelle Sunscreen
Deodorant
Imodium
thin summer clothing (100% cotton, Indian cotton)
warm winter clothing (toque, long underwear, wool/wool blend socks, etc)

I moved to SH about 6 months ago, so my list is still quite fresh in my mind. Apart from the usual toiletries, spices and medicine:
1. Vaseline or similar petroleum jelly - doesnt seem to exist here. I find it essential for winter chapped skin.
2. Bakeware - if you like baking. Bring your baking tins, cookie sheets etc. You can find them here but they are expensive.
3. Books - if you like reading. Again, you can find them here but expensive, and the fake books you get from street carts have limited selection.
4. Makeup - they have a Sephora here where you can find everything. Again, more expensive.
5. Toys - if you have kids.
6. Recipe books - when you have to get creative in the kitchen

From my last trip home I brought myself a nice coffee machine (one of those automatic ones).
Coffee
Baking stuff
Tons of chocolate/Sweets
Nutella
...
You can buy nearly everything here, but at incredible prices ...

Ibuprofen
Hydrogen Peroxide
Theraflu
deodorant
Strong anti-mosquito spray

Marmite
Deodorant

tylerdurden wrote:4-ply toilet paper.
Pears soap.
Macleans toothpaste.
Hair product.
Certain herbs and spices for cooking.

Damn son, what in the hell do you eat ?

Why not just use kitchen towels ?

1st trip back in a few years:

1. Condoms....need I explain?
2. Astroglide
3. Goldschlager Liquor
4. Tarantula Tequila
5. Some strange candy/snacks
6. size 15 shoes and underwear
7. percoset & vicodin
8. Good ol' American Birth Control pills

Thank you everyone for the responses. daveyoung151: your list is BY FAR the most interesting! Sounds like you packed for a weekend in Las Vegas!

A return trip ticket

expatguy1 wrote:A return trip ticket

We have a winner!!

* Books - if you have an E-reader then no problem but outside of borrowing from friends there is really no way to get books here. The bookstores are terrible - the best have less than one of those old mall Waldenbooks - and are terribly overpriced. Bring as many as you can carry.
* Shoes - Simply put, if your bf has feet bigger than 10.5 American he will have great difficulty finding shoes. Particularly difficult are cleats - if either of you are planning on playing sports and you have slightly larger than average feet definitely bring your own cleats.
* Clothes - Unlike large-size shoes you CAN find clothes here . . . but clothes of any quality are unbelievably expensive. A pair of Underarmor sweatpants that costs 40 USD in the States costs over 80 USD here. A Zara button down shirt you can get for 50 USD in the States again costs 75 here, etc. And the Chinese equivalents are of horrific quality and style, unless there are some secret brands I haven't seen yet.

Quality electronics, clothes, shoes, toys, English books are all far, far cheaper in the States. Actually, I'm not so sure this city is much of a cost-advantage to live in anymore outside of cheap subway tickets and noodles

leg of lamb, cheese, gravy powder, corned beef, cereals, stuffing and Vegemite to name a few.

Klick wrote: Do we really need 15 varieties of fig newtons?

yes

medications, creams, ointments
N95 Particulate Respirators, for those clean air days

good & plenty's
cheese puffs
smart-food popcorn

most important, your rose colored glasses

How hard will it be for me to find clothes there? I'm 5'11", US dress size 14 and have women's 11 feet. We have already planned on my boyfriend having no luck buying cloths; he is 6'10", 330lbs and size 16 feet. Are jeans a realistic thing to bring? I assume we won't have a dryer in our apt.

You will need to bring clothes & shoes.
FYI, you can have clothes & shoes made here at any fabric market , be on the search for good tailor after you arrive. My wife found one she uses, she just goes by the shop with a magazine picture and the guy shows up a week later with it made.

Yes bring your jeans

Sarah, I'm not a girl but I would definitely bring all the clothes you're going to need. The fabric market might be able to sew up some stuff for you but the average Chinese girl is 5'2, 100 pounds and a size 0.

And yeah, likely no dryer unless you're willing to pay 1k USD a month for an apartment. However, if you really want one (and I did) you can buy them for less than 2,000 rmb. I'm happy with mine, and now I never have to wait for my jeans to dry.

And your bf has the dimensions of an NBA center. He's going to get lots of attention.

Stark - we have both been to China before and yes, a tall, blonde, blue eyed girl and HUGE man get A LOT of attention. Thankfully we have experienced it before so we know what to expect. Do most apartments come with a washer in them?

Danielm103 wrote:You will need to bring clothes & shoes.
FYI, you can have clothes & shoes made here at any fabric market , be on the search for good tailor after you arrive. My wife found one she uses, she just goes by the shop with a magazine picture and the guy shows up a week later with it made.

Yes bring your jeans

Quite true. One thing I will say about the fabric market though is, if you have anything resembling curves on your body anywhere, the fabric market tailors are much better at copying something you already have, than coming up with something from a magazine/catalog. So if you have a few items that you really like, that fit you well and you know flatter you, consider taking them to the market and having them copied over, maybe in a few different prints or whatever. This includes jeans by the way, I have had a pair of jeans I loved (and wore to death) copied a few times, in different types of denim.

I might want my family to do some tourist site visiting with you and your boyfriend so you guys get the attention instead of my girls!

Good lists above. Also consider if there is a specific brand of something you really love and would miss...while almost all types of US foods are here for some price, certainly not all brands are. For example I bring back Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, and Grape Nuts cereal (I've seen GN flakes but not the original). That applies to meds and things like cosmetics or deodorants too.

Some foods that I thought of as American are widely available in local form (and hence cheap) here; for example peanut butter (either skippy-type or just-peanuts type) and oatmeal (though I haven't seen instant flavored oatmeal).

Very glad to hear that peanut butter is there. I'm assuming that it tastes just like American peanut butter? I've had English, Italian and German attempts and they are GROSS!

BRAS. Girl, you do not want to have anything to do with Chinese bras. Also, if you are not flat, you won't even have that option.

Anyway, yes, the peanut butter is like American stuff. You can get natural stuff at City Shop et. al. though it is like $15 USD, which always makes me tear up a little.

MummyGin wrote:I moved to SH about 6 months ago, so my list is still quite fresh in my mind. Apart from the usual toiletries, spices and medicine:
1. Vaseline or similar petroleum jelly - doesnt seem to exist here. I find it essential for winter chapped skin.
2. Bakeware - if you like baking. Bring your baking tins, cookie sheets etc. You can find them here but they are expensive.
3. Books - if you like reading. Again, you can find them here but expensive, and the fake books you get from street carts have limited selection.
4. Makeup - they have a Sephora here where you can find everything. Again, more expensive.
5. Toys - if you have kids.
6. Recipe books - when you have to get creative in the kitchen

1. Carrefour
2. The Hotel Supply Shop or Metro
3. Amazon.com
4. Anywhere and everywhere.
5. Anywhere and everywhere.
6. Amazon.com + the various bookstores around town always have the majority of them. Failing that... the internet

Soxfiend wrote:Ibuprofen
Hydrogen Peroxide
Theraflu
deodorant
Strong anti-mosquito spray

Ibuprofen is sold in every pharmacy here. Fenbid is one of the names.

No idea what theraflu is.

deodorant can be bought pretty much everywhere now.

mosquito spray, depends. The johnson & johnson crap works well enough for me. I fill the house with the little bottle things that poison the buggers and myself and generally stay indoors in summer anyway (it's too damn hot to be out)

Speaking as a someone of above average height (6'11" 280lbs, size 18 EEEE shoes) your bf's best bet is to just get clothes made here. Shoes are another matter. It is possible to get them made, but anything of reasonable quality is almost prohibitively expensive. I know there are some shoe companies that ship internationally, but it's best just to stock up before you leave. The same should hold true for women's sizes as well, but I have little experience in that area.

As for sundries, I recommend sunscreen, deodorant and ibuprofen (or whatever your preferred OTC medications may be). You can find deodorant here, but every kind I've tried has been VERY underwhelming. Other than that, I'd say most things are a matter of preference. If there are any items you particularly like your brand of, bring them for (as stated by others) they will either be non-existent here or over-priced. I also recommend bringing a stash of your favorite candy, but I do have a bit of a sweet tooth.

Someone before mentioned baking. I agree that it is difficult to find baking supplies here, there is a more pressing matter to attend to. Unless you are planning on staying in some swanky expat housing you aren't going to have an oven in your kitchen. You can buy one once you get here (like I did), but it won't be what you're used to. Think slightly overgrown toaster oven. That being said, I've managed to cook a wide variety of dishes in mine, from BBQ brisket to pumpkin pie to beef enchiladas, so don't think that baking is a complete impossibility. If you're still interested in baking after that, then you can start worrying about the supplies.

If you have any other questions about being an excessively tall expat here, feel free to drop me a line and I'll do my best to help out.