Mexican enjoys Roman Holiday in Shanghai
Cesar Velazquez looked as if he’d walked straight from the set of “Roman Holiday,” a 1950s movie starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, as he pulled up in his vintage scooter.
With his cool, slick look and casual style, you could imagine this dashing young man sipping an espresso or eating gelato in a Roman piazza beside an Italian beauty with film star looks. Yet here he is. The Mexico City-born businessman has made a home in Shanghai after falling in love with China’s most populated city following a brief trip.
“I came to Shanghai traveling and fell in love with the city,” the 32-year-old reveals. “‘I want to live here,’ I said. So I went back to Mexico, and then I found a master’s degree in finance here in Shanghai.”
Following his master’s degree, Velazquez started his own business, tutoring expats, which has run for three years now.
“We have 40 tutors who are expats as well as Chinese,” Velazquez says. “I’ve been to a few big cities, like Paris, New York and Tokyo. Shanghai beats them all!” pools here. Some of them are quite cheap, so I just go there with my friends and enjoy the sun.
I like working out, too. So I go to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where they have an outdoor gym.
I like the sun, so whenever there’s sun, I will either go to the pool or go outside to work out.
A: I like a restaurant called Liquid Laundry. You should go, especially for brunch. They have a DJ in the restaurant, so it’s different. The food is quite international. They have pizzas and international food. It’s really good for brunch.
I like Fuxing Park and Zhongshan Park. For someone who doesn’t know much about Chinese culture, for example, going to Zhongshan Park at night to watch the elderly people dance, it’s so nice. There it’s different; it’s not like just women; men and women dance together, and they ask the people who watch to dance with them. There’s more interaction. It’s good fun, I like it.
Fuxing Park is just so beautiful. You can just hang out and it’s so close to my home. I love it.
Another one of my favorite places would be M50. Every time I have visitors, I take them there, because it’s quite unique. I used to live near there. I’ve lived everywhere! I’ve lived in four different places in Shanghai.
A: For me, Shanghai is the best city because of the people you get to know.
Just moving to China requires a lot of effort and bravery. And if you manage to live here for a long time, it means that you have something special. I like that.
Everyone I know is interesting and has a nice story. You get to know some super high-profile people, like CEOs, because the community of expats is so small here, so we all support each other.
I really love Shanghai, otherwise I wouldn’t be living here.
As I said, I’ve been to a few big cities, and among them Tokyo is also very good, but Shanghai beats them because you can have two experiences. For example, you can go to places where there are only foreigners, and you can go to places where there are only Chinese.
In other big cities, for example, at a really nice restaurant, you can feel the pressure to spend, spend, spend. But in Shanghai, you can sit in a nice restaurant for, like, four hours, whereas other cities they want to kick you out after an hour.
A: I opened my own company and learned the language quite fast, I think. It took me a year and a half. I can speak Spanish, English and Chinese. I’m a person who’s very dedicated. I’m healthy, so I take care of what I eat, and I exercise.
A: I don’t like that there are so many shared bikes put together. You can turn a corner and you see 40 more bikes on the street. I use it and I think it’s super useful and nice, but I don’t like that they put so many together. That’s the only thing that I don’t like.
A: The only thing is a shortage of places to eat after 2am.
In my country, almost any time you can go to a restaurant to eat, restaurants are 24 hours. Here, there is only McDonald’s. So, that’s one thing that I would like to see more of in Shanghai.
A: Probably last winter when I was with a lot of my university friends, we went to Bali together. We are all Mexicans living in different countries, but we all came together to spend time together in Asia. There were seven of us. It was very memorable.