I came to Shanghai about three weeks ago to study Chinese and was looking for a place to stay.  As it was my first time coming to China, I have no clue what to expect and was obviously lost when I arrived here. Shanghai is surprisingly pretty big! First thing I did was go to real estate agencies (phew, they are everywhere), it was honestly just a waste of time. They speak little English so I probably spent a good hour making sign languages to them, trying to make them understand what I'm saying. All they did was offer me ridiculously high-priced apartments too (seeing that I'm a young foreigner they probably tried their best to scam me).



Luckily, I met an expat here who recommended me to try homestay. I was skeptical and hesitant at first because I didn't really want to live with locals but seeing that I have no other options, I thought I should give it a try.



I'm now staying with a Chinese family and happy that I gave it a chance.  The people I'm staying with are really nice and regularly cook dinner for me. Aside from improving my Mandarin quicker than what I expected, I was also taught how to wrap Jiaozi (dumplings). I would like to thank Homestayglobal.com for helping me. It has been a pleasant experience so far; you would be surprised that despite meeting some really bad mannered people outside, you will meet some really nice ones too.

If you're coming to Shanghai, I highly recommend homestay.