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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Apartment Update

Since I have to move from my current apartment, I spent Thursday & Friday house hunting. There was no way I was going to be able to do it on my own since I don't speak that much Chinese, so Anna, my Director of Studies (basically my boss), graciously spent her day off pounding the pavements of Shanghai with me, helping to translate & negotiating for the best price.

Apartment hunting in Shanghai is so different from in the US, where you can just pick an apartment building & go to the office to be shown the available units. Here in Shanghai all apartments are essentially condos. Each unit has a different owner, so the only way to find out about the available units for rent is to go to a real estate agent who will then show you his listings. He may have one apartment in one building & the next apartment will be down the street a kilometer or two, so you wind up doing a lot of walking!

After seeing about ten apartments in two days, I finally decided on an apartment that's even closer to the school than my current one - a three-minute walk to work! The rent is more expensive than my current place at 2900 RMB per month (about US $415). It's a one-bedroom place on the 22nd floor, which is the top floor, so I guess I can say I have the penthouse :)

I'll be moving in on Thursday.

4 comments:

流浪汉 瑜伽 Yoga Tramp said...

hai thk for u great information, nice to meet u, wish all the best to u 6-^

Steve Skinner said...

Good luck on the move!

trojan1059 said...

Nancy neglected to tell everyone that the apartment elevator only goes to the 21st floor. Soooooo
we can truthfully say our daughters elevator doesn't go all the way up.

Nancy Lewis said...

Hahaha! I take after my dad :)