Friday, March 2, 2007

NEW APARTMENT!

I've finally found myself a new apartment. It's in Fuchengmen (google-map or my map of Beijing, middle-left), which is a very "Chinese" area. It's not that it's traditional, because it's quite modern. But it's not a foreigner-friendly zone. Therefore, as a foreigner, I am required to register with the police within 24 hours of moving in (they don't stone foreigners or anything like that, just glare oddly). Luckily, the guy whose room I was taking over, an Aussie named Brian, managed to register for me. He went to the station with a very outspoken local, who is now my Beijinghua teacher (Beijing accent), and they registered me without me having to be present. It's funny; they're so strict about the residency part of it, but they didn't even verify whether my passport matched my face. Go figure.

So, I took the place over from Brian, who had to return to Australia because his university program had made some policy changes to their correspondence program, and will no longer grant him a degree while not present in Australia. He's probably going to skip all the lectures anyway, what a pain. But if anything good came out of it, it most certainly was a sweet place for me to stay. I didn't have to do any legwork, I pretty much just replaced Brian.

I pay 1600CNY/month ($250CAD) for a room in the 3-bedroom apartment. I share the apartment with two other guys: Paul, a 28 year old english teacher from Scotland, and Jaehyun Kim, a 27 year old MBA student from Korea (doing MBA in Chinese). My room is about 11'x20', has a queen-sized bed, desk, 3-seat couch, tv, dresser and cabinet. I also have an enclosed balcony with a view to the 2nd ring road, the busiest road in Beijing. I'm right downtown. For $8/mth, I get a home-phone and fast internet access (1Mbit, fastest you can get in BJ), and I have access to the shared washing machine and gas stove. The apartment is quite nice on the inside, there's lots of hot water and the pressure is good. It's on the 13th floor (they don't skip it here), and there are elevators.

The elevators operate on a very strange schedule. There are three elevators spread across the length of the long, and they alternate being used, one at any time during the day. Only 2 of the three are actually used, the third one, which is at our section of the building, apparently is used every once in a while but maybe on par with a blue moon. From the ground-level, you can tell which one is being used because an outdoor light goes on in front of the appropriate entrance. From the top however, the only way to know which is running is by guessing first, then going to the other one if you're wrong. In addition to that, they all stop operating at midnight. I really doubt this affects any of the locals who live here, but it does throw a bit of a wrench into my weekends. To add a bit more confusion, the elevators only stop on the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th and 13th stories, so if you live in-between these you still have to walk up or down a flight. And, to top it off, there's always an elevator operator, because I know we wouldn't be able to figure out how to push the buttons on our own. It's not that it's a necessity, it's that they need to find jobs for everybody here.


Our doorThe door open...

And from the next frame. Notice the watercooler and the pile of beers that accumulated as a result of me moving in.

A panorama of my bedroom. (big)

The washer and toilet. Not much to speak of but get the job done.

The shower and sink in a separate room. Useful for morning crunches when everybody's doing something different.


The kitchen. (big)

This is the view from outside our door. It's quaint, in a run-down concrete-building kind of way. (big)


The elevator waiting area. The coolest elevator lady, the others suck compared to her. I snuck this one, even though she's cool.
Our building, this shot facing SSW.

Fuchengmen. Beginning of Waidajie (outside avenue, referring to the roads position with relation to the 2nd ring road, more on that later...). This is a bustling corner. Photo taken at 3, you should see it here at 6. This is a very convenient bus hub, as well as mall and market area. Food is SOOO cheap, and the markets don't try to rip you off either, like at the Silk Market.
(big)

1 comment:

Budd said...

Hey Zach-aroo!!

Hope your doing well!
Well I happened to find your blog with no help from your brothers and just a mere mention of it's existance from Kathy.
The pictures are really nice. It's nice to see your actually out enjoying the scenery and history of BJ instead of just parking it and drinking the beer. How is the beer there anyway? Then again you like the weird beer here too so I'm sure you adapted quite easily.
CUTE apartment!! It is in DESPERATE need of a womans touch though! I mean SERIOUSLY! Then again, there are 3 men living there, alone and unsupervised so I would expect to see the dishes piled up and tea towels slung over pipes and doors.
I went to dinner at your dad's for Shrove Tuesday. Tried to get some information out of Clayton on your agenda while there but if ya can imagine, he was somewhat hung over and suffering. Therefore the only info I got out of him was your were there to learn Mandarin then you were coming home then going back to work. That's all he could muster at that point. Poor guy, then after dinner he had to go out to play dirty bingo and drink more beer. Sucks to be him.
I hope your not planning on becoming some CIA/FBI/CSI/LMNOP agent since you hve had the taste of a weapon in your mitts. At least you can actually say YES I have fired a gun. Nice to see there is some serious security happening over there too. Friend regestering you without you actually threre, not checking your ID for go to the fireing range. Yup, I'd feel safe. You should have looked into if there was a sign out policy there maybe it's like the library that you can borrow a gun for a week and bring it back.
Speaking of security, what is the crime like there? Well, around your area that you are staying in? You won't get shot or Kung-fued and people just walk over you on the street will they?
Oh yeah that reminds me....tell the Aussie Jason Kung-fu master he can Fu-man-chu me anytime!!
You said the food there is soooo cheap, but is it good? I mean when you put your spoon into your soup do ya bring up a chicken foot in it? How do they cook their dog there? Do they marinade it first? Does that make it tender? What kind of seasoning do they use on it? What's the cat population there? Marshall and Mike want to know if there is a McDonald's there and what is different on their menu from here?
Weel I must get moving here Zach as it's Marshall's 11th birthday 11th on the 11th) so we need to do something extra special for this as it will never come again!
Kids are on March Break now and I'm sure the theaters will be jammed packed (just the way I like it, screaming kids all around ahhh. Thank GOD I have medication!!)
You take care and keep up with the pictures, say hello to Jason for me!! Add me to your MSN list as I have no idea where you went off mine. buddsharry@hotmail.com
Stay safe and be GOOD!!!
Love
Sharry
xox
P.S. Remember to bring gifts back...noting huge or bulky, just something interesting...like a stone or something....