House Hunting 2.0 – Shanghai Style

Well I didn’t think it would happen so soon – finding a new apartment in Shanghai. And I don’t know why, but the days leading up to going to Shanghai, with the sole purpose to find a new residence, I was really looking forward to it. But as I was on the train to Shanghai that Friday afternoon, I realized I what a daunting task I had waiting for me. Would I be able to communicate in English? Would I have to try out my shoddy Chinese skills? Would I be able to find something with a tight budget, that was suitable for me and relatively close to work in two days? I was already anxious and I hadn’t even left the Nanjing train station.

I knew I wanted to live alone. I’m ready for a change and to be officially “on my own.” Not that having a roommate hasn’t been nice in Nanjing, but I have plenty of friends still in Shanghai, I know my way around and I am just ready to just have a place of my own. So now that I’m done with the self-reflection and justification to living roommateless I can write about the most tiring day I’ve had in quite a while.

When I got off the train in Shanghai I knew that the next 24 hours would be intense, that I would need to ask the right questions, inspect the nooks and crannies and be aggressive in what I wanted. So there I was with the first agent and the promising first apartment she took me to. The tenet had just moved out and the landlord was installing new floors and completely repainting the place. The appliances were new, the kitchen was nice, the furniture was alright and the bathroom was a dream (compared to my bathroom in Nanjing). “Wow,” I thought, “this’ll be a good day!”

I was wrong. For the next three hours I saw 7 more places that were ALL duds. Whether it was old, crummy Chinese furniture, a place where I had to walk through someone else’s kitchen to get to my room, dingy studios or furniture-less apartments, I was getting very discouraged throughout the day. After a refreshing cup of coffee, I set out again. This time I would try to do as a local does – I went to a local agency.

I decided to brave trying a local agent, who may or may not speak English. Much to my and the agents’ surprise, I was able to communicate in Chinese telling them what I wanted, how much I wanted to spend and where I wanted to live. You never really know your language abilities until your in a situation where you’re forced to actually use them. I couldn’t believe I was able to hold the conversation I was with the agent. Sure, it wasn’t super philosophical, but I was able to tell him what I liked about Shanghai and Nanjing, where all I had traveled to and my impressions of the apartments as he showed them to me. This may have been the push I needed to really learn more Chinese.

Anyways, he showed me about four more places, all of which were either too expensive or were too old. Walking to my friend’s apartment where I was staying for the night, I was starting to feel discouraged. Of the 13 places I saw that day, only three were really standing out to me, two of which were too expensive and the other I was a bit worried about noise. That night I thought about my apartment shopping experience. If you see a place here, you need to be quick. And I kept thinking of the first apartment I went to. It was clean, it had lots of new things – fridge, water heater, washing machine, floors and coat (or two) of paint. Best of all, it was in my price range (unlike the other ones I liked). I decided that night I needed to pounce. I didn’t want to settle for second choice like I did in Nanjing.

So the next morning I met with the first agent to set out again to house hunt. I looked at one more apartment, still out of my price range, and told her I was done. I wanted the first. I couldn’t believe I was going for the first place I saw, but I felt good about it. It is located about 2 minutes from the subway line to work, has four of my favorite restaurants in Shanghai within 10 minutes walking and the landlord speaks English. The one down side is that it is right above about 3 or 4 bars, albeit they are pretty lame “Chinesey” bars. But, this is China. There is going to be noise anywhere I go. And my working hours are going to be such that I don’t come home until about 10 or 11 p.m. anyway. Hopefully I’ll be getting home and going to bed around the time the party is subsiding. And at least I’ll be able to sleep in if I lose sleep over it.

Anyway. I’m relieved I found a good apartment in Shanghai. It’s going to be an adventure moving, but with a good place to call home, I’m looking forward even more to this move to Shanghai. When I move in and get it settled I’ll put up some pictures, since I have figured out how to do that on the blog now. And I hope now that I’m living in Shanghai that some of you will come visit me! :-)