Beijing becoming expensive!

[重大雷雨]

14 hours ago, vellocet said:

The ebike is the chariot of the working poor

 

Perhaps they could simply move all of the ebikes to a replica Roman-style colosseum and commence battle!  

 

 

[重大雷雨]

9 hours ago, zander1 said:

Sadly everytime I have returned to Beijing it's gotten more expensive and just much less 'fun' for lack of a better word.

 

...It would be a win-win situation for everybody!

[Dawei3]

One of the factors underlying the unrest in HK is housing prices.  In the past decade, residential property prices are up by 242% and HK was rated as the world's most unaffordable.  "The average monthly salary is HK$19,100 (US$2,446) for men and HK$14,700 for women. The average monthly rent  for a one-bedroom flat in the city centre is HK$16,551."  Young people can't afford a place to live.  https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3019591/why-hong-kongs-angry-and-disillusioned-youth-are 

 

However, the gov't doesn't want more native Chinese moving to Beijing, so the rise in housing costs in Beijing isn't concerning to the government.  

 

 

[889]

Just for the record, that statistic about the affordability of Hong Kong housing -- based on average wages -- is very widely used but very misleading. Close to half of Hong Kong's population, 44.7 percent, lives in public housing, where rents/costs are very low.

 

There are income limits for public housing, so low wage earners are concentrated there.

 

If you want to do a realistic affordability index, you need to compute average wages for the 55 percent not in public housing, that is, for those who are in the market for private housing. I suspect that recomputed average wage would be quite a bit higher than for the population as a whole, changing the affordability index substantially.

 

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/2182106/why-public-housing-shortfall-will-remain-thorn-hong-kongs

[ChTTay]

The hutong thing in Beijing is an emotive issue for many with a lot of different factors. I also miss the restaurants and bars that were lost during the “brickening”. They are also a key cultural site and draw for tourists. I used to love just walking round there and ducking into new places.  

 

Then again, I do feel sorry for those who live in some of them as a family home. Unless they’re completely renovated (I think many aren’t) you’re looking at trips to the public toilet when nature calls. I’m fairly sure other washing facilities are quite basic. Some of the hutongs they destroyed were structurally questionably even just looking at them. 

 

Equally, you can also speculate about that land and how much it’s worth... then come to your own conclusions as to why someone might want it. 

[889]

Once everyone knew their hutong was doomed -- often years before the wrecking crew arrived -- they stopped upkeep and renovation of their houses, so the hutong developed a dilapidated air. In fact, just walking around Beijing you could usually tell which hutongs were going to be protected because there'd be a lot of work going on. (Once a hutong got on the doomed list, I think the government prohibited significant renovation of the properties lest it increase the compensation payable.)

[Brian US]

On 10/15/2019 at 4:13 PM, vellocet said:

Getting rid of the street markets and food vendors is part of the "civilized city" concept.  Any city that has them is lower down on the ladder.  They're viewed as dirty and unworthy and only used by filthy deplorables and China needs to move on. 

 

I'm trying to bring it back. 2-3 times a week, I sit outside by myself on a plastic stool eating take-out, have a case of Qingdao's, and lift my shirt over my belly and mutter 真热死了.

 

The bao'ans generally wake me up around midnight, help me load up my empty bottles, and point me towards my building. It's much more acceptable in China, since in the US my neighbor just gets the water hose out and yells at me (total buzz kill).

 

 

[ChTTay]

3 hours ago, Brian US said:

It's much more acceptable in China, since

Probably get mugged in a good few parts of the world too ?

[Dawei3]

On 10/15/2019 at 9:30 PM, 889 said:

 

Just for the record, that statistic about the affordability of Hong Kong housing -- based on average wages

 

Excellent point. I didn’t know about the public housing.  I also like your point about averages. I give lectures on decision making and one of the books I mention is “the flaw of averages.”  It’s about how using average values can sometimes be deceiving (as in this example).