Hi everybody,
Well, we decided to stay. Myung is seriously working on her business plan, so we leased an apartment for a year. It’s over the railroad tracks and down a block from where we were before. It’s a much better place, as you would expect for taking a lease, a little under $200/mo. It is about 100 sq. meters, about 900+ sq. feet, has two bedrooms, two bathrooms (a sit down toilet and a squat, whichever way floats your boat, and one has a tub and shower.), a nice living room, a better kitchen, a balcony, a washing machine, and is fully furnished. What an improvement! The downside is it’s a little noisier, it’s not right in the middle of the main shopping plaza, and it is pretty filthy. Chinese fry everything and often never clean up the grease. This was the case here, but after maybe 10 hours of work we got the kitchen so you feel like cooking in there. There are still a few days work ahead but, as I always say, I’m not that busy.
Most Americans would go ho hum at this place, but I’m looking forward to staying put for a while. If I stay a year, it would be the longest I’ve stayed anywhere in four years. The next longest was seven months in Yangsan, S. Korea from July 2008 to January 2009. The only other place at all was Buenos Aires for two months. We bought some decent kitchenn stuff and will get a toaster oven. How domestic, eh?
Here are some pics of the place. Here’s the living room and entrance by the dining area.
Here’s the kitchen. It’s rather big by Chinese standards. You can’t see to the left, but there’s big refrigerator, which you don’t often see.
Here is the big bedroom in the backwhere we sleep. There is a nearly wall length closet to the left.
Here is the little front bedroom which is our office, where I am typing this now. Check it out. More closet space.
Now, here’s a little commentary. You always hear how the Chinese are building up their infrastructure and accumulating foreign reserves while increasing the standard of living for the people. Quite amazing, to be sure. But they have a housing bubble that’s going to burst worse than the one in the US did. They are having all the same bubble symptoms the US had. So when growth slows, like when they can’t export as much and the government decides not to blow all it’s reserves on stimulus, the people will need to access their wealth or at leastnot be upside down. Here’s a problem they have. US property is of much, much higher quality. Even the worst built houses thrown up during the boom and sold for big bucks will hold up probably 50 years if they aren’t in an instant slum. The best places here start falling apart in 10 years, are barely habitable by our standards in 20, and are tear downs at 30. Not only are the properties poorly made, sometimes without even thought about, say, access to the pipes for plumbing work later on, but I’ve noticed the Chinese seem alergic to doing the maintainance they could do. If the hot water doesn’t work, no problem, cold is alright or they’ll rent it out and make their payments. When the properties no longer have intrinsic value, they will be stuck with slummy buildings with no water, etc.. That will exacerbate the bust. Of course the Chinese media is all about how great things are, like when the US was going to balance it’s budget during the Clinton years. And the other thing is, the Chinese really don’t see anything coming in that regard. They’ve only been in a market economy for 30 years and think everything just goes up and up.
Take this place. It was built in 2002. The water in the back bathroom sink doesn’t work. The landlady says, no problem, it works in the front bathroom. And she’s not about to spend any money on repairs because she gets enough to cover her mortgage from us. That’s one reason it’s cheap. Also, the faucet that you turn on to add water to the front squat toilet doesn’t work. No problem. You just fill the bucket and pour water down it like out in the country where most of them came from, so they see nothing wrong. And you can’t get to the pipes to repair it because they are behind walls with no access. You see that kind of thing again and again. When the wheels come of the real estate boom here, it will be ugly.
Whew, that was long. And all I wanted to do was introduce my pictures of the views outside. Here is one to the left as you look out from the living room balcony. This building is identical to ours. Looks okay, actually, from the outside. The fountain doesn’t work anymore, of course, but I did see a couple of guys there fiddling with PVC a couple of days ago.
Here’s the view off to the right. That building in front is probably 15 years old.
Likely some of those apartments’ water doesn’t work at all. No problem. They are used to carrrying water. Most rural Chinese do.
Out our little kitchen window is this building. It’s probably 20 years old. Yes, it’s by the railroad tracks but it is typical of thousands and thousands of other residential buildings all over China. The garbage piles are probably 10 years old!
I think I have now offended any of my Chinese friends who may read this blog. To my Chinese readers: Remember, the bottom line is as I have always said. I like Chongqing. I really do. Myung and I have been in many cities and towns in many countries. For all the reasons I have given before, we decided to give Chongqing a whirl. Myung thinks it will be a good place to make money. I agree. Opportunities are all over the place. It’s not jaded about foreigners like in many other cities. If I wanted to be around Westerners, I’d choose someplace else. People are more genuine here than in most cities. The nice people we met that drew us back here are still our friends and still nice. Now we know a few more people. It’s even less expensive than in most big cities. It’s good here. At least is is for me so far. And no, obviously, I did not get swept away in the floods.
So, what am I doing? I wonder a little bit myself. The days pass quickly, I know that. This last month has been so hot, I ventured out of our air conditioned apartment as little as possible. Myung and I walk around, ducking frequently into air conditioned buildings. There are a couple of English language shows on TV we watch. I’ve read a lot. I’ve started to do an online Mandarin course, but I must admit I’ve been lazy. It’s a bit daunting. That said, at least I can hear it most of the time. Little bits are making sense to me just because you will never hear English here on the street. One curveball is many people here speak Sechuanese. EvenMyung struggles with their accents sometimes when they try too talk in Mandarin. After cleaning this apartment some more for a few days, I’ll get going. Really. I have to. Our Chinse acquaintances are trying to get me to tell them what I’ve learned. It’s about time.
Oh, since I stated this blog entry, our new high quality Korean pot and pans set got delivered and Myung used them to make dinner. We are almost officially domesticated. When we get the toaster oven, I plan to use that as much as it’s possible to bake things. Baked stuff one of the things I miss in Asia. I think Myung is getting a little tired of cooking dinner, anyway, though I usually make breakfast and lunch. Breakfast in usually oatmeal or fruit meusli (expensive import) yogurt. With one of our new flat frying pans I can fry eggs. We only had a wok before. Myung still likes the sandwiches she got used to in Africa. She’s now almost an honorary American. Well, almost. She eats them her way sometimes.
Remember, there is a show about Chongqing in CCTV (China Central TV). Click on my CCTV link, Click on “Travelogue” and enter “Chongqing”. If I can remember how, I’ll adjust my map of southern China so you can see where Chingqing is. If I can’t or don’t do it right away, go to the map and just move it down a little. Chongqing will be in the upper left.
Be well, all of you.