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Apartment Hunting in Guangzhou
Thursday, June 16, 2005-10:58 AM
In anticipation of her parent's arrival in Guangzhou, Natasha began her search for an apartment big enough for the three of them. I've accompanied Natasha on most of her visits to see vacant apartments.
The first thing I noticed about looking for apartments was how easy it was. There are big buildings all over the place, and these big buildings need tenants. No matter what direction we walk in, we pass three or four real estate offices with units for rent and sale.
So far, Natasha has only looked at places under a couple thousand renminbi; that's about two-hundred fifty dollars a month. In fact, most of the places we've seen have been around 1500 renminbi, or a hundred-eighty dollars.
That is still a chunk of change, but I can't imagine what kind of place my rent in the US could afford here. Considering these apartments are big enough for three people, it's a fairly reasonable price.
The places aren't palaces, but they're habitable. The kitchen is usually a wreck. I don't see many Chinese kitchens that don't have everything within two meters of the burners covered in a film of oil from cooking.
The only other problem area for myself is the bathroom. Specifically the "hole in the ground" toilets. I have adjusted to not having a separate place to take a shower, divided from the rest of the bathroom. But the toilets I just don't understand.
Even some of the nicest places have these "hole in the ground toilets". I don't get it. The comfort level of these toilets can't even compare to a western toilet. We had a conversation about this over dinner, and came to the conclusion that it's just a culture thing, not a comfort thing.
The apartment hunting will hopefully be complete soon.
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