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Published: September 29th 2013
crazytimesahead
First family dinner
My first week in Guangzhou was so super busy. The
registration process for University is so outdated and time consuming. On Day One we stood in the line for at least 3 hours in 35 degree heat + about 80%!h(MISSING)umidity, managed to get through step 1 and almost reached the second stage, but got denied because the office was closing. That was after I'd gone for a really long walk to get cash out to pay for step 2
... pointless.
On day two we got the most important parts registration process finished, I learnt that you need to be early for everything. Especially where waiting in lines may be an issue. Oh and check that your wallet is in your bag before leaving the hotel room so that you dont have to waste 40yuan going back to get it.
Finding an apartment was incredibly challenging, and that was for people who had already been in Guangzhou for more than a week. The first day Ina and I (Silvia was still in Milan) went with our buddies to a real estate agent called Tang Zheng that most of the
exchange students were using. We had a price range of about 5000-6000RMB per month. The first place the agent showed us, we walked about 15 minutes to (in 35 degree head plus the humidity) was horrible. All small bedrooms, and a tiny kitchen and all around horrible. The second was worse, if that was possible. This made both Ina and I very concerned about finding something clean and at a reasonable price. Especially because typical chinese apartments were built with one large main bedroom, a slightly smaller bedroom for their one child policy kid and a tiny guest room. Which meant splitting it between 3 would be difficult.
On the second day of house hunting, we saw one average one and one acceptable one in between registering. We were ready to accept the second one, which was close to the university (10 minute walk) and it had nice bedrooms - still typical chinese ones though. An ok kitchen but it was something we were excited about. However Ina started to talk about price while the house owner was still in the room and that is a big no-no.
Later that afternoon we saw another apartment, about 20 minutes
crazytimesahead
My ensuite bathroom/walk through wardrobe from University in a beautiful
Garden (chinese people call the community of buildings the garden) with a swimming pool. The apartment was more westernised than most we had seen and about 130 square meters. There were two bathrooms, one was an ensuite from the main bedroom, a average kitchen, with what I thought was an oven (turns out it's a dishwasher), a big living space with a TV and comfy couch and a dining area with a huge stone dining table and chairs. Air cons in every room (except the kitchen and bathrooms). The main bedroom is big with almost floor to ceiling glass windows, double bed, walk through wardrobe into the ensuite bathroom. The second bedroom has built in wardrobes, double bed and a desk. The last bedroom is a guest room with a small built-in and a bay window with a big windowsil. I guess you've figured out by now that from the sheer amount of description, this is the apartment we picked. We bargained them down from 7500RMB per month for 12 months to 6800RMB per month for 4 months. Not bad I reckon.
We put down a deposit of 1000 Yuan that night and would sort the rest out later.
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