1) Hmm, well, you won't find any on the Bund. You might find a nice restaurant or Armani store though, if you like to hang out with the rich expats. Check out Bridge 8, Suzhou Creek, Xintiandi, or the general Huaihai Road / Nanjing Road area. The big commercial ones are here, but most more interesting companies in terms of architecture stay away. They have a hard living here.

2) Salary expectations should be LOW. You are more experienced than I am, but don't count on being able to save any cash. Many interns, masters graduated, make as low as $600 net a month. With a few years of experience you can expect more of course, but still...

I know some 35 year old architects with a bunch of experience that make between 15 and 20 thousand CNY a month.

3) Though it might seem gloom, and there are tons of young architects here looking for jobs, i certainly recommend it. Jobs are not greatly paid, but the turnaround rate is high, so getting one is fairly easy. Workloads are not overwhelming, unless you work in a really small office. You can expect to get to do a lot of actual design of really big projects. More facades than function though. It *really* turns your perspectives around.

4) Be careful with companies that claim to be international. Often they are all Chinese. Not that that is all bad! I can certainly guarantee that it is quite an experience to work in a Chinese firm...

5) Be prepared to reevaluate your views on architecture and on Shanghai. It is crazy here. It is a *very* young country, inte terms of architectural maturity.

6) It is a fabulous city to live in.

7) Don't miss the $3 breakfast buffet at La Seine. :)

will they pay you more if you come from america with a B.arch degree from Cornell University? ..and know how to speak Chinese

I can't say I know so much about all things here, but I doubt that coming from the States is such a great advantage to coming from Europe. ;) Doing good on the interview and a good portfolio counts for more than the university though. Working with an American company and contacting them from the states would be my best guess on how you should go about, if you are concerned about salary.

I do think that knowing chinese will help you quite a bit.

I would think basically three types of offices worth trying in shanghai: 1, good small design oriented office like MADASPAM; 2, monster local design institutes like Shanghai Xiandai and ECADI; 3, foreign company's shanghai office, som/kpf/nbbj/rtkl...all have its shanghai office.

don't know if there is a big dif tween beijing and shanghai, but i have 2 friends working in the former and enjoying their lives there immensely as far as i can tell. both are european graduate architects which means they are basically licenced in their home countries but have little experience. this seems not to be an issue for them at all. they both speak english plus one or two other languages, but neither speak chinese. that also seems not to be an issue. both found interesting jobs working with crazy western trained chinese architects in a week or 2. only complaints i have heard so far are the hours...

a fellow phd student (in tokyo) works as an architect out of singapore doing projects in china and while she speaks chinese she tells me it is in many ways better to be noticably foreign rather than ethnic chinese (as she is).

my classmate i have no idea of the wages, but for my european friends i know the wages are pure shite. they don't care as in europe they would be paid the same or less, and the work would be boring to boot....

luck to ya..

"a fellow phd student (in tokyo) works as an architect out of singapore doing projects in china and while she speaks chinese she tells me it is in many ways better to be noticably foreign rather than ethnic chinese (as she is)."

this is quite true. the typical view from people in China is that Western people who don't look chinese are rich and succesful. that is a stereotype that they hold over there.

how bout if u took tiger mountain by strategy???