Plans on moving to Shanghai...Need advice.

Hello All:

My name is Will Smith, no relation to the actor . However, we do have a couple things in common. The first being ethnicity and the second is age. I would prefer to share social and economic class, but we can't win them all. I currently reside in Alabama by way of Iowa. With great news from my employer, I'm expecting to relocate from the US (Alabama) to Shanghai in the near future. I personally am pretty optimistic about the move and look forward to the challenge. I've had several opportunities to visit other countries and these visits have made me flexible and open to new cultures and endeavors. On the other hand, my wife hasn't traveled much and she has her reservations about moving to China. Her main concern is how the culture shock could impact our 7 and 15 year-old children. Some research on blogs has shown racism against African Americans in China to be an issue. However, recently she's done some research on the expat site and is starting to come around. Are there any suggestions regarding american schools, optimal living areas, churches, colleges (for my wife), etc. Any support or recommendations would be a great help.

Welcome to Afroshanghai.com and thanks for signing up. Personally I don't think there is much to worry about in terms of racism. Yes you will have to deal with the looks and the pointing every day but it is not like someone is going to attack you or something. I hope your package includes schooling for the kids because this can be pretty expensive here for American curriculum.
Good luck!

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