Accommodation near CNU - hotel, dorm, serviced apartment, flat for rent?

[Katja_84]

Hello,

I am coming to Beijing for a 3-month internship down the road from Capital Normal University, and I'm having issues finding somewhere to live, in particular since I don't know whether it would be better to try to make some arrangements with a nearby hotel, to try to find a serviced apartment, or whether it will actually be possible to find an apartment to rent for such a short period. I am also thinking the "international student dormitory of International Cultural Mansion" might accept non-students.

How do you find reasonably priced short-term accommodation in Beijing? Any ideas? Good agents? Should I get there and decide once I'm there and can have a look around? Does anyone live in the area?

If anyone knows anything about transport in that area that would be good too (i.e. can I live anywhere by metro line 1 and take the bus the rest of the way or should I find something close to where I work?)

All advice would be much appreciated.

[roddy]

When you say down the road, in which direction and how far? CNU is pretty much on the third ring road, so a bus up from Gongzhufen might be possible, but I doubt it'd be much fun if you have to do it at rush hour. And if it's any distance east past Hangtianqiao for example you may be as well off coming from Line 2.

For three months private landlords aren't going to be that keen, and there aren't that many foreigners in the area who might be advertising sublets in English (assuming you don't read Chinese). Take a look at thebeijinger.com (look for Weigongcun, Zizhuyuan, maybe CCTV Tower) and put an ad up, you might turn something up. Can you ask the employer for any assistance finding somewhere?

Don't live in the area, but used to back in the day . . .

[Katja_84]

Thank you very much for your reply! My work will be about two km to the west of CNU on Linglong Road (closer to the fourth ring road), I take it the CCTV tower or Zizhuyuan might be the closest to there of the three areas you mentioned?

If you used to live there, is this a reasonably nice area to live in (even if you are not right on the campus of CNU)? Or would I be better off travelling further to work to avoid having to live there? There's so few places to rent advertised there so I wonder if it could be a very industrialized area or the like...

Otherwise I am starting to think I may be better off going to Beijing and finding some place to stay once I get there...

[roddy]

How are you looking? If you're only looking at English sites, there won't be anything there for the simple reason that hardly any foreigners live there. Never been out that way, so can't tell you what it's like - see what Google Earth shows you.

It was 2002/03 when I lived around there, which is more than enough time for information to go out of date in Beijing. All I can really recommend is that you ask the company what, if any, assistance they can offer, and do a bit of hunting when you get here - but it's probably not the easiest place to find information about if you can't read Chinese, and a three-month let is always going to be tricky. You might find a sublet from someone at CNU, I guess. Could commute down the 4th ring from the university area - that would give you a lot more options - but not sure how much fun that would be.