Home stay. . . and quick

[xuechengfeng]

I did a little search and all I really got from it was stay away from chinahomestay.org. I'm considering going to China from April through June and as opposed to living in a hostel, which would probably get expensive and leave me talking to foreigners, I might as well try a Chinese family, since my goal is rapid immersion to polish up those dusty skills.

Any recommendations from experience or word-of-mouth? What is a reasonable rate to expect? Do you think this is the best option for 3 months, or could I also, as a foreigner, rent an apartment on a short-term lease?

Help is appreciated, I have no plans and I need to create them ASAP!

[adrianlondon]

Haven't seen any homestay reviews. It will depend a lot on the particular family anyway.

Renting an apartmen for three months is going to be very tricky. They usually like 6 month leases, and even then will complain that it's not a whole year.

Why not go for something between the two and try to rent a room in a flat-share with Chinese poeple? Sounds like a good compromise, and hopefully easier to arrange.

[roddy]

Lotus, I think, have had positive feedback on here - do a search and see what you can find. Pricier though.

[amandagmu]

Ok, honestly, this is what I plan to do next time I go back to China: find a university that will rent you a dorm room with a private bath. Of course, rates probably vary widely for this sort of thing, and last time I did this was when I was taking summer courses at Liaoning Shifan Daxue in Dalian. Room rates were dirt cheap.... like $4.50-$7.50 (max $10) per day, everything included so I didn't have to worry about extra bills, and I had a furnished room with own bathroom in a decently clean building, kitchen and fridge down the hall, hot water supplies in the room... Dalian also has several other universities and is cheap, check out mr toga's posts on here about Dalian (justsearch Dalian). It's a great place if you don't go to DUFL where all the foreign students go (downtown).

Aren't planning to study formally? No worries. Several people at Liaoning Shifan Daxue, who lived in my dormitory ("foreign student dorm" and was $4.50 per day) were English or Canadian teachers teaching full-time up there. Also living in my dorm were loads of Koreans and Japanese. You can't and don't want to livei n the other dorms... Chinese only, strict rules, not to mention 6-12 people per room, don't even think about the bathrooms.......... eeeeek ;) Anyways I bet you would be able to get this deal with other univerisities in China outside of Shanghai and Beijing; bet their foreign student dorms aren't booked up since they are like 5 times (or more?) the cost of the average Chinese dorm prices.

If you have to stay in Beijing.... When in Beijing I paid a little more (prob exhorbitant now was $300-350 a month, less if you stayed longer) in Haidian district at the International Student Center near BLCU. Ask around and look up my old post about it somewhere on here. If I go back to Beijing I'm calling them first.

Hope this helps.

[Scoobyqueen]

i am renting a flat for three weeks at a reasonable rate. an agency that does short term rent is "beijing sweet home" or summit similar. i found that home stays are done in association with schools and couldn find any isolated offers

last year i did home stay for two weeks with a contact of a contact but the neighbours informed the police which might help to illuminate the fact as to why there aint that many.

[Chinese Learner]

http://www.viplily.com

I don't actually know how good or bad these people are as they haven't yet replied to an email I sent...but you never know...

[mr.stinky]

if you were to tell us where in all of china you plan to go, perhaps someone here would

be able to help you find something. for example, here in kunmingland, there are heaps

of flyers at the coffee shops with apartments available, some for as short as one month.

most would be short-term stay with furr'ners, with the occasional chinese student(s)

looking for flatmates.

[cdn_in_bj]

last year i did home stay for two weeks with a contact of a contact but the neighbours informed the police

I wonder why 1) your neighbours would do that or even care, and 2) why it should matter (that you were staying with them). Were you properly registered with the PSB? Maybe the homeowners weren't paying taxes on their homestay "commission"... but still, this wouldn't be hard to resolve.