I’m guessing that your gym is in Puxi or high-end Pudong. You’ll want to live nearby, at least a reasonable compromise between your gym and the GF’s school. The public transportation system of Shanghai is awesome, as a general statement, with a very thorough subway and bus system. You don’t need a car to just get around. Taxis in Shanghai can suck, but it’s not as bad as Beijing. Also, Didi is your friend, for late nights or airport runs.
If I were you I would try to live within walking distance or no more than a few subway stops from work. The 地铁 lines are all numbered, and the oldest line is Line No 1. For quality of life / sanity reasons, try to engineer your life to avoid daily rides on older subway lines which tend to be more crowded and also less well air conditioned. Higher number lines = more space and better air.
Housing prices have skyrocketed in Shanghai and rents have risen to reflect this. I’m guessing you already know this, but unless you can tolerate a hellish commute, you will be paying far more for your rent than whatever you’re paying here. The quality of construction varies greatly, so be picky. I found that places completed at or slightly after the peak of the commodities boom (2009-13) were the worst – paper thin walls, cheap plastic pipes, gas leaks, etc. As a general statement, older construction is better. Most estate agents are criminals and time wasters, although it sounds like you have that covered. Oh, and Shanghai landlords will rip you off at every turn. Pro tip: work your contacts and find a Taiwanese landlord.
The issues you identified re food and restaurants are real. You are going to encounter issues from tainted food and/or low hygiene standards. Everybody does. But for me, it wasn’t a frequent problem. I was there for about 2.5 years and ate as much and as widely as I could. The range of cuisines reflects Shanghai’s status as an international city and business center of China. So in a sense it’s better than Taipei, with the caveat that every now and then what you eat will leave you sitting on the hopper for the subsequent 36 hours.
I didn’t hear much Beijing putonghua with the offensive “rrr” thing. The locals speak Shanghainese and Mandarin with their own, varyingly horrible, accent. A lot of the people you encounter are from Zhejiang or Jiangsu. Also a lot of folks from Anhui, speaking a version of Mandarin that I found impenetrable. I don’t see Shanghai as a great place to learn Mandarin, and there a lot of foreigners who may have learned Chinese elsewhere, or who just get stuck speaking their own jive. It’s a big city.
The fact that it’s a big city has its downsides. You have to travel far and spend a lot of money to get the hell out. Before I got there, I had visions of spending my holidays traveling to all sorts of cool places in China that I thought I wanted to see. But I got tired of endless grey skies and dirt, and the thought of what it was doing to my lungs. And I got tired of China, frankly. So what actually occcured is, I got on a plane to some other country, usually Taiwan or Japan, almost every chance I got. I don’t hate Shanghai, but it is a city that requires an antidote, from time to time.
I was a member at the Ambassy gym which was somewhat high end although probably not as fancy as your prospective place. I thought it was a good gym culture. The clientele was maybe 50-50 locals and foreigners. Most everyone was there to work out and I don’t recall having to wait to use equipment because someone was playing angry birds while lounging on the bench.
Bottom line: if it’s as good of a job as you make it sound, and if it fits your ambitions, my advice is to take it.
