I used to be very good with writing these blog articles regularly and then like the rest of the people in Shanghai life and work got in the way.  So I kept telling myself I will write again when I have something interesting to say or found a great service that the people using this website could benefit from.  Months went by and finally I have something to write about…

The best agent!

If you have lived in Shanghai for any length of time you will have had to deal with the unfortunate ordeal of finding an apartment.  Personally I can’t stand having to do this and I have done it five times already!  Yep, that works out to be one apartment for each year I have lived in this fun country.

I think the whole process affects me twice as much, because I am an Interior Designer and walking into a dirty, super Chinese ugly apartment feels physically painful!  Bad design hurts!  I have walked into so many apartments over the years then look at the agent in disgust and just turned back around and told them I would wait for them on the street.

One of the main problems I, and probably the rest of the expats in Shanghai, usually face is getting the agent to actually understand what I want.  This equates to me saying “I want a CLEAN, bright, modern apartment that has WESTERN furniture” to which they respond with “yes, yes we have many that will be suitable for you!”  Needless to say when I have walked into the tenth apartment in a row that has a sofa that looks like it has been taking steroids and is in some kind of weird orange, brown colour I am starting to get a little angry!

Bread and butter, coffee and sugar, so it goes for Internet and VPN... at least this is how it is for expats here in Shanghai. Before I continue, I would like to say that I meant no disrespect writing this article. I understand the necessity of cyber censorship, especially in China. I like Shanghai (I wouldn't be here if I have a better alternative) and I'm sure not going to bitch about someone else rules if I'm a guest in their home, thus I guess I'm only writing this article for other expats who, like me, are addicted to Facebook, YouTube, Blogger and Twitter. If you are an terrorist/activist, please STOP here!

VPN... what is this??!!

First of all, what is this VPN. Well, it is actually a short term for Virtual Private Network. Hmmmm. Okay, lets start with Private Network. Your office for example is a local private network, computers can share files, share printers and do other stuff  through the office network. Okay now, what if you have an office in Shanghai and the other is in Beijing. Well, if you connect both of them, then it is a bigger network. So, Virtual Private Network is used to connect a bunch of computers, servers together in far away places so that users can enjoy the privileges of having a private network. In basic, it emulates the environment of a Private Network over public network (the Internet).

You gotta admit, it’s pretty damn hot these days, and there’s nothing worse than spending time on your makeup only to have it melt on you the moment you step outside. So here’s a few tips I’ve been using that will sure keep you looking like a sun-kissed goddess with minimal effort:

1. Take the time to prime

Primers are great because it helps take the shine away from your face, smooth fine lines while acting as a silicone layer between your skin and your makeup. My favourite find has been the MAC Prep + Prime which also comes in an SPF version.

2. Lessen the load

Rather than going for a heavy coverage foundation, opt for oil-free or water-based products that will feel lighter on the skin. Try Laura Mercier’s tinted moisturizer or Max Factor’s Liquid Touch Illuminating Liquid foundation, which make you feel like you’re not wearing any makeup at all. 

Summer is a long awaited season for most of us, but this is also the season which can bring the most damage and for skin and cause “photo-aging” later in result. The damage is caused by several “burdens” for skin in summer - strong heat, dryness, dust, excessive sweat clogging the pores, air conditioners. So to protect and care for skin in summer, the seasonal regimen needs to be focused on 3 main actions: Gentle Cleansing, Hydration and Protection.

Cleansing

Cleansing skin should be very very thorough in summer, as the grease and oils combined with dust can form an invisible, yet thick layer on skin. In summer we absolutely have to avoid harsh scrubbing, peeling or whitening procedures. These would overexpose and make skin and pores vulnerable to heat, sweat, dust and might cause a major skin breakouts and acne.Gentle, cleansing scrubs (the best is natural solution such as crushed almond or apricot kernel seeds, crushed flax seeds, crushed walnuts with some nourishing oils) once a week is fine. Also herbal or green tea steam for face is very beneficial.

Most of us are renters, so we don’t have the luxury of actually renovating our homes into something special, but there are some ways that you change your surrounds to be more Eco-Friendly.  First I guess I should go a few paces back and explain what Eco-Friendly is and why it is good for you.

Eco-Friendly seems to be all the rage these days to save our planet, but there are other reasons why this is a great thing to adapt to your home and that is yours and your family’s health.  Have you ever lived in a place in Shanghai where there is a lot of wood paneling scattered around and maybe you always felt a bit under the weather, but couldn’t quite figure out why.  All products in your house are slowly (or some, not so slowly) releasing emissions that you are breathing in and when I say all I mean all.  Furniture, paints, cleaning products, timber, plants, etc all emit VOC’s (Volatile organic compounds).  The reason for mentioning the timber paneling is because I have actually heard of cases in Shanghai where the tenants have become sick because the products used to treat the wood were emitting too much Formaldehyde.  That is why a lot of Chinese people will renovate and not move in for months, but you could seriously reduce these emissions by choosing the right materials.

It’s that time of the year when most people feel super-motivated to exercise in order to lose some weight for summer. But this enthusiasm can dip occasionally. How do we stay motivated?  Here are my 10 tips to reboot your mood and keep the fitness journey on track. You don’t need to apply all the techniques listed below. Just start out with the tips you believe will have the most impact in keeping you motivated.

1. Think of all the benefits of exercise

Exercise not only helps us reach and maintain a healthy body weight, it also has a whole lot of other benefits, both physical and mental benefits. It lowers blood pressure, strengthens bones, helps battle depression, improves energy levels, increases mental focus, elevates mood, increases a sense of control over your life, improves self-esteem, reduces the chances of various diseases and slows down aging.

The more benefits you can identify with the more motivated you are to exercise.

As a relatively new person in Shanghai, I have recently discovered the Fabric Market and I wanted to share my experience in this site as an addition to the great article that Sue wrote a couple of months back (if you haven’t read the article yet, make sure you check it out is full of very good info).Visiting the Fabric Market can be an exhilarating experience; no matter you are a tourist just passing through or a resident of Shanghai, visiting this place will always be a fun experience. If you are one of those people who prefer to shop their clothes of the rack, probably you won’t go back for a second time, on the other hand if you are one of those people who loves designing your clothes or that you always wish that the clothes were a little bit more or less... (like me), I promise you will be going back.

Not so long ago while chatting with Rebecca, who was the first Doll to recommend me different stalls in the market, mentioned to me that she goes there every other week. I personally thought that it was too often (yeah!!!), that was before I got the ‘flavor’ of the Fabric Market, now I know better and I have been going there more often that I care to admit.

What I really love about the Fabric Market is the opportunity of play ‘fashion designer’ for the day on a safe way, after all you won’t be doing the clothes and if they can’t do it, they will tell you.

There are so many tiny apartments in Shanghai and if you are not one of those lucky few who swan around in their 150 sqm plus apartments you may be feeling a little squeezed in.  I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we are not in places like Japan or even the fabulous Hong Kong where space is a luxury.  There are many tricks that you can utilize to make that space that you spend a huge portion of your life in feel bigger.

You can use many tricks to make your space feel larger like colour, furniture placement, lighting and different materials.  I will give you some simple tips that will make a world of difference to what is feeling like a cramped space.

1. Less is More

One of the sure fire ways to make a space feel not only cramped, but messy is having clutter laying around the place.  Try and work out spaces to hide things, this could be as simple as buying a nice looking box from IKEA to put things in instead of leaving them sitting all over the shelves.  This works well for all those little items you never know what to do with when moving.  I am very brutal and usually throw this stuff out, but if you are not that way inclined then get some nice matching boxes to put on the shelves and hide the stuff away.  You will be surprised how much more orderly and spacious your place will feel after this small step.

It has now become apparent to a lot of the Dolls that I am very adamant about where I stand in photos… yes I have a ‘side’!  Anybody who has tried to take a photo with me will know that I often jump from the original side to the other side of the photo.  Am I vein or is it that after years of throwing away and deleting bad photos of me I finally decided that I would figure out how to get a good one.

I keep getting asked how to work out your side and what are other tips for taking a good photo, so I thought I would do some research and spread the word.  What I found out where ways to not only make yourself look great, but also skinnier.  Apparently, all the celebs know these, of course!

During the summer, there is one general rule that I always stick to…less is more!  That rule applies to both cosmetic and skin care application.

The most appealing summer look is a rejuvenating, fresh, natural and discreet makeup. Summer makeup should not be heavy and is mostly aimed at protecting the skin from exposure to sun rays, avoid excessive sweating, cut out the oily shine and prevent clogging of skin pores that often result in acnes and pimples. Put aside the thought of a thick foundation and running mascara, and try out a few tips given below for a ‘fresh as a daisy’ look.

1. In hot humid weather avoid makeup products that come in a cream consistency. Cream will melt. Avoid cream face makeup, cream eyeshadows, cream blushes and even lipsticks. Instead opt for powders, balms and gels, such as powder eyeshadows and powder blushes, lip balms and stains, and gel cheek blushes. Also avoid makeup products that are glittery or very shimmery. Shimmer reflects light, ideally in strategic areas, but in hot weather, shimmer will simply just look oily.

Summer is about baring skin and showing off the beautiful (fake) summer tan you have. But in order to look good baring that skin, you need to take some time to ready your skin and reverse the signs of neglect you showed your skin during fall, winter and spring.

Knock of each step on my skin care tips for glowing skin and you'll be ready to pull out your favorite summer dress or bikini in no time flat. Most of the products mentioned in the article I buy from the well-known beauty online store strawberrynet.com, which I also recomment to you.

So here goes my ultimate list of 10 skin care tips for glowing skin in summer:

I think it would be pretty fair to say that most of us have something about our bodies that we don’t like.  Perhaps we think our bottom is too round or too flat, our boobs too big or too small.  When it comes to dressing, it is not your size that is important, it is your shape.  By knowing what your shape is and how to dress it, you can flaunt the bits that you love and hide the bits you don’t.  Summer is coming and we all want to look our best and so many of us are hitting the gyms or trying a new diet.  The thing to remember is, even when we loose weight our body shape stays the same, it will just be a slimmer version of our former selves.  Our body shape depends on what our mamas and papas gave us in our genes and so no amount of dieting or exercising will reward you with an hourglass figure if you didn’t have one before.Although all of us have a slightly different and unique body shape they can still be broken down into 5 main groups. These are, the hourglass, pear or triangle, inverted triangle, round (apple) and rectangle.  Each group also has a slender or fuller category, for example you could be a slender hourglass or a fuller hourglass.

We all think eating fruit means just buying fruit, cutting it up and popping it into our mouths.  It's not that easy. It's important to know how and when to eat fruit.What's the correct way to eat fruit?

It means not eating fruit after a meal! Fruit should be eaten on an empty stomach!Eating fruit like that plays a major role in detoxifying your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

Fruit is the most important food!

Let's say you eat two slices of bread, then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it's prevented from doing so. In the meantime, the whole meal rots and ferments, and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach, and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil.Eat your fruit on an empty stomach or before your meal!  You've heard people complain: Every time I eat watermelon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet, etc. This will not happen if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach.

This past weekend I picked up a few items I had made--it was my first time to order things from the fabric market. I put forth the caveat that I haven't done much before, and I also speak Chinese so I don't usually deal with the shop owners in English. I'll just give general price estimates. If I overpaid, well....damn. It's a learning process. What I learned from shopping:

1. If you're getting something copied, DEFINITELY have them re-measure you anyway and tell them to copy the style/details of the piece you brought, not the fit. The fabrics of the old piece and the new copy probably won't be the same, so they will hang on your body differently and you will need different measurements. Also, the owners may have suggestions on how to alter the copies to fit even better (raising the seat of your pants, shortening seams for the leg, etc). 2. Leave a contact phone number, even if they don't ask. Tell them to call you if there are any problems. That way, you don't wait till your next trip to find out they couldn't finish your dress on time, or they ran out of fabric, etc. And of course, make sure to get their card with your receipt!

3. Do haggle some. You won't get 50% off, but you can knock 40-60 kuai off usually, sometimes more. Try to get a deeper discount by doing multiple versions at one store (buy two shirts, two dresses, etc)

4. Look for shops that have one or two specialties. They are likely to do one thing and do it well, and they are more likely to have a large amount of samples to choose from. The shops that sell a little of everything may not be as specialized.

5. Don't shop by any shops close to the doors or escalators. They see the most foot traffic, and they're much less willing to lower their prices than some shop stuck in a far-off corner!

Shopping is a favourite hobby for many of us, but for the rest it can be just, plain hard work.  Here are my top shopping tips that should get you through your Spring shopping unscathed.

1. Make a list before you go shopping.  Look in your wardrobe and see what you have and what you need.  What colours and styles do you have?  What item of clothing are you always missing when it comes to putting an outfit together?  Always make sure that a new buy will go with at least 3 items that you already have in your wardrobe.

2. Make a budget.  How much money are you happy to spend on each item?  Are you looking to buy an investment piece or some smaller fashion items to update your wardrobe?  When looking to buy an investment piece such as a wool coat, suit or leather goods always buy the best quality that your budget allows.

3. Wear makeup and shop on a day that you feel good about yourself.  If you are looking in the mirror and not liking what you see, it doesn‘t matter how fabulous the new clothes are, you won‘t like them because you don‘t like you.

Meditation is one of those things that we hear about all the time in different circles and someone always knows someone who does it and talks about how it is something that changed their life for the better.

My personal journey with meditation probably started over ten years ago when I kept hearing about it from different sources and thought it was something that I should try.  So knowing nothing about it, except the fact that you are supposed to sit in a cross-legged position and maybe say OM a few times while having your hands on your knees I sat down and attempted to meditate.  As you can imagine this did not work!  I was one of those people who kept telling people that it is impossible for me to meditate.  I would say things like “I just can’t do it, my mind is too crazy and is incapable of thinking about anything, but mundane things like what I need to get at the grocery store or “I wish that cute guy in the office would just ask me out on a date already, because it is obvious that we are sole mates”.

Over the past ten years I did attempt meditation on numerous occasions, but always failed, because I lacked the tools I needed to have a successful meditation practice.  I had never actually been told how to meditate!  Obviously there is more to it then just sitting with your eyes closed and thinking about nothing.  I think another factor that stopped me was that I thought everyone who was capable of meditating just sat down on there butt and started and it was so easy for them.  This, I am here to tell you, is a complete urban myth.  It would be like saying that tomorrow I think I might run a marathon with no training at all!  Running a marathon with not training is impossible; meditating with no practice or some kind of instructions is also completely impossible.

Warning: getimagesize() [function.getimagesize]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/shdolls/public_html/components/com_customproperties/helper.php on line 297

Warning: getimagesize(http://shanghaidolls.org//images/stories/carla-traveling-jose-roldan-rendon.jpg) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/shdolls/public_html/components/com_customproperties/helper.php on line 297

Warning: Division by zero in /home/shdolls/public_html/components/com_customproperties/helper.php on line 202

Warning: Division by zero in /home/shdolls/public_html/components/com_customproperties/helper.php on line 216

Warning: getimagesize() [function.getimagesize]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/shdolls/public_html/components/com_customproperties/helper.php on line 375

Warning: getimagesize(http://shanghaidolls.org//images/stories/carla-traveling-jose-roldan-rendon.jpg) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/shdolls/public_html/components/com_customproperties/helper.php on line 375

Shanghai – Hong Kong – Shanghai Train Schedule

This is the most annoyingly confusing thing I have found online in while. Like they intentionally wrote the website content to make everything unclear. You can find out about fares here but the advertised discounts are not available if your journey originates in Shanghai – no matter what the website tells you. The schedule varies but right now, trains leave Shanghai on even dates (not even days, Mr. Data Compiler). So don’t break your brain trying to figure out what an “even day” is, or if they count the first day of the week as Sunday or Monday. To get to Hong Kong you leave Shanghai at 18:24 on the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc. of the month. Trains come back from Hong Kong on odd dates. Setting off from Hung Hom Station in Kowloon at about 15:30pm. The schedule is subject to seasonal changes, though, so departure and return dates alternate.

I wrote this entry primarily off the back of my experience with freelance copywriting and editing. It may translate across all industries. It may not.

1. Strip away the romance

Before you go into freelancing, think about what it is. Freelancing is a lot of things. But it is not:

-   The easy option for people who don’t have the discipline for a 9 – 5 -   A lifestyle choice so you can to go on vacation at the drop of a hat -   For people who have yet to “find” themselves -   Easy money

Freelancing is hard work. A lot of the time you will have to work against the misconception that being a freelancer, particularly if you’re a writer, you are just indulging a hobby until you decide to get a “proper” job. This is something you have to battle against. By “battle” I mean to dispel that misconception by being ultra professional. From something as pernickety as sending out only thoroughly spellchecked emails (with appropriate subjects lines!), to turning up looking crisp and sharp to client meetings (which should really be regarded as job interviews because you are only ever as a good as the last project you delivered).

So, get a proper sense of what freelancing is. Say goodbye to weekends and holidays (in the beginning at least) and be prepared to be on the go for a lot of the time as you build up your portfolio and customer base.

Five tips to help you hold on to your sanity and get a fair deal in the Shanghai property search.

1. The estate agent doesn’t care what kind of apartment you want.

This can be the most frustrating thing to come to terms with if you aren’t expecting it. So expect it. You’ll tell him:

-  your budget -  the location you want to live in -  the number of bedrooms and bathrooms you expect, -  the minimum square measurements you want -  even the street you want to live on

He, with commission on the brain and a total disregard for your spec in his heart, will proceed to take you on a wild, incredibly hot and rage-inducing goose chase, showing you everything but what you actually asked for.

The way round this: Don’t blindly agree to meet the agent at his office so he can lead you a merry dance. Over the phone, ask him for precise details of each property he wants to show. If they are not exactly what you are after, don’t bother leaving the air-conditioned sanctity of home – he can call you back when he’s found something that meets your criteria.

So you know how I can’t stand Oprah because of how she is just this random, middle-aged single woman who is always shoving unsolicited advice down people’s throats?  Well as a random, 30-something woman from whom most people know better than to ask romantic counsel, I’m jumping on this advice-giving bandwagon because it seems like a fun place to be.

So…

1. Don’t take it too seriously. It really is like buying a lottery ticket.  Chances are that it will end in a big fat zero.  Which, to be fair, you should consider a win because at least he didn’t try to kill you.  Set your bar of expectation way low and don’t prioritize that first date over anything else.  Really, don’t do it.  Think about it like looking for a needle in a big old pile of other needles.   Better-looking, socially well-adjusted needles.  Which are all already taken so you are left to sort through “The Others” like some creepy parallel universe version of Lost.  Which is how you feel as you trawl through maybeillfindsomeonewhoisntbroken.com and then self-awareness kicks in – belatedly – and you stop and think: “Eek!  Is this what guys are thinking when they are looking at the profiles of people like me?”