Job Discussion Forums

[matador]

Does anyone know any good real estate agents here who speak English? I am looking to find a new one bedroom apartment. Many thanks.

[Sinobear]

A one bedroom apartment may be tricky...usually in older, run-down buildings. A two-bedroom apartment can be found for a reasonable amount (1500 RMB/mo +).

PM me if you really need some help.



Cheers!

[HunanForeignGuy]

[Joe C.]

[HunanForeignGuy]

The previous post is incomplete in many ways.

First, the poster refers to Tian He as an extremely large district. That presupposes a reference point of what is a large district. Tian He is smaller than Brooklyn, smaller than Staten Island, smaller than Queens so in terms of a district, it may be large for someone from Podunk, Iowa, but small to someone from New York, New York. Generally speaking, many of my GZ friends feel that Tian He radiates out from Tian He Bei Lu and that immediate area which encompasses a goodly amount of schools, universities, etc., etc.

Next, the previous poster failed to disclose some rather important information to you insofar as public transport in GZ is concerned. Indeed, public transport is well-developed in GZ but subway services begins on some lines only around 06h00 and finishes as early as 22h45. On other lines, it may run a little later (say until near 00h00). Still, it is not an all night service.

As for city buses, they start anywhere from 05h30 and also finish in the evening anywhere from 20h30 to 22h30. Thus. if you are evenings out kind of a person and if you live at any given considerable distance from place of employment and place of play, you may find yourself racking up taxi bills rather quickly.

Next, I would love to know in what respectable part of GZ one might, as the previous poster has suggested, find a respectable apartment for RMB 600 a month. Perhaps you could and then perhaps you would need to spend another 6 000 RMB to make it livable. You also need to be aware of the fact that home burglaries occur in GZ on a far greater scale than in other cities in China and thus where you live in GZ and the inherent security of where you live should be an important consideration. Quite a few of my (local) GZ friends have had their apartments visited.

Next, perhaps the previous poster knows something that the Guangzhou Tax Department does not know in terms of gross revenues. The district known as Panyu has the highest per capita revenue of any district in the city and property values in Panyu and in the Tian He Bei Lu area can be equally breathtaking.

I repeat what I told you earlier -- take a Chinese friend with you and any local agent can do the job quite well for you.

[Joe C.]

[HunanForeignGuy]

Joe C.,

Your blue-collar origins show to an illiterate extreme as Dorothy Parker would say.

1. I was born in Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side of New York -- a neighborhood in which you would probably be the doorman at the local dry cleaner at best.

2. I was baptized at St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue on the Upper East Side in a church where at best you might have been the doormat, well-worn and frayed around the edges.

3. I lived at and still maintain a co-op on 91st Street between Fifth and Madison in a building where your mere presence would cause revolt and revulsion by your crass words and actions. Of course it is a restricted building, and that alone would keep you out.

4. I attended a very famous university on the Upper West Side of the city where you might have been the local mugger on the streets removed by the police.

5. I am a member of the Union Club and my wife has been active in the Metropolitan Opera Ladies Guild and the Junior League. She is particularly active in fundraising activities for charities that assist adults who have substance-and-alcohol abuse issues and frankly given the tenor of your messages, that might suit you. I would suggest a protracted stay at the Betty Ford Clinic.

5. I lived on Tian He Bei Leu in a wonderful building for a considerable period of time in a building where you surely would not be able to pass the muster of the admitting board.

6. I have acquaintances at Bellevue Hospital who would surely be pleased to see if they could fix what is so obviously wrong with you.

7. I have many (Chinese) friends in wonderful gated communities in Panyu whose villas have private swimming pools, with staff, etc. Some of them are looking for a trash collector and I think that the position fits you remarkably well.

Now, go back to your steel mill.

HFG

[jwbhomer]

What I like about HFG is his modesty. Nowhere in his many posts does he tell us what major and prestigious prep school and university he attended, or which prestigious universities he has taught at in China, or what his connection with La Habana (= Havana, for us blue collar types) might be. It's lovely to see such modesty, especially coming from someone who obviously has so much to be modest about.