Your Accommodation in China

[skylee]

Further to my #99, I have just moved in my new apartment. It is still full of boxes now, but I have tidied up a few corners. The place is cooler and more windy than I thought (I hope it is the same in summer). The photos -

[xuefang]

Type of accomodation: Rented apartment

Description: Small room, tiny space to be a kitchen, small Chinese toilet with shower. Roof terrace.

Rent: 600CNY per month if I don't use too much electricity and water.

Location: In a village of university island in Guangzhou. Normal shabby Chinese neighborhood. That kind of place police don't want you to live, but still safe.

Found via: Paper add glued to wall on the village.

Lease: For one year.

Came with: Bed without mattress. Air conditioner. Hot water boiler for showers.

Landlord / Building management: My landlord owns the building and rents the rooms for students.

Notes: This is really basic apartment and there seems to be no other waiguoren in the village. I rented it because of the roof terrace.

Pictures can be found here. (Didn't manage to paste them here.)

[anonymoose]

Skylee, where's your apartment? On a boat?

[skylee]

Skylee, where's your apartment? On a boat?

On Hong Kong Island, in an apartment block quite close to the shore (about 30 seconds on foot).

[xiaocai]

You've got some stunning views outside your balcony there skylee, I wish I could live in one of those apartments someday. But then again as someone born and raised in inland I'm not really a "sea person", and will probably get sick of it very quickly (well I said this pretty much in the same sentiment as the fox saying the grapes are sour).

[p0mmes_frites]

Type of accomodation: Rented room.

City/Area: Wudaokou (DongWangZhuang), Beijing.

Description: 1 bedroom in a 3 bedroom apartment. Shared kitchen, bathroom and living room. Living room is quite small, but my room is Ok. Bathroom and Kitchen are nice. Everything is newly renovated, althought the building is old.

Rent: 1700 kuai per month, paid every 3 months, plus a 1 month deposit. Rent includes heating and taxes.

Location: 10 minutes walk to Wudaokou subway station

Found via: Agency.

Came with: Double-bed, desk, wardrobe, air conditioner, chair. Shared facilities include fridge, microwave, washing machine,fridge, sofa, Tv etc. everything u need.

Landlord / Building management: Landlord lives in the same building.

Shared with two foreigners.

My personal feeling: I liked it. 还可以

[bunny87]

Type of accomodation: Rented room.

City/Area: WuChang area in Wuhan

Description: 1 bedroom in a 3 bedroom apartment. Shared kitchen, bathroom and living room. Living room is quite big, my room is enough. Bathroom and Kitchen are really nice. Everything is new. The building is new (less than 5 years old).

Rent: 3000 kuai per month, paid every 6 months, plus a 1 month deposit. Rent didn't include utilities or anything. The place is furnished very well though. All of it is quality, new and sturdy furniture. I only have one room, so I pay my roommates 1000 kuai a month (3 months up front, 1 at a time afterwards)

Location: 15 minutes bike ride to class. I live right by Donghu (East Lake), off of bayi lu 八一路 and zhuo dao quan bei lu 桌刀泉北路。

Found via: my roommates put a flyer saying they had an empty room. they found it via an agency

Came with: BUNK-bed, (built-in) desk, closet, air conditioner/heater, chair. Shared facilities include microwave, washing machine, fridge, sofa, Tv, water dispensing machine that you buy the big jug for 8 kuai. etc. everything, really, except a microwave.

Landlord / Building management: Landlord physically lives in Beijing, but mentally she believes herself to be some Hollywood bigshot?

Shared with two foreigners. (it's a 3 bedroom place. they have their rooms. one has a balcony. one has beautiful windows that jut out. i got... the Childrens room. a large, but normal window, a really nice bunk bed with Chinese wooden mattress that'll kill you slowly. but i'm just cheap so i won't go out and spend 200 kuai on a fluffy fix. oh. and the walls are paper thin.)

My personal feeling: I LOVE my apartment. each room has it's pros and cons - balcony room means you can hang your laundry, but she has no closet/wardrobe, no desk and share a wall with the bathroom. which apparently is so loud it keeps her awake and turns her into a "you can't shower when i'm sleeping" b****. during the day, she turns into a "you can't leave your a/c or heater on while you're not home" b****. I PAY MY FAIR SHARE OF THE UTILITIES AND NEED TO DRY MY CLOTHES. i hate when it doesn't dry fast enough so they all end up smelling like mold.

the other room has beautiful windows (i think it's the best one). but she's a desperate for attention and lazy roommate. meaning she has this creepy guy coming over almost everyday to do everything for her...but she won't ever let you know when he's coming. doesn't matter if you're in your pj's cooking dinner, she'll open the door, let him in, THEN inform you that they plan on cooking dinner together... when you're at that point of cooking that you can't just stop. you either throw it away or cook it. do you ever feel like slamming a hot frying pan into someones face? cause i sure do when i'm not told someones coming over and they let them in while i am in my pj's.

my room has everything i need to be antisocial and hide in it- desk, bunk bed (i hang my laundry to dry off of the top bunk), pretty closet. my own remote control a/c+heater. i'm actually not antisocial in general, just with my roommates (for obvious reasons). but i think they particularly hate me for ruining their living together = bffs dream. our apartment is particularly pricey actually. i think they were just too dumb to negotiate. we shouldn't be paying any utilities, nor for cable, nor for internet. and i'm about to get my personal internet plan because whatever plan they picked, i don't have enough speed to make reliable skype calls home, nevertheless video chat home.

due to the idiots, i may be moving out very soon.

[anonymoose]

I just moved into a new apartment near Zhaojiabang Road metro station (near Xujiahui) in Shanghai.

Rent: 3300 /month

Area: 48 m²

Found via: agent. I must have been to see about 10 apartments before I found this one that I liked.

Consists of: one bedroom (fairly large) with balcony, a small bathroom with a shower, and a small kitchen, and a hallway (which actually has quite a large total area, bit since is a long thin strip and can't be used for anything, is actually a bit of a waste of area).

Pros/cons: I don't like living in depressing conditions (too dark, dirty walls with paint flaking off, and so on), so I chose this place on the basis that the lighting is good, and the decoration is clean. In fact, all the walls are plain white, which suits me. It is on the third floor so access is easy (as opposed to being in a high-rise where you end up waiting 5 mins for the lift each time you want to go up or down). The neighbours are also quite quiet. I haven't found any serious cons yet - the bathroom stinks a bit, but that should be easily sorted.

[Brian US]

I haven't found any serious cons yet - the bathroom stinks a bit, but that should be easily sorted.

I've found that most of the plumbing doesn't use a water trap, so it's a straight shot to the sewer. Is it easy to find the U-shaped pipes in Shanghai? My sink line broke this summer and I could only find a straight pipe drain. It's easy to cover the drain, but after a while you get accustomed to the sewer smell in Beijing.

[anonymoose]

Actually, the smell is not emanating from the drainpipes, but rather a rotting carpet stuck to the floor. I've peeled the carpet off, but there's still a layer of rotten rubber that's gonna need scraping to be removed. I'm surprised that the previous tenant didn't find the odour objectionable.

[Vette]

Hi,

We have a furnished apartment in Weifang, Shandong prov.

On the 9th floor of a 22 floor apartment block.

Not old,

Ours is 48 meters square.

Western WC, great shower ect.

rnb 700 a month, we pay every 2 months.

Vette

[xuefang]

Moved to my new apartment half a year ago, but forgot to share the information here.

Type of accomodation: Rented apartment

Description: About 47m2, bedroom, livingroom, kitchen, bathroom and balcony.

Rent: 2700CNY per month plus other fees

Location: Haizhu District in Guangzhou, close to Sun Yat-Sen University

Found via: Agent

Lease: For one year.

Came with: Sofa, TV, dining table, two chairs, bookshelf

Here you can see the view from my balcony: http://goo.gl/g4xwC

[simin]

Beijing, Changping district

We moved in four months ago, when we came to Beijing and needed to find some stable place to live for the next five months as soon as possible.

The apartment is in the fifth floor of the old five storey building. The 小区 is guarded 24/7. It is very close to the 中国政法大学 and 北京石油大学, that was our main condition.

The apartment itself is bright and actually quite nice, even though it was redecorated probably more than 10 years ago and we spent two days cleaning the usual mess. It is quite big (about 60 meters), two bedrooms, western toilet with shower, small kitchen.

The cons: The furnishing is old and half broken, the apartment badly needs redecoration, the drainpipes smell. The landlord is not a nice person and his wife is even worst, which caused lots of trouble.

The apartment was finally quite cheap, 1980 plus other fees, plus one month deposit. But the quality of the apartment is appropriate and according to the landlord's attitude, we will never see the deposit again. The Changping district apartments, especially near the university campuses, are quite expensive. Average price for two bedroom apartment is more than 3000 RMB. My Chinese teacher pays more than five hundred for a small room 3x2m in the apartment with other 6 rooms and one bathroom.

[icebear]

Beijing, near Dongsi, Chaoyangmen, Dongsishitiao and Zhangzizhanglu subway stations (Line 6, 2, 5).

About 55m, entry, kitchen, computer room with washing mashing, bathroom, big bedroom with large bed, couch, TV, and decent sized balcony. Apartment is newly remodeled - new wood panel flooring, fresh paint, mostly new furniture and appliances (except the washing machine, which is old but passable).

Cost: 4100, 3 months at a time plus 1 month deposit

Pros:

• Good size for a bachelor - feels big enough to not be cramped, small enough that its easy to clean.
  
• Nice quality furnishings make a big difference.
  
• Kitchen is brand new - those that have seen older Chinese apartments know what this means! (No grease stain hell!)
  
• Gives a fapiao which means that in reality it only costs me about 3000 (I get a subsidy for housing only if I can provide a fapiao) - this eliminated a few nicer places at the same price. Without a fapiao a similar place in the area would cost about 3700 according to Chinese friends in the area.
  
• I was paying slightly less for a single bedroom in a two bedroom apartment without a fapiao - sublet and in a newer development, which explains the price, but in retrospect that was still a bad deal (especially for the guy who leased the whole place at 7100 for a two bedroom!). Great to pay less in net and have a whole place to myself.
  
• Great transportation links, centrally located
  
• Lively neighborhood, lots of restaurant options
  
• In a hutong area, so limited noise gets in from the city (traffic, etc)
  

Cons:

• In retrospect I wish I'd gone for an equally sized studio - the wall between the computer room and bedroom is unnecessary and makes the computer room feel a little off - its a smallish room with just a desk, computer, washing machine and clothing rack - not really big enough to put the couch and TV in as I originally envisioned. Although maybe I'd feel the opposite if I had a studio right now! This may improve as I decorate/settle more.
  
• The bathroom is 100% shoilet - about the size of a big stall in a public bathroom, shower head positioned slightly off angle and above the toilet - only sink in the apartment is in the adjacent kitchen. This actually doesn't bother me at all, and none of my Chinese friends/girls think anything of it, nor do my Western guy friends, but Western girls always trip out about it, which is annoying.
  
• In a older building, so thin walls - occasionally the neighbors' dog can be annoying for a few minutes, but thankfully is quiet at night when it matters.
  

[muyongshi]

Just moved into a new place and thought I should make everyone jealous who lives in big cities.

115 square meters, 3-2-2 which is nicely and simply decorated on the fifth floor of a complex centrally located in Mianyang. A good amount of built on cabinets but not overkill. It did not come with furniture. Bedrooms have laminate floors with the rest being marbles. It has a huge entry way (4 square meters give or take) and an enclosed balcony off the living room for a desk/kids play place.

All of this for only 833 a month.

[renzhe]

All of this for only 833 a month.

Are you sure you're not missing a zero there?!?

[muyongshi]

Oh no! I missed four actually!

It should read 10,000/year (RMB ).

Is that better? Actually, I guess it's 833.33 a month not 833. My apologies for giving a lower and misleading number.

[renzhe]

That's roughly what I pay for utilities (water, electricity, phone)

[imron]

无图无真相

[muyongshi]

I will do that a bit later-I'm sure my wife wouldn't be to happy if I started taking photos right now as she's getting ready for her day.