Welcome to the Shanghailander blog!
My name is Hugues Martin / 马雨果 and I have been writing the Shanghailander blog since its start in 2006. I am French, coming from Burgundy (or Bourgogne in French) and having kept strong link to my home region and its World famous wines.
I first came to Shanghai in 1998, staying for about 2 months in the city. I returned to Shanghai in January 2004, from Budapest where I lived for a 6 years. Like many foreigners, I was supposed to stay a few years… but I never left the city. I got married with a charming Shanghai lady in 2009, and we got twins in 2017. We lived for 13 years in the former French Concession, before moving to Hong Qiao area.
I was also involved in starting the (now defunct) Shanghai Sideways company, that was giving tours of Shanghai in Chang Jiang 750 sidecars. This was a lot of fun and and a great way to show Shanghai to friends, visitors and residents. I sold the bike in 2013.
Apart from Shanghailander, which is only my hobby, I am a partner at French real and estate and investment advisory firm EXPATRIMO. We advise French expats all over Asia in how to wisely invest their hard earned money back to France. We also advise Chinese investors into French real estate.
For questions on those topics, you can contact me at: hmartin_at_expatrimo.com