Your Accommodation in China

[roddy]

Mianyang's the place to be. Cheap accommodation and muyongshi, what more could you want. 

[muyongshi]

Sadly jobs aren't the most plentiful and that's kind of make or break for some!

[icebear]

Sadly jobs aren't the most plentiful and that's kind of make or break for some!

 

 

 

Wages and rents are closely correlated! But the place does sound great, assuming you can land a decent/interesting job in Mianyang.

[muyongshi]

There is a lot of other even cheaper places in our city, they just aren't in great locations or aren't great complexes. In my area, most things run around 1000/month. 

As an aside (not trying to get off-topic) regarding jobs, oddly enough after I posted about the "lack", the government (specifically Foreign Affairs Bureau) approached a company I'm close to saying that we have a lack of around 100 English teachers. So, no job shortage!

[skylee]

But the salary offered seems to be quite low. Is that normal and can one live on that salary in Mianyang?

[muyongshi]

Guess it depends on where you are at in life. 8000 RMB a month an you don't have to pay for housing and even plane ticket to home nation possibly negotiated in- I could do it with my family.

Bills max out at around 1000 during high cooling/heating periods (no central heat). Around 2500 for food a month, couple hundred for transport and other things. We're not big on entertainment (got Internet and that works wonderful for movies/TV) and we don't eat western food a lot not do we frequent Pacific Coffee more than once a month so all of that only comes up to about half the salary.

Of course, Medical insurance for us is high and that eats up maybe another 1000 RMB a month. If you have high student loans or other debt it might not be so great or if you are a big spender it wouldn't be so wonderful but even for me with a wife and baby, we typically use 4000-5000 a month for ALL our local expenses (minus rent).

(To Admins: Perhaps splitting this into a new thread for cost of living/salary in MY would be beneficial- sorry to get so far away from accommodations).

[xuefang]

This might not be that helpful, but perhaps interesting to some. My (and boyfriend's) new home will be following:

Type of accomodation: Rented house, belongs to my boyfriend's family
Description: about 160m2 (without balcony), built in 1979, needs some renovating. Two floors including: two living rooms, six bedrooms, two kitchens, toilet, bathroom, storage room, 天井, small backyard and a big balcony.
Rent: 1500RMB per month paid to the family
Location: 1-1,5 hours from Guangzhou city center by metro.
Found via: Belongs to the family.
Lease: As long as we want and as long as the village is there.
Came with: Some old wooden furniture like beds, tables and chairs. All have to be painted again.
Landlord / Building management: My boyfriend's mother!

So this week we have started renovating the old family house and it really is a lot of work. The old beautiful grey bricks were painted white some years ago and we need to get it down. No idea how to do it yet, but lets hope. We can't paint on top of the old paint either as the paint would come off someday.

In my opinion it's such a beautiful house with lots of potential. First we will just do a quick house make over with a small budget, but hope to renovate it fully when we can afford it. So many old building are being demolished in this village that we want to keep ours.
 

More photos can be found at my blog where I have kind of "renovation diary" going on, but here is a small peak to the balcony on the second floor.

 

[roddy]

You should write a book, xuefang. 

[skylee]

A bed 180 metres wide is indeed very wide.

[xuefang]

On my to-do list roddy ;) And skylee, it's a bit waste of space, but better than my old 120m.

[imron]

And skylee, it's a bit waste of space, but better than my old 120m.

I think skylee is trying to point out that you are missing the prefix 'centi'.  A 180 metre wide bed would be quite something!

[xuefang]

I think skylee is trying to point out that you are missing the prefix 'centi'.  A 180 metre wide bed would be quite something!

 

 

哈哈哈, I guess I should let my eyes and my head rest a little. Thank you!

[Saxondale]

Now that i've finally moved to Beijing, i thought i would contribute to this thread.  I lived in an international student dormitory in Qingdao for 3 years, so this is my first experience of renting an apartment.

 

After realising that renting my own 1 bedroom apartment wasn't going to be ideal (cost and location), i decided to go for a shared apartment.  After spending hours going through the Beijinger apartment listings for weeks and weeks, i managed to find a 2 bed shared apartment for a decent price and close to my work place.

 

Type of accommodation: Rented shared apartment

Description: 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom and kitchen.  It's on the 16th floor in a 17th floor apartment complex, pretty old building, typical chinese style but the apartment has been well maintained and is really clean. 

 

My room comes with:

Wifi

TV

Air-conditioner

Large built-in wardrobes

 

I know this area is known for being full of westerners, but i'm slightly away from that and never see any until i reach the subway station.  I share with a Chinese girl and French girl (they share one room).  Apparently we are the only westerners in this complex.  

 

Rent: 2450Y a month, paid every 2 months, bills are separate.

Location: Shaungjing (双井), 5 minute walk from the station

Found via: Beijinger website

Lease: Although the Chinese girl that i'm living with isn't the landlord, she kind of controls everything and finds all the tenants.  She's very flexible and doesn't have a minimum duration, so it's perfectly fine for me to leave after 2 months.

 

[imron]

Thanks for posting.

[roddy]

Been a while since we've had an update - anyone got a new apartment to show us?

[Hunininki]

I'll come back once I've found mine in Shanghai - not looking forward to 4000-5000 rambos a month for 40sqm studio apartment And Xuefang, that house is amazing. 

[skylee]

IIRC this is the third （correction - fourth) apartment that I have posted about on this thread. I moved in this one in late June 2015.

Type of accommodation - rented apartment

Description - In a famous and very big private housing development on Hong Kong Island with its own metro station. 3 bedrooms, living / dining room, 1 kitchen,1 bathroom. About 500 to 600 square feet. It comes with the usual air conditioner in each room, stoves, oven, water heater etc. The furnishings are old. It belongs to one of my colleagues. I chose it so that I didn't need to pay an agent. The apartment needs refurbishment.

Rent - HKD 24000 per month inclusive of management fee, and deposit of one month's rental. Electricity, gas, water etc to be paid by the tenant.

Lease - 2-year, but can be terminated after 10 months.

PS - the photos were taken when the flat was still empty.

[889]

Tks!

[gato]

Seems cheap for the size by Hong Kong standard.

[Angelina]

Am I the only person who is living on campus? Or the others are too shy to post?