In late 2007, Dominion Post reporter Rebecca Palmer was assisted by Asia:NZ's media programme on a six-week exchange to the Shanghai Daily newspaper.

Her detailed account of life in Shanghai gives an insight into her interactions with colleagues and local residents, the challenges of having to write up stories both for the Shanghai Daily and the Dominion Post in New Zealand, and the advantages of keeping a blog of her experiences.

The exchange was an opportunity for Rebecca to discover what it’s like to work as a Western journalist in China and to live as a Westerner among the locals, discovering traditional ways of living threatened with disappearance. Here are Rebecca's impressions of Shanghai in full.