Basics - The Rough Guide to Shanghai - page 22

opportunity for dangerous sports in Shanghai
(unless crossing the road counts) so a
standard policy should be sufficient.
Rough Guides has teamed up with
Columbus Direct to offer you travel insurance
that can be tailored to suit your needs.
Products include a low-cost backpacker
option for long stays; a short break option
for city getaways; a typical holiday package
option; and others. There are also annual
multi-trip policies for those who travel
regularly. Different sports and activities
(trekking, skiing, etc) can usually be covered
if required.
See our website ( W www.roughguides.com
/website/shop) for eligibility and purchasing
options. Alternatively, UK residents should call
T

on the ground floor, and never signposted in
English - look for the net character, two
crosses inside an “n” (see p.194). Prices are
cheap (at around ¥3 an hour), and they are
open 24 hrs, but are also heavily regulated -
you are required to show your passport
before being allowed near a computer. There
are a couple on Nanyang Lu, behind the
Shanghai Centre, and another on Yunnan
Nan Lu, just south of the intersection with
Huaihai Zhong Lu. Shanghai Library at 1555
Huaihai Zhong Lu (Hengshan Lu metro;
7am-2am) has a ground-floor room full of
computers at ¥4/hr.
All large hotels have business centres
where you can get online, but this is
expensive, especially in the classier places
(around ¥30/hr). Better value are the
backpacker hostels (see p.104 for details),
where getting online costs around ¥5/hr or is
free. But the best deal is to tote a laptop -
just about every café has free WiFi, as does
McDonalds.

08700 339988; Australians should call
T 1300 669 999 and New Zealanders should
call 0800 559911. All other nationalities

should call T [phone].

T

Internet
Shanghai has plenty of Internet cafés,
usually full of kids playing Counterstrike.
They're generally located in backstreets, not

Laundry
All hotels provide a laundry service for
around ¥50-100, depending on how classy
the hotel is. Hostels have a self-service
laundry. There are very few public
launderettes.

The new Great Wall of China

If the Chinese regime was discomfited
by news faxes sent from abroad
during the Tian'anmen massacre in
1989, imagine the headache the
Internet is giving them. Tireless as
ever in controlling what its citizens
know, the government has built a
sophisticated firewall - nicknamed
the new Great Wall of China - that
blocks access to undesirable
websites. The way this is administered
shifts regularly according to the mood
of the powers that be. In general, you
can be pretty sure you won't be able
to access the BBC, CNN, the White
House, or anything about Tibetan
freedom or democracy, though
newspaper websites tend to be left
unhindered. You can get around the
great firewall by using a proxy server,
though it will make loading times slow.
Try installing tor ( W tor.eff.org) into your
browser (it works well with Firefox), or
simply go through the proxy W www
.anonymouse.org.

Living and working in
Shanghai
If you want to stay on in Shanghai, first you'll
need a residence permit, which your
employer will help you sort out. You have to
show your passport and Z (working) visa,
health certificate, employment certificate,
work permit and your employer's business
licence at the main PSB (see p.34). The
issued green card is then valid for a year.
Foreigners are now allowed to reside
anywhere in the city, though most live in
housing targeted at them. Rent in these
districts is expensive, usually at least
US$2000 a month, which gets you a
tolerable imitation of a Western apartment.
Living in ordinary neighbourhoods is much
cheaper: a central, furnished two-bedroom
apartment can cost around US$500 a
month. The easiest way to find an apartment
is through a real-estate agent, who will
usually take a month's rent as a fee. There

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