Photo Credit: Benoit Cezard

When it comes to landing a job in China, you have three options:

• Go to China and look for a job once there.
• Go to China as an intern or as a student, work hard and network aggressively, and at the end of 3 or 6 months there is a good chance you’ll have a full-time job offer somewhere.
• Try to get a job in your home country that will send you to China. This approach has the highest possible upside in that you would earn a western wage while in China, but it’s also the most unlikely of the three options if you lack prior work experience.

When you first start living in Shanghai, especially if you are a recent graduate, you might find cash to be a bit tight.

You’ll find that Shanghai has thousands of things to do for fun, but many of those have a price tag attached to them.

The places on our list below are here because they are 100% free to visit. It's our attempt to get you started in Shanghai with a list of 10 Totally FREE things to do in the city!

When considering a place to live, especially in a foreign country for who knows how long, you don’t want to just settle for any hole in the wall place. There are ways to find an apartment that is perfect for you without using up all your savings. Particularly for living in Shanghai, there are many options- it just depends on where your priorities are.

If you end up in the countryside of China or find yourself in a rural area, knowing a little bit of Chinese will get you a long way (and if you know the local dialect, then very good on you).  Not only in the provincial areas is Chinese useful, but also the cities, where although there may be a huge foreign contingent of English speakers, native or not, Chinese will become a boon within your lifestyle.  If you are not already convinced and signed up for a Chinese class in Shanghai, here are some reasons as to why learning Chinese in China could be your saving grace.