Getting an apartment in Beijing, like the locals do it

[hayhehes]

Anyone have experience renting an apartment from a pure Chinese website like 58.com, baixing.com, or soufun.com? I speak, read, and write a little Chinese so I'm attempting to do this for my 2-month-long stay in the summer time. However I quickly realized its still too early make anything happen for the summer. My instinct was to plan ahead but nobody wants to rent a place that far in advance.

I suppose I could arrive with no place to stay and try and go through this process then. I've actually been in touch with an agent in Beijing and that's what he told me to do. That could be interesting, makes me wonder how is the apartment scene different in the summertime? Is it harder to find a place, easier, or about the same? Or maybe I could try and do this 2 weeks before I'm scheduled to arrive. But I'm still not sure if it's even possible for a foreigner to rent or reserve an apartment over the internet without being in the city yet. Anyone know?

[eion_padraig]

I asked about this for Guangzhou just a while back, and people on the forum suggested doing it once you arrive because what is pictured online doesn't really exhist.

I used a Chinese website to find apartments in Shanghai years ago, but I was living in Shanghai at the time. You really want to see the apartment or have someone check out the place before you sign a contract.

I don't know specifics about Beijing. Good luck and have fun.

[valikor]

Agreed that you shouldn't rent ahead of time from someone you don't know (and an apartment you've never seen before) since all the info and photos online could be fake.

The sites you mentioned are great, although keep in mind that few landlords or agencies will want to give you a 2 month contract. You should look for people who are subletting (is that the right word?, ie, they are moving or for some other reason cannot finish their contract, and would like to find someone to take the place for 2 months.

There are places available for short-term rental (not many, comparatively), and can be rented daily, even hourly, and if you aren't pick about where you live (that is, these places are probably not very nice), it might be okay for you.

Probably best to wait until you arrive, and use the websites you mentioned to find a place. Keep in mind that the vast majority of the ads on those sites are from agencies who will want you to pay a high agency fee, usually equal to one month's rent. (You can select 个人 to see non-agents' ads, but they will be only a very, very small percentage of the total).

Good luck!

[langxia]

I have rented an appartement in Beijing for a month recently, or actually my girlfriend did for me as she was in Beijing and I wasn't at the time. (She is chinese) The appartement was bigger and thus we weren't the only occupants， we had one bedroom and the other bedroom was rented out to someone else. At the beginning to a girl and later on to a boy. The appartement was actually pretty nice but that should be expected for the price and location (5k at sanyuanxiao).

She went to check it out before we rented and put down a deposit a month before we moved in. So as others allready said I wouldn't rent anything you haven't seen before. And it is possible to rent for a month. Best would allways be to have a chinese friend to help you out if your chinese is not that good.

Otherwise you could also look at the beijinger, there are often people looking for a flatmate for shorter durations.

[drencrom]

Don't waste your time with the Chinese online listings. I tried it only to find that all the apartments were already "sold out", but the agent would be happy to introduce some other properties. Classic bait & switch advertising. I got pissed off because I'd find an apartment with the search function that fit my price and location, only to find it didn't exist. But the agent would ask "well what do you want" and then recommend several unsuitable properties. It was highly frustrating and when I got mad the agents said this was the way their business worked, and what was I expecting. I suppose over QQ you can't see I'm a foreigner.

[hayhehes]

Thanks for the advice all, I appreciate it. You all seemed to thing going there and finding a place is the best option so I'll probably attempt to do that.