We love Shanghai, we really do. Often we feel like we're married to it, in that sometimes we like to bitterly complain about it when we're out with our friends, but other times we're just head over heels crazy in love and couldn't imagine life without it. A place where it regularly feels like people are coming and going through a revolving door, you may often be tempted to leave yourself at times. However, if you are considering departing this unique, bonkers, charming, polluted, one-day-freezing-cold-the-next-day-boiling-hot city of dreams, do bear in mind what you'll be giving up.
1. Everyone you meet being on WeChat
Granted, we can't actually remember who 75 percent of our contacts are now, but still – way to connect, Shanghai. We probably won't miss the group chats, though...
2. The public transport
Let's be honest here: it's cheap and pretty amazing. Metros that arrive on time, right down to the very second, all day long. Plus an ever-growing network that will mean by 2020, you'll never be more than 600 metres away from a station in downtown Shanghai. Operating hours are slowly getting extended too, we can almost smell that 24-hour service. And you don't have to pay for a ticket if it's too hot on the bus. Savour it while you can, people, it's a world away from the London Underground!
3. Diverse cuisine
Shanghai's breadth of food, ranging from the cheapest of street foods to the most dazzling Bund-side extravagances, means that eating out is never dull. Or you could just go to Family Mart...
4. The Family Mart jingle
Accompanied by a shrill chorus of huanying guanglin quanjia, of course. That sound will, however, be forever embedded in our brains - as will the round the clock convenience.
5. Using the pollution (or heat) as an excuse not to go out
At least there's one upside to it. And you can always order in...
6. Sherpa's
A one-stop shop for all your takeaway needs, poised to deliver you the cuisine of your choice via its city-wide network of orange-clad delivery men on motorbikes. You don't even need your computer anymore, as you can just order with the mobile app. What's for dinner? Sherpa's. Sherpa's is for dinner.
7. Brunch
So what if we're pissed by noon most weekends? Shanghai's brunch game is on point. And we love it.
8. Ayi
Ayi knows how to fix all life problems. We can't live without ayi, and we wouldn't want to either.
9. The plane trees in the Former French Concession
In the winter, they wither into gnarly, Tim Burton-esque beauty, and in the spring, they transform into these beautiful things above. They're great backdrops for a leisurely cycle...
10. Cycling, slooooooowly
The city might be flat as a pancake, but that doesn't affect the lethargic pace favoured by Shanghai's many cyclists, who creak from street to street on their share bikes. It's in stark contrast to the lycra-ed up cyclists in most major cities who seem to think they're in the midst of a Tour de France time trial.
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