Bringing Family to Study in China 2013

[pprendeville]

Getting an early headsup on what to expect for when I got to China in 2013 to do my 3rd year aborad. I'm a mature student doing Chinese & Internationl Business and will be 31 when we make the move. My wife is Chinese (from near Shijiazhuang) and is out of touch with the goings on in China. We have 3 daughters and hope the family doesn't expand come next year. Have a few questions I hope I can find answers for:

1. I'm assuming it will be way too expensive for all of my family to stay in Beijing together so the provisional plan is for my wife to stay with her family with our kids while I study and I can visit at weekends. Is it remotely possible that we might be able to find relatively afforadable accomadation near either Beijing & Language Cultural University or The Central University of Nationalities? Our budget for the year will be fairly tight so I'm not too optimistic with regards to a positive outcome on this one.
   
2. Can students stay off-campus or would it end up being more expensive than staying in student dorms?
   
3. What's the price of a train ticket and the time duration from Beijing to Shijiazhuang these days? Last time I took one which was in 2005 and the train was not the quickest but I believe they have upgraded to pretty fast ones in the last few years?
   
4. Will it be a problem bring 3 kids to China for a year? They have Irish citizenship.
   

Will probably add more questions but these are my main concern for now.

Cheers,

[driftman]

1) depends on what you think is affordable and the standard you are looking for. But if you take a room in a shared flat thats usually not too expensive. Might be with a bunch of 20 year old students - not sure if thats what you are looking for as a "mature student" ;)

2) students can choose where to stay. When I studied at university here the dormitories at BLCU where a rip off, with off campus accommodation being much cheaper. Might have changed though - maybe some more recent students could comment on this.

3) Last time I took it (two years ago), it took 2.5 hours, but was really hard to get tickets. Forgot the price, but it was pretty cheap I think.

4) Dont see why. I think schooling is the main thing you should look at there. If you are on a tight budget, the international schools are definitely not an option for you...

[Mindmaxd]

There are D trains动车 between BJ and shijiazhuang,The time is around 2.5 hours,Price is ￥82-￥98.

Three children is really need more budget,At least each one need ￥800 in BJ,It depend how old they are and what they need.

[yialanliu]

If you study at BLCU, Wisdom Court was where I lived which was really close to BLCU. I paid 6k for a very nice 2 bedroom per month furnished. For a 3 bedroom split, you might be able to find one for 8k per month relatively easily.

Going from Beijing to Shijiazhuang isn't hard at all. The D trains are very frequent and are very comfortable, much better than buses. I did the trip many times as my fiance's family was there and I'd go back at least twice a month over the summer and once a month during the school year to do some errands for work. The tickets are very easy to get provided you buy them at around 3 days ahead of time or earlier. If you buy same day, I have found that I can get standing tickets on D trains about 2 hours away and sitting tickets about 6 hours from the time I buy for weekend tickets. There are numerous places to get the tickets, I bought them at the school or at Wudaokou. The only time where there was some difficulty was during the October 1st break where I bought them a week ahead of time and there were still many tickets available. I am sure if I waited, it might have been more difficult. Chinese New Year might be more difficult but never did that route since I go home to Shanghai for that holiday.

West Railway Station is also relatively close although the only bus there around my area was through Qinghuayuan stop which is 3 stops from Wisdom Court's bus stop, but still walkeable. From Huaqingjiayuan (the main living accomadations for Wudaokou), it's very close. Taxi is like 40 RMB I believe.

Would like to note that Huaqingjiayuan is older so apartments are slightly lower quality than Wisdom Court. Prices are comparable since the location for Huaqingjiayuan is slightly better.

[chinadude2006]

I believe they are building a high speed rail to Shijiazhuang as part of the Beijing to Guangzhou high speed rail. Apparently the Beijing to Shijiazhuang line should be up and running this year.The trip should take less than an hour.

[pprendeville]

1) depends on what you think is affordable and the standard you are looking for. But if you take a room in a shared flat thats usually not too expensive. Might be with a bunch of 20 year old students - not sure if thats what you are looking for as a "mature student" ;)

2) students can choose where to stay. When I studied at university here the dormitories at BLCU where a rip off, with off campus accommodation being much cheaper. Might have changed though - maybe some more recent students could comment on this.

3) Last time I took it (two years ago), it took 2.5 hours, but was really hard to get tickets. Forgot the price, but it was pretty cheap I think.

4) Dont see why. I think schooling is the main thing you should look at there. If you are on a tight budget, the international schools are definitely not an option for you...

1) I don't really know what the going rate is in Beijing so I can't really comment. Would 2000RMB be outrageuously cheap for a 2 bedroom apartment or am I dreaming? Wouldn't be too keen on sharing with 20 year olds, no even Chinese. Are there many mature students in China out of interest? I believe it's not the done thing.

2) So which university would you think is better - Beijing & Language Cultural University or The Central University of Nationalities as these are the one Dublin Institute of Technology has links with (also linked with a uni in Taiwan but I'm interested in Beijing for proximity to in law reasons.

Thanks for info on train tickets everyone.

[pprendeville]

There are D trains动车 between BJ and shijiazhuang,The time is around 2.5 hours,Price is ￥82-￥98.

Three children is really need more budget,At least each one need ￥800 in BJ,It depend how old they are and what they need.

The girls will be 4, almost 3 and 1 1/2 when we go. What do mean by each one needing ￥800 or were you assuming they were a bit older?

[pprendeville]

I paid 6k for a very nice 2 bedroom per month furnished.

this RMB, yes? how did you go about finding accomadation? i presume there are a few websites advertising properties in Beijing?

[icebear]

I don't really know what the going rate is in Beijing so I can't really comment. Would 2000RMB be outrageuously cheap for a 2 bedroom apartment or am I dreaming? Wouldn't be too keen on sharing with 20 year olds, no even Chinese. Are there many mature students in China out of interest? I believe it's not the done thing.

I think it'd be very, very unusual/lucky to find a 2 bedroom for 2000RMB - essentially, you're dreaming. My impression of a standard rate for a studio last year was around 3000-5000 RMB, depending on location and quality. I had a friend or two in modest (decent) single room hutongs for around 1000 RMB, but it certainly wasn't the place for a family.

I myself was in a 65m 1 bedroom around the 4th ring in 2007-2009, paying 2500 per month - that was considered pretty good by my Chinese friends, given the nice quality and being 20 some floors directly above a metro stop (very convenient to get into the center).

I think a more reasonable low mark for a 2 bedroom would be the 4000-5000 range. Let me just say I've only ever looked for 1 bedrooms or sublet single bedrooms so my impression of prices for larger apartments may be off.

[roddy]

So which university would you think is better - Beijing & Language Cultural University or The Central University of Nationalities

For what? Studying Tibetan? Finding Koreans to drink with? Commuting to Shangdi? We need your criteria before we can help - although to be honest the chances of someone having been to both are slim. You'd be better off talking to the people at the university who deal with both institutions and the students that go there.

If you're looking to keep rental costs down, it might be worth looking north - if you ended up at BLCU you can commute in on the Line 13 subway quite easily.

[pprendeville]

I think it'd be very, very unusual/lucky to find a 2 bedroom for 2000RMB - essentially, you're dreaming. My impression of a standard rate for a studio last year was around 3000-5000 RMB, depending on location and quality. I had a friend or two in modest (decent) single room hutongs for around 1000 RMB, but it certainly wasn't the place for a family.

I myself was in a 65m 1 bedroom around the 4th ring in 2007-2009, paying 2500 per month - that was considered pretty good by my Chinese friends, given the nice quality and being 20 some floors directly above a metro stop (very convenient to get into the center).

I think a more reasonable low mark for a 2 bedroom would be the 4000-5000 range. Let me just say I've only ever looked for 1 bedrooms or sublet single bedrooms so my impression of prices for larger apartments may be off.

Right, I didn't really have a clue what rent was like so thanks for filling me in. Do prices increase the closer you are to the center? How many rings are there in Bijing out of curiosity? I'm pretty ignorant of the Beijing metropolis. Do you know any websites that I can look at for renting just to get an idea of what prices are like at the moment?

[pprendeville]

For what? Studying Tibetan? Finding Koreans to drink with? Commuting to Shangdi? We need your criteria before we can help - although to be honest the chances of someone having been to both are slim. You'd be better off talking to the people at the university who deal with both institutions and the students that go there.

If you're looking to keep rental costs down, it might be worth looking north - if you ended up at BLCU you can commute in on the Line 13 subway quite easily.

Sorry, I thought it would be obvious seeing as I'm studying Chinese & Intl Business. I'll be studying Mandarin only for a year (my 3rd year of university) or a university year to be precise which is probably Sept - May/June. I don't anticipate drinking with Koreans as I'm a pioneer.

What do you mean by loking north? Do you mean Northern China, Harbin or Dalian etc? Our college only has links with those 2 colleges in Bejing so its one or the other I'm afraid. Also, I'd like for my wife to be close to her family as this is a good opportunity for her to spend some time with them and for the kids to get to know them better. Actually, I wonder if it's possible to see if I could go to a university in Shijiazhuang. Unlikely but it's worth asking. Thanks for the headsup on the subway number. Is it a good subway system in Beijing? I have never been on it. Only been on the one in Guangzhou & Hong Kong and that was very good.

[icebear]

Beijing is more expensive inside the second ring as well as in Chaoyang, which is something like east 2nd ring to east 4th ring. Of course there are other pockets of expensive real estate. If you live outside the 3rd or 4th ring prices drop substantially, especially if its any direction but east Beijing. I think the suggestion for north was that you could live north of the university district and still be in a decent commuting situation for your school, although you would be very far from the city center and probably not go there very much in that case (if that matters to you). The public transportation system in Beijing has good coverage and low prices, but it can take over an hour to go from one side of the city to the other on the metro, so it isn't a cure-all.

For prices on English-advertised apartments see thebeijinger.com

[langxia]

I am currently studying at Muc(Cun）. First about the accomodation, you can live on campus or offcampus, on campus is rather expensive but it might be an option for you. In the west gate foreign student dormitory there are appartements where you have a one person room and a 2 person room. If you rent it in total you have got a 2 bedroom appartement. Price should be about 6500rmb

Myself I live outside the school, I live in a 3 bedroom appartement with 3 other people and we pay 5300 a month but I can tell you that this is really a bargain and I doubt you will be lucky to find something in that price range anymore now.

For the classes I consider them not too bad. It comes down to two things, first your teachers. in the 3 semesters I took language classes there I would say out of 11 teachers I was unhappy with 2 of them. The second thing that you need to know is that Muc seems to attract a lot of people from the what we call ...stan countrys, which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't that most of them get send there by there parents to study chinese and this at a rather young age (I think the youngest one I met was around 14), and if you happen to have a lot of these young boys in your class I would advise you to change class.

Hope this could help you a bit.

[yialanliu]

Wudaokou has gotten quite expensive due to the massive increase of foreigners who are studying in the college district.

This has put a strain in housing since dorms can't fit them all and new apartments can't be built that quickly. Hence why it's so expensive there even though you are at the 4/5 ring roads.

All prices were in RMB per month.

I got my apartment after arrival which was pretty normal actually. Just went with a lot of realtors/agents and it worked out great for me, but I am fluent in Chinese. But since you have contacts, you should be fine as well. I'd recommend arriving slightly earlier as my agent later told me they ran out of apartments before they ran out of students in the second week of September and that was the first time he's ever seen it happen.

I actually considered studying at Hebei. The problem was Hebei has no schools that are Project 985, and only 1 or 2 that are 211. Hebei Univ of Tech is 211, and accepts international students but the ranking gap between this school and what I could get in Beijing was way too much to even consider applying.

[pprendeville]

snip

MUC? Is that 6500rmb per month or per semester?

Thanks for the headsup on the stan countries. Must be hard for them to leave home so young.

[pprendeville]

snip

Are the universities I mentioned (Beijing & Language Cultural University or The Central University of Nationalities) in Wudaokou district?

It will be useful having contacts alright but the majority are in Shijiazhuang but it’s a start. What do you mean by Project985, 211 and ranking gap? Just better quality teaching in Beijing?

[roddy]

Could we if possible please not quote entire posts from two inches up the screen just for a couple of questions. If you want to direct a question to someone their name works perfectly well.

What have the staff at your university said about the differences between the two? That would be my first port of call. What about the students a year or two above?

[icebear]

No offense pprendeville, but I think you could stand to do some of the basic footwork/research on your own, which will help you ask more informed questions and thus take more away from this forum. A few websites and price ranges have already been suggested, but you seem to be grasping at straws for cheap rents in Beijing.

The following links may help...

http://bit.ly/HMCqzg

http://bit.ly/HMCWxb

[roddy]

Incidentally, does anyone want to explain why Project 985 / 211 is important for anyone studying a Chinese language course. I fail to see how the funding or improvements would filter through. Maybe if you're at a 师范 university.