I agree with being freaky.. I lived in Beijing for a year, and there were lots of weirdos out at night..

And you certainly won't get in trouble for looking at stuff on the net. However, I noticed that if I frequented strange sites, they would become mysteriously blocked about 3 weeks later. One option is using something like JAP (for mac), which is a program that lets you search the internet anonymously.. It makes the internet think you're in Germany, and therefore, you can look at all the weird websites you want.

I think there's a pc version called anonymouse? That's a guess tho.

I had traveller's insurance from Canada when I was in China. I thought it was necessary. If you're getting a legit job tho, your school might maybe offer you health insurance? I'm not sure how legit things work in China. =)

Anyway, have fun in Shanghai!