What+should+I+bring?

Information from [|Relocating to Shanghai].
Shanghai is pretty awesome when it comes to getting the products you need. It is always difficult to recommend to others what they might find are the critical items to bring from home. a good rule of thumb is if you can't live without it for a year then bring it along. The following are suggestions by various teachers of what you may want to think about.

Things that are hard to find here:
 * Tampons (becoming available, but poor quality at this point) (OB are available at Watson's and The Pines)
 * Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Tylenol. It is hard to find either the adult or child versions. Some people head to Costco in the states and stock up on a year's supply. [Pudong Wal-Mart has rubbing alcohol + some children's motrin. Just found children's Tylenol and small packages of time-release adult ibuprofen at Watson's in Super Brand Mall! There is Robitussin but cannot read rest of the label -- I think it is cough med only.]
 * All over the counter medicines you may need like Claritin, Tums, laxatives, immodium, cold medicine. Many multi-vitamins available. Wal-Mart has better-priced fish oil.
 * Sunscreen is hard to find and necessary for Shanghai summers and those wonderful tropical places like Hainan Island, Thailand and Malaysia.
 * Vanilla extract if you are a baker. The import grocery stores stock vanilla extract intermittently. If you want a regular and plentiful supply, bring it with you. There are now many, many bottled spices/herbs, but still cannot find poppy seeds for baking.
 * Any spices you use for the holidays. Pumpkin pie spice for example. (There is an inconsistent supply at the Pines Grocery store or at City Shopper. You can buy many western spices there, but there is no guarantee they will be there when you want them OR they will be as inexpensive as you would want them to be)
 * Food coloring if you want colorful holiday cookies.
 * Chocolate chips (and often butterscotch and white chocolate chips) are here. They tend to sell out very quickly. Again, if you want a regular supply, bring them!
 * [|Oven thermometer] - the ovens are not well insulated, some are gas and some electric, but none of them keep heat the same, this tool is pivotal to baking success here. **This is critical for anyone who does a lot of baking!**
 * ALL PRESCRIPTION MEDICINES (One Year Supply) many drugs or similar replacements are available here but if in doubt bring what you need with you.
 * We love Kool -Aid or Crystal Light "on the go's" that you pour into water bottles
 * If you are blonde and you do your own color BRING IT
 * Toothpaste- available but in limited varieties i.e. no sensitive teeth. There are Crest and Colgate brands plus at least 3 name-brand mouthwashes (not imported - all made in China). They have toothpaste in what we know as usual flavors -- but then also some flavors that we find very fun but not at all good (green tea, for instance :)
 * There are many varieties of gum, including sugar-free but no Freedent gum for those with braces. NO Tic Tacs available. There are many M&M/Mars and Hershey candies.
 * Deodorant- only roll on and very limited selection available
 * Diaper Cream -if you have a child still in diapers
 * Women who wear bigger than a size 9 shoe will have a hard time buying shoes
 * Nylons- available but not the same quality as in the States
 * Underwear-available but not the same quality as in the States
 * We brought some battery-operated smoke detectors from the states. The one we had was in our kitchen and would go off if we toasted bread!.....//This is a follow-up on this recommendation. The smoke detectors in apartments are tied into a central system. If you want an alarm that will go off in your apartment, I suggest that you bring your own smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. MOST apartments do not have these. They are also hard-to-find here in China.//
 * Hair Care - Bring some hairspray from home, as the stuff here isn't the same quality or smells really bad. I also bring products for curly hair or frizz control with me. I buy shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, etc. here (Oil of Olay, Dove, Thermasilk, etc. available.) I brought my curling iron and straightener with me. Another teacher filed down the plug, but mine just fits in the outlet I have in my bathroom. For a long time I wasn't able to find a good quality hairdryer in Shanghai, but I just discovered 81 West at the Green Sports and Leisure Center sells salon quality dryers for about 250 RMB. Yay!
 * If you use salon products such as Paul Mitchell, these can be purchased in salons here as well and they're the real deal -- at real deal prices.
 * Further to the note above: As China is a 220-volt country, though, you'll need to purchase a voltage converter here for all your 110-volt gizmos. I used Conair's dual-voltage hair dryer/round brush combo for the first few years but it just wasn't made to be used at 220 volts all the time -- I ended up buying a new one every year for a few years running whenever I was back in the U.S. I finally gave up, which turned out to be a good thing as I went to the Soho shopping center by Jing'An Temple in Puxi (across from Jing'An Park on Nanjing Xi Lu), and they had a terrific selection of hair styling machines -- far more than when I'd arrived in 2002. I bought a Rowenta brand dryer/round brush and have used it ever since with great success.
 * Q-Tips (They're just not the same here.)
 * I suggest bringing a Mr. Misto - to spray cooking oil. You can get PAM here, but it's very expensive. Cooking oil, on the other hand, is sold in enormous quantities, and then you can just fill up your Mr. Misto. I bought mine at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
 * The school provides office supplies, art supplies, etc., but a few of us elementary teachers have gotten frustrated with the quality of the staplers so we bought our own in the States during Christmas break. Staples are a different size, so we also brought those. Not a necessity, but it eases frustrations. If you want to know specifics about what's provided at school, talk to someone on your team.
 * If you have children, you may like to bring some birthday gifts for new friends to start you off. We have found that you may get notification on Tuesday or Wednesday for a party on the weekend and so there is not often much shopping time. We find dipping into the 'present stash' a much less stressful option than rushing out at the last minute to shop.
 * Sheets: We brought our own b/c were told you can not get nice ones here and if you find them they are very expensive. I find the mattresses here to be shorter than US mattresses. I'm 6'4", so we had a custom made mattress, basically to US Queen size specs. The queen beds here are shorter than US queens. I believe the King beds are the same as US. That all said, you can buy sheets here and if you are buying local size mattresses, are probably better off getting them here (but more expensive and not high thread counts).//-R. Chapman// fitted sheets available at IKEA //J. Willet//
 * Towels: IKEA and some other places do have several larger, fairly thick choices.-//R. Chapman//
 * Appliances: I understand your attachment to your Kuerig coffee maker. The Kuerig pods may be available in specialty shops in Shanghai but will tend to be pricy. The issue, of course, if you bring things from the US, is the current that they run on. China is 220, so most things from the US will need a converter. You can buy transformers here, but they are sometimes a bit of a hassle. We bought a Wii here a few years ago. Games that we buy here work fine, but if we buy "real" games from the US, we often have issues. Not sure whether Xbox has the same issues or not. Kathy Gordon I would caution you to review the customs duties associated with shipping appliances in Relocating to Shanghai. If you are going to bring electronics it is best if they arrive in your checked luggage. //K. Gordon//