The Middle Kingdom

Ask an Expat: Housing in Shunyi

Matt — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:03:53 +0000

This question comes from a guy looking at taking a position at one of the many international schools in the Shunyi area of Beijing.

I am looking at a position at “a popular international school” (name removed), but I don’t know the area at all, and have only travelled through Beijing. I see rentals going up to ridiculous prices in the tens of thousands of RMB/month, and am concerned about the cost of living vs. my expected income. Do you have an idea of what I could expect to pay for a modest 1-2 bedroom near the school? It really wouldn’t need to be fancy – I’m looking for a comfortable, secure, apt with access to the school & basic shopping. I would be paying/living in this apt alone.

Your school is located out in the Shunyi area, which is a suburban-y neighborhood north-east of Beijing proper. It’s known for having a lot of gated communities and foreigners. There are fewer apartment
complexes, but you can find a few places in the area. You may want to plan on getting a bike (or electric bike) because everything is a bit more spread out in Shunyi. The other thing about the Shunyi area is there isn’t a ton in terms of nightlife or other singles so you may be traveling into the city fairly often, which may mean you want to be near one of the Subway Line 15 stops.

In terms of price, the market is a bit different outside the city. From what I’ve heard you can probably find something pretty nice in the ¥5000-7000 range near the school. The best plan is probably to try
to find someplace temporary to stay before you get to Beijing and get a place once you’re on the ground. It seems that most of the online apartment search options are focused on high-end expensive apartments.

I hope that helps. If anyone other readers have additional advice, leave it in the comments below.

How to connect with other expats in Beijing?

Matt — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:03:24 +0000

One of the most difficult things about moving overseas (or moving in general, for that matter) is that you end up losing whatever community you had and you have to start over. Beijing can be an especially difficult place to meet people, make friends and develop new community. People tend to be very busy, it can be difficult to get around the city (especially during peak traffic hours), and most of all it’s hard to find places where other expats hang out. Obviously a lot of expats hang out at Sanlitun in the bars or Wudaokou in the clubs, but those aren’t ideal places to meet new friends and find community.

Here are a few different options for finding community in Beijing:

1) Book clubs
There are various book clubs that meet in Beijing, Kara wrote a whole article about them for eChinacities a while back. Read about it here.

2) Pub Quiz
If you’re a brainy type you could make some friends by finding a team that’s short a person and helping them win a prize at one of the pub quizzes around town. Check out Lush in Wudaokou or Paddy O’shea’s on Wednesday nights, or take a look at this article for more info.

3) International Church
The largest weekly gathering of expats in Beijing is at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship, but it can be easy to get lost in the crowd of a big church. The best way to connect it to attend one of the smaller services on Sunday night, or the young adults group on Thursday nights. There are also several other smaller international churches in Beijing. If you live in Shunyi, check out Capital Community Church. We wrote a post about church in Beijing here.

4) International Newcomer’s Network monthly gatherings
The INN has groups that meet monthly in Sanlitun, Lido and Shunyi. They are purely social events meant to help you meet people that live in your neighborhood. Check out their website for more details.

Any other great meet-and-greet options I’ve missed? Let everyone know in the comments below.

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China: Best If Escaped From By 03/05/2012

Matt — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:37:29 +0000

For most expats living in China, there is a clock that starts ticking the moment you land on the tarmac at Terminal 3 (or T2 if you fly Skyteam). That clock measures how long you can stay in China before you have to get away. It’s like an expiration date on a carton of milk. You can push it a little and go past that date, but you’re taking a risk of the whole think going sour.

I’m writing this post from a small coffee shop in Hilo, Hawaii, where we are currently spending our first trip outside of China in over 15 months. Not everyone has the same China-clock, but for us 15 months was definitely too long. We’ve found that we really need to get out a least once a year. When we’ve been in China too long without a break, we’ve both found that we have much less patience for cultural differences and have many more bad China days. So here’s the question: if you need to get out, where do you go?

Hong Kong: This is what I would consider a half-China option. It’s definitely different than the mainland, but for some HK isn’t enough NOT-China to count as getting away. The real advantage is that it’s close (kind of) and you can take a train to get there, so it’s cheap.

Philippines: While I’ve never been to the Philippines myself, I know several people that have. It’s supposed to be beautiful, warm, and one of the cheaper options in Asia. Bonus: English is commonly spoken so communication is easy. Apparently the place to go in the Philippines is Boracay.

Hawaii: The advantage of going to Hawaii for us is three-fold: 1) it’s America, 2) we don’t have to worry about trying to see all of our friends and family like we do when we go home (not that we don’t want to see them, it’s just a different kind of trip), and 3) it was a good value for our frequent flyer awards.*

Home, wherever that is for you: Obviously this is the trip that a lot of people feel like they need to make. Sometimes you don’t need to just get out of China, you need to get home.

So where else should people be going when they need a break from China? Let us know in the comments.

*If you have Delta miles it’s only 40,000 miles round trip to Hawaii from Beijing. It’s at least 70,000 to go to the US mainland. Check out this post about Delta rewards in China.

Waxing Poetic

Kara — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 04:59:04 +0000

I’ve been teaching some poetry lately, and it has reminded me of how much I love this stuff. I go back to my literary roots, the years I spent studying all kinds of different poetry and prose, and a stirring starts somewhere deep within my soul. I can’t write a great poem to save my life, but I want to and I know that I’m not going to get any better spending lots of time not writing.

I honestly had to study poetry a good bit before I appreciated the simplicity and passion that one poem can encompass. My favorites are the playful ones, though, ones that mess with language and sounds in a way that is refreshing and moving and fun. Sometimes some of my favorites are the cold ones, poems that say what I would not dare.

In this vein, I am going to recommend some of my favorites for your reading and listening pleasure—remember that half of poetry is hearing it read out loud.

Sharon Olds- I Go Back to May 1937

William Carlos Williams- This Is Just To Say (The radio broadcast and podcast, This American Life, does a fantastic piece about this poem which you can listen to here.)

Langston Hughes- Winter Moon

Starting in just a few days, The Bookworm in Beijing will be holding their annual Literary Festival. Many of the events are already sold out, but do check out what’s still available. I am reminded of how many amazing writers inhabit this city, and it makes me totally ashamed to not be in better contact with them.

Finally, for those of you who aren’t much for words, here’s a video that I can only consider musical poetry. It’s amazing and brings out my desire to do something beautiful, something uniquely cool. Those not in China may want this link instead. Sidenote: Kevin Olusola actually studied in China a few years back and appeared on the famed Chinese New Year TV special. Expats rock!

What are your favorite poems? Do you have poetic moments in China? Where do you find an outlet for your literary itch?

And maybe the most fun: Write your own imitation of This is Just To Say, specifically related to expat life in Beijing. Leave it in the comments for us all to enjoy.

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Coffee Shop Update

Matt — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:41:58 +0000

I feel pretty bad about how little I’ve posted over the last couple months. I would say I’ve been really busy, but I think I’ve always been busy. Anyway, I’m going to try to get back into more regular blogging.

First up is an update about the Aizai Cafe. You can go back and check out some of my earlier posts (1) (2) (3) (4) chronicling my adventure in helping to start up a coffee shop in Beijing. It’s been a great experience that I’m very grateful for, but as of January I’ve ended my involvement with Aizai.

I wish my Chinese partner the best in her endeavors, but it became clear that our priorities and ideas about business were not in full alignment, and since the shop was taking a lot of my time and not making much money we decided it was best to part ways. I did not have any financial investment in the shop so it was pretty simple to walk away. Aizai Cafe is still serving some good Rickshaw Roasters coffee, but beyond that the shop owner is probably going to make some changes in terms of menu and food offerings.

I’ve learned a lot from the whole experience. It’s been a real challenge, but I’m fine with how things have worked out. I’m grateful for the opportunity to go through the process of setting up a coffee shop, because I’m pretty sure that someday I’d like to own my own shop. I’ve also learned a lot about the difficulties of partnerships, especially in a cross cultural situation, and I have a much better idea about what is important to me when it comes to running a business. It may seem really selfish, but one thing that is really important to me is that I’m the ultimate decision maker.

I also have a lot of advice to give if there are others looking to start coffee shops or small restaurants in China, and I’m still planning on doing some coffee consulting as well as continue with the Coffee Club.

So that’s the big update. I’m currently working on some projects at BICF that will last through June, then we’re heading back to the States for the summer. I’m starting to try to figure out what I’ll be doing next fall, so stay tuned.