Bem-vindo a Shanghai e nossa casa

I stayed at Mary 's place for four months during my stay in Shanghai. I had a very good experience there because Mary is for me the best host ever.
Not only she cooked plenty of different food but also she adapts herself to your tastes and preferences by cooking for you delicious food.
In addition to this, she is friendly, open minded person, easy going and willing to help you all the time when you need some help.
I would also say that she helps me a lot with chinese and i have improved my level a lot thanks to her help.
Her husband is also very nice and an excellent cook as well.
The location of Mary 's place is very secured (private residence) and her place will offer you all kind of facilities such as restaurants, supermarkets and shopping centers.
I had a wonderful stay there and i would for sure recommend this family.

Me and my 9 years old son stayed with Mary and Jialian on September 2013. It is a penthouse with two floors at level 6 of the apartment. It located in a typical Shanghai middle class residential village. This huge penthouse is clean and tidy. There are two Shopping Centres around the village. One is a big modern style suburb grade shopping centre. It even includes Sport and Gymnastics facilities at the top level (level 4). However you still can see number of traditional shop around the village and on the way to the metro. I can feel it is a very safe area. It takes around 15 minutes to walk to the metro station ‘Dahuasan Road’ (Line 7) and less than 25 minutes to the heart of the city by train. Shanghai Metro is amazing and easily linking us to other lines. Mary and Jialian are friendly, helpful and always make you feel at home. They prepare nice breakfast and dinner everyday. It is not just the food but provided a platform for everyone stay there to interact. Mary can speak good English. During our stay, she taught my son some Mandarin. I can see Mary also helping other language student when they need tutoring. Jialian is a nice gentleman. He is someone always stand close by to offer help when require. My son also missed his friendship with their grandchild. I have no doubt to recommend their home to anyone want to stay in Shanghai not just for few days.

I stayed with Mary in September 2013 for 4 weeks.

Mary and her husband were very accommodating, friendly and relaxed. The flat was clean, fairly spacious with a terrace garden overlooking the communal resident park. She prepared breakfast and dinner everyday which was wholesome and a great opportunity to interact. The majority of people staying with Mary were language students so it made her apartment a great place to learn Mandarin through interaction with others. I recommend this host whole-heartedly.

Something you need to be aware of, although it wouldn't have changed my choice of host:
1) walk to the station is about 12 minutes
2) the flat is on the 6th floor (only small flights of stairs) which was very manageable but probably not for those with poor mobility
3) It is on line 7 of the metro and takes about 40 minutes to go to somewhere like Changsu Road (the French Concession).

Just a perfect place! We stayed there for 16
days. The home of Mary and Jialian is located about 150m from the metro station 'Dahuasan Road' (Line 7). Coming from the airport, Mary waited for us at the station and transported our suitcases on her motocycle to her home. The flat is on top of the building, is quite huge and has two floors. They live in a well protected, typical middle class condominium park. From our room we could observe people doing their gymnastics, going out with their little
dogs, let dragons fly or play with the kids in the yards. Mary and Jialian prepared breakfast and dinner for the two of us. It was typical Chinese and really delicious! But there was absolutely no obligation to always eat there. The rooms are clean. The bathroom too. But you should not expect a hotel standard. It is a really authentic way of getting in direct contact with really nice Chinese people. Mary talks English quite well. She helped us to learn Chinese and also too care of my 12 year old son, while I was out for business. Nearby there are hairdressers and massage shops. You can get a hair cut for 15¥ or a full traditional body and foot massage for 50¥ each! To walk the way from the metro station to their place was always very exciting because it is like a very lively market street. We can really recommend this
place and thank Mary and her family (including their grandchildren:-) very much for this unique opportunity to share their home with foreigners
like us!