Category Archives: Apartments

Day 360 in Beijing: Moving Day!

By | | , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

Beijing is a huge city.

It is really incomprehensible how large the city is compared to any other city I’ve been lived in.

There are 6 ring roads and the furthest one out is about located at a point that it takes about 220 kms to drive around the city.

The 6th ring road is about 10 kms from the center of the city.

There are about 25,000,000 people here.

Beijing is massive.

We were living right inside the 4th ring road and about a 30 minute cab ride from my work.

It became a daily ordeal to find a cab, take the ride through traffic, and then get to work or home.

I’ve had long commutes before, especially living in El Cerrito and commuting to San Francisco (sometimes up to 1.5 hours each way) but it seemed much longer here.

It was also just tough being so far away from our friends and people we truly care about who live near Sanlitun.

All our favorite restaurants, bars, and my work are all downtown so it just didn’t make sense to live where we were anymore.

The only negative is we won’t be as close to our wonderful roommate, Gulzar, and our dear friend Federica.

But that is the expatriate life.

And starting today, Jill and I have moved into our new apartment near where I work.

I can now get up in the morning and walk to work in a few minutes.

It is wonderful!

The move, by the way, went incredibly well.

My buddy, Justin, set us up with a moving company that he knows and trusts.

They ended up showing up about 1.5 hours late, but other than that, they were incredible.

Three guys, working their butts off in 100 degree heat, and moving our stuff with almost no complaining or whining.

These guys WORK.

They took our armoire, our queen sized mattress, our washing machine and a bunch of other stuff and just kept going without a rest.

We all helped out a bit but it was mostly them.

How much did this all cost to move our apartment, with three workers, about 5 miles and then up 5 flights of stairs since our new place doesn’t have an elevator?

Well, we had set the price at 450RMB.

Jill and I then bought them 2 bottles of water each (we offered beer but they told us not when they are working).  This sounds obvious but there are times when we’ve gotten in a cab and you can smell alcohol on the driver’s breath.  Not these guys.  True professionals.  We also bought them Popsicles.

That cost us about 20RMB.

We gave them a 50RMB tip, which no one tips here so they were very happy with that and we felt they definitely deserved it.

Total price:  520RMB

Total price in USD: 85 bucks.

Honestly, our new place is fantastic and we have our internet and wifi all set up already.

We later went for a walk by the canal behind our apartment and celebrated.

We also have to give a HUGE thank you to our dear friend, Rachel.  She is a native Beijinger and moving to Hong Kong in the next few weeks for work.  She has helped us out so much and we love her dearly.  THANK YOU, RACHEL!

Life is good.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Day 358 in Beijing: Paying Rent One Year At A Time.

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

The receipt for my 54,000RMB/9,000USD one year rent payment.

The receipt for my 54,000RMB/9,000USD one year rent payment.

Rent is a whole different subject in China.

You may have a contract, like we had in the USA, but it doesn’t really matter that much.

We’ve heard horror stories of landlords walking into the person’s apartment, letting them know, “By the way, I’m raising the rent next month.  If you don’t like it, move out.”

We’ve had friends that had to argue and verbally fight with their landlord so this didn’t happen.

It seems the best resort is to threaten to move out and leave them with nothing.

The landlords usually back down after that but sometimes not.

It is a hassle and a drag.

The rents here are also not paid monthly.

At least, not the expatriate rents.

We often have to pay 3 months in advance.

The place I’m leaving, which I can not tell you how happy I am leaving it at this point, I had to pay 6 months in advance.

Realize that when I moved to China, I had no idea that rents were any different than in the USA.

I basically used up a large portion of my savings, in the USA, just to pay the rent here and had to deal with the Chinese banking system.  That, alone, is a whole different blog post that won’t be written until I am no longer living here.  Suffice to say, it is usually a horrible experience and when I tried to transfer money over, my worst nightmares came true for about a week or so.

The apartment we are in now, which is a 5 minute walk from my work instead of a 30 minute cab ride, is perfect for Jill and me.

It is small, it is easy to clean, and it is close to the people we care about in China and where we like to hang out.

It is the dream apartment for us.

It is also quite inexpensive and the landlords are amazing.

We know this because we are taking it over from our friend, Sienna, who we met through Gordon Kutil and Sarah Ting-Ting Hou, who are basically our closest friends here in Beijing.

Sienna was nice enough to bargain for us when we were negotiating the rent agreement and we were told that, if we are willing to pay ONE YEAR IN ADVANCE, they wouldn’t raise the rent.

This sounds like a massive amount of money, and it sort of is, but the long term benefits well outweigh the short term money crunch.

We decided we’d do it, since Sienna had lived at her place for over 4 years and told us they were the best landlords she had ever met.  The landlord’s son, Zhang, also spoke perfect English and told us he’d help us out if we need anything.

So, a few days ago, I went down to the local Bank of China branch and took a number to wait in line to transfer over 54,000RMB (about 9,000 USD) for the year’s rent.

Usually the wait at the banks here range from 1 to 3 hours and are full of wasted time, annoyance, and “You have the wrong form.  Come back later” comments that drive everyone insane.

I waited about 15 minutes and walked up to the teller when “A1050” was called.

The teller started speaking to me in Mandarin and I called Zhang and handed her the phone.

She spoke to him for a minute and handed me back the phone and said, “So you want to transfer money to Zhang?  Is he someone you can trust?” in perfect English.

I was blown away.  This is the first time this branch has a teller that even speaks English let alone fluently.

I told her, “Yes please, he is my landlord” and she set to work on the paperwork and whatnot.

She took my passport, as expatriates can’t transfer more than 50,000RMB in one day unless they bring their passports, and handed me two forms to sign, which I did, and then it was done.

Zhang sent me a text telling me he had received the money and that he wanted us to keep the receipts and that they will clean the apartment, top to bottom, and it “will be spotless when you move in” on Sunday.

I honestly could not believe how well everything went, how nice everyone was, and that I had just transferred almost 9,000 USD.

This is the kind of crazy experience that makes China a wonderful, and crazy, place every single day.

Day 340 in Beijing: More Elevator Etiquette.

By | | , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

Elevator Etiquette.

Elevator Etiquette.

There are a lot of elevators in a city of 23 million people.

There are a lot of rules to keep a city of 23 million people running smoothly.

This is especially true when it is a city like Beijing, which has grown, almost like no other city in history, in size and population.

Many people here don’t know the rules of getting on or off a subway, bus or elevator.

One would think it would be obvious that, to get in to an container, with limited space, that the container would have to be emptied first.

Or, more simply, that if you let the people off the subway, bus or elevator, you could then get in much more easily.

That doesn’t seem to be the rule here in China.

People try to push onto the subways and buses without waiting for people to get off.

It is, from what I’ve been told, much better now than it was in the past, but it is tiring and frustrating.

The powers that be have decided that they want to have a little more directions for people to follow and so there are posts about things like this in different areas.

The subways have little arrows that are supposed to make it obvious that people waiting to get on the subway should stand to the side of the doors and the people getting off the subway will walk between the two rows.

Again, this is getting better but it doesn’t seem to be the norm yet.

This is another reason I try to take taxis more than I take the subway.

I thought this elevator sign had to be one of the most definitive definitions of what one should, and shouldn’t do, when they are on an elevator.

I’ll do my best to explain the directions because I think their interpretations of them are quite boring and mundane.

Starting from the top left and moving sideways until the next line starts:

1. Do not use pretend you are in jail or behind bars.  That will probably happen sometime in your lifetime and why rush the experience?

2. Do not lean against the doors like a hipster from San Francisco or New York.  Everyone hates hipsters.

3. Do not act as if you are in the Sound of Music while riding the elevator.

4. Do not dance like you are a prince or princess living in Egypt’s distant history.

5. Do not bring toilet scrubbers into the elevator and make them explode.

6. Do not smoke.  Honestly, this NEEDS to be stated in an elevator.  Really?

7. Do not hold the hand of an amazon woman.  It is dangerous and could lead to disembowelment.

8. Do not play with anything that looks like a lego block.  This is an elevator, not a plaything!

9. Do not look in the mirror because you will get confused and think you are seeing someone else when you are only looking at yourself.  This may cause an inter-dimensional shift that could rupture humanity’s understanding of the time-space continuum.   I believe that riding this elevator is akin to reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

9A.  Either it is that or this elevator is a hook up for couples that like to swing.

Either way, I’m not taking this elevator ever again.

Day 312 in Beijing: Elevator Etiquette.

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

Just in case you don't realize it is rude to stand right behind someone, here you go!

Just in case you don’t realize it is rude to stand right behind someone, here you go!

We saw this sign posted inside the elevator a few days ago.

Now, I’m all for elevator ettiquette, and I actually think this makes a lot of sense.

I would love to see this on the subways and buses here in Beijing but I have a feeling no one would pay attention to it.

There are actually lots of signs with the correct etiquette depending on where you are.

Again, people seem to not pay much attention to it and what is expected because the cultural norms seem to stick to the past compared to the present.  At least, that is, in the minds of a Western person.

This would include the spitting, nose clearing, pushing, and yelling.

It does get tiresome, and it is something that I’ll probably never get used to, and that is just my own cultural bias.

And I’m okay with it just as many of the Chinese nationals are okay with their cultural bias.

Day 311 in Beijing: Wine Time at Carrefour!

By | | , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

The wine, the people, and the view from Peter's apartment.

The wine, the people, and the view from Peter’s apartment.

Carrefour is a major grocery store chain in France.

It does a lot of business here in Beijing also.

We love Carrefour because they run a 4 day, all you can taste, wine event every 6 months.

We went in October of 2013, for the first time, and met a bunch of wonderful people who have become dear friends here in Beijing.

We went last night, with our friends, Brandon, from Pleasant Hill, California, Jimmy from Philadelphia (who we met the day before on our trip to Mongolia…that is a blog post that is coming up soon!), and Rachel, who was born here in Beijing but has lived in Boston and Buffalo and is sadly moving to Hong Kong in a month.  Jill and I met her at a Jing A Brewer’s Table beer event last month and we will miss her greatly.  She’s wonderful, funny and sweet.  She also helped us do the negotiations for our new apartment and is like family to us already!

The best part of the night is taking time to talk to the people selling the wine and getting so much information and seeing how friendly everyone is with each other.

We also enjoy the free wine, of course, and the chance to try wines that we normally would not have been able to try, or even afford, in many cases.

We had our palettes opened up to new wines and new wineries and we will be sure to visit them all when we go visit France in the very near future.

Some of our favorites were Chateau Coufran andChateau Verdignan, which our new friend, Federic Vicaire, was pouring for us.  He told us interesting stories about his family history and that his grandfather and his great grandfather owned two different wineries in Haut-Medoc region of France.  The family still owns them and the wine was amazing.

The other wineries we really enjoyed tasting were Albert Bichot and Jean Bouchard, which Christophe Bichot, was pouring for us and everyone else.  He had an amazing white wine,  from Mersault, named, “Les Charmes” the we loved.  Neither Jill nor I usually like whites but this was truly amazing.

We loved spending time talking to Federic and Christophe as they obviously loved the wines, the history and talking to people about them.

Last but not least, we were able to taste some wines from Margaux and Saint Emilion which were elegant and wonderful.

One of the true joys of the evening was the my co-worker, Peter, and his girlfriend, Gabrielle, came by and we were able to spend time with them drinking wine and discussing life and being expatriates in Beijing.

Peter was kind enough to invite us over to his apartment and we had pizza, wine and a great time with friends and his wonderful kids, having incredible conversations about everything we could think of and talk about together.

I honestly love being an expatriate 99% of the time.

The only time I don’t is when I miss someone’s birthday, or a wedding, or if a loss or death occurs and Jill and I aren’t able to return home for that event.

The trade offs, of missing those events, are balanced out with the chances to meet people from all over the world, see new places, and learn about our own strengths and how we can respond to adventures and changes in our own world.  We are tested, each day, by something new and we grow from it and learn more about ourselves, what we want, and what we value.

Jill and I have been thinking more and more about what we want to do in the future and where we want to live.

We probably won’t end up back in America for a very long time since we want to live somewhere by the water, live cheaply, and continue to explore places we’ve never visited yet.

According to Tripadvisor, I’ve been to 15 nations at this point, traveled 399,346 miles and seen 10% of the world.  I’m 45 years old.

I really would like to get that up to 100 nations, 1,000,000 miles and 50% of the world by the time I’m 55.

Being that Peter is from the Netherlands and Gabrielle is from Quebec, we now have connections there and will make sure to visit them if they are there when we go.

The 100 nations is not an actual goal but more of a journey that Jill and I want to accomplish as we travel, meet people, see the world, and experience life on the road.

I’m incredibly lucky and honored to have the job I have, the chance to live this way, and to be with Jill on this journey.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 306 in Beijing: Birds speak better Mandarin than I do.

By | | , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

I count 7 cages. Did I miss any?

I count 7 cages. Did I miss any?

Sad but true.

This really is absurd.

It is high time for me to start learning Mandarin.

I know about 10 words, or so, and that is pretty pathetic for someone living in a foreign country over 10 months now.

I’m pretty sure, when learning a foreign language learning one word a month is exactly NOT the way to become fluent.

I’ve decided I will start learning it and will try to learn about 5-10 words a day.

We are planning on going to France and Spain for the summer so we may start being a lot more serious when we get back but at least we are starting now.

These birds, in their little cages, actually kept saying, “Ni hao” to us and each other.

I didn’t video it because they often took their time and didn’t seem to respond to us laowei as much as they did to each other and it would have been a long time in between words.

I do love that there are 7 cages and so many different kinds of birds that were talking to anyone that would listen.

Jill and I plan to grab a bottle of nice red wine, some snacks, and hang out in this courtyard over the next few months.

Day 302 in Beijing: Pee Break!

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment
He's got just the right angle to make a wonderful pee arc.

He’s got just the right angle to make a wonderful pee arc.

 

Okay.

This is a bit much.

But this happens every single day.

Numerous times.

And is another reason we are glad to be moving out closer to the expatriate party of Beijing.

Between the spitting, getting run into walking down the street and finding poop on the sidewalks, we are ready for a little change.

This kid lives in the apartment below ours.

There are a number of service workers that live there and maybe there is a very limited amount of toilets.

I don’t want to judge but I’m just pointing out the reality of the cleanliness, or lack of, in a large part of Beijing.  Each culture has its own norms and that is the way life is.

This kid, who is about 3 years old, comes out and pees on the grass.

We get to watch this wonderful display of bodily functions, if we want, about 4 or 5 times a day, and no one else seems to mind.

Maybe it is our issue, actually it is our issue since it is our cultural belief that it would be more sanitary to pee in a toilet and not where people walk or stand, but that is life.

We’re content with not letting peeing in the street become a part of our cultural norm and use the toilet.

But hey, that is just Jill and my opinion.

Either way, the kid is super cute and we’ve watched him grow, for almost a year now, and he is very happy, laughs a lot, and obviously is very well loved and taken care of by his family.

Even though there is the “one child law” in China, it seems as if he has an older sister and she is very sweet and often takes him out and plays with him in the yard.

He used to scream a lot when we first moved in when he was upset.  In fact, we nicknamed him “The Screamer” in comparison to the baby who lives in the apartment on the other side of ours, who we nicknamed “The Crier.”

We didn’t get a lot of sleep sometimes.

However, as he has grown, he has stopped screaming as much and the crier seems to have stopped crying.

Which, in our opinion, is a positive since we start acting like criers and screamers if we don’t get enough sleep ourselves!

Day 267 in Beijing: Gargo Lift.

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment
At least now I know where I can lift my gargo.

At least now I know where I can lift my gargo.

People are moving around Beijing constantly.

This requires some pretty decent sized cargo lifts to move their furniture.

Actually, it doesn’t require cargo lifts as much as it requires, as they obviously wrote in Chinglish, a “Gargo Lift.”

I don’t know what the actual Hanzi script below the words “Gargo Lift” mean but I’m guessing the are correct since it is China’s own language and one would assume that they know what they are writing.

Then again, after living here for about 9 months, nothing really surprises me and the sign could say, “McDonald’s hamburgers” for all I know.

Either way, these little signs and surprises constantly keep Jill and me laughing at the absurdity of it all and the crazy circumstances that brought us to China in 2013 and allowed us each to celebrate birthdays here in Beijing.

We are definitely enjoying the ride in the gargo lift.

Day 227 in Beijing: Letters From The Edinburgh Mansion Park.

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment
The Dog Dog really needs some help.

The Dog Dog really needs some help (Click on the picture for an enlargement).

I am a big fan of Chinglish.

If you don’t know what Chinglish is, I’ll define it.

Here is the basics of it: Chinglish is the translation of words from Chinese to English.

Sounds simple, right?

Wrong.

Both Chinese and English are very difficult languages and Google Translate has helped in a lot of ways for people speaking one or the other language to understand each other.

Google translate has also hurt people trying to understand each other because some of the translations are rather, how shall we say, colorful?

I have two friends that live in a apartment complex and they’ve been paying attention to the Chinglish letters that have been posted by management to help people have a more peaceness and healthyful happinesstime for your day to be great kind of day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day 216 in Beijing: Artistic Building.

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment
Long shot of the building with unfinished remodeling.

Long shot of the building with unfinished remodeling.

Much of the architecture in Singapore is incredibly new and modern.

However, they are also trying to keep the old style buildings and refurbish them.

This building was about half done and I took some pictures of the parts of it that were already fixed.

I found them to be quite beautiful and I love the colors in them.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.