First 30 daysHow to read a school calendar
How to read a school calendar
A housing year follows the school year, not the Chinese public-holiday table. Open the school’s own Calendar page.
- 01
Lock the school and campus first, then the corridor.
- 02
Ask admissions for orientation, first day and last day. Count the lease and the departure back from those three days.
- 03
Chinese public holidays (Spring Festival, National Day, Labour Day) may be school days or holidays — the school calendar wins, not the State Council notice.
- 04
German, French, Japanese and Korean summers are different lengths. The same villa has a different August vacancy cost.
- 05
Tight enrolment (SAS has said so on its own site in recent years): admission first, then a twelve-month lease.
- 06
Do not schedule a cross-city viewing in exam / AP / IB week.
Housing SmartShanghai’s school list is an editorial directory. It is not a calendar.
Official sources
First 30 days
- Furniture: buying, renting or shippingMost Shanghai leases are empty. For a two-to-three-year posting, renting the core pieces usually beats buying them and shipping them home.
- Driving licence conversion for foreign holdersAn International Driving Permit is not enough on its own. Convert if you will live here. Apply for a temporary permit if you need to drive in the first weeks.
- Hiring an ayiTwo working adults, a villa, a school-bus pickup — without an ayi the corridor is the wrong one. A live-in ayi takes a bedroom. Ask at the viewing.
Each guide gives the official process with source links and effective dates, plus the pitfalls we have recorded from real cases. Anything requiring a licence is referred to registered providers only.
Live near what you love.
Tell us the school, the dates, and the corridor you are looking at.