Our apartment hunt officially started today at 10am and we didn’t get home until almost 5pm. It’s been raining all day, and we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel. It was a long and exhausting day, but definitely interesting. We saw a variety of places including some in high-rise buildings and also apartments in what they call “old villas,” which basically just means an old house that has been converted into multiple flats. Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures from today (can’t find our camera’s battery charger), but we were able to form some general impressions of the apartment scene.
From what we can tell from local classified ads there is a huge range of apartments that are available. There are plenty of really nice, high-end places with a Western design influence, but that will cost you.
Right now, our budget is around $1,100-$1,200, which will afford us something livable, but far from what we are used to. Actually, some of the places we saw in our price range weren’t all that livable…one place in particular was so scary I couldn’t even make eye contact with Rob because I was so worried I’d start laughing. Conversely, we saw one place that was really nicely put together on the inside, but unfortunately in an inconvenient area.
The funny thing about apartments in Shanghai is that what you see on the outside really has nothing to do with you can expect to see inside. There were a few places where Rob and I exchanged nervous glances before the landlord would open the door, but were stunned to find something really nice. One of the nicer places (on the inside) we saw was actually one of the worst places on the outside. And when I say bad, think dirty, dirty, dirty…doors with the paint peeling off, clothes hanging outside of people’s windows, exposed electrical wires everywhere. Outside of this one place there was an abandoned sink with some weird vegetables in it sitting next to a rusty bike that looked like it was 40 years old. At lunch, Rob and I were laughing about how our American friends and family will react when they’re first introduced to our new place—take this as a warning, friends. :-) It’ll be a big adjustment for us, as well.
On a positive note, we did find an area of the city that we really like. It’s called the French Concession and is the part of Shanghai that was occupied by, you guessed it, the French in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The tree-lined streets are supposed to resemble a typical French provincial town, but we mostly liked the variety of places to go in the area.
We’re still not sure we’ve found the place, but our broker is prepared to take us out again tomorrow. For now we’re glad to be out of the rain and back in our hotel. Not sure if we’re still jet-lagged, but it’s definitely nap time.
