Finding a Place to Stay by Kyle Bailey

As the resident Chinese speaker in my family, certain chores naturally fall into my area of responsibility. Since my last exam on Friday, that responsibility has been finding us a new abode as our present lease is about to expire and our landlord was not reasonable when I tried to negotiate a new one. Looking for a new place to live is a very good way of getting you out of your comfort zone; I have become so used to our little neighbourhood; knowing where to go for this an that, familiar faces, which bus to catch etc. The thought of leaving Zhong Guan Cun in the north western corner of the city was a bit frightening but it had to be done; Meryl is staring work in the north east corner and the travel would have just been too much. So off I went to Da Tun Li (the midway point between Meryl’s new job and my university) to start hunting.

Estate agents are part of the house hunting process in Beijing whether you like it or not (in my case not); they remind me a bit of Fagan and his band of crooks in that they see no harm in crooking an unsuspecting ‘client’ as long as it is done good naturedly and with a smile. Unsolicited service is the order of the day in China and once they latch on they are unshakable, a bit like trying to get chewing gum off your fingers, it just sticks to the other hand and makes the whole thing even more of a mess.

My search began on the internet where I was sure I could avoid agents. The third one down the list looked promising and after making arrangements to meet the ‘owner’ in an hour’s time I was feeling quite good about my prospects. I arrived at the meeting point and phoned as agreed; I was told that I would be called back in a minute and after a short while I did indeed receive a call but from someone different who said he would be there shortly. My heart began to sink as I realised that I had fallen into the hands of agents, my fears were confirmed when a chap on a bicycle told me hop on and proceeded to take to a place in the opposite direction from the place I had seen in the advert. Oh well! As I always tell myself, ‘it’s an opportunity to chat to someone new in Chinese and maybe learn something about the city’. By the end of that day I had seen all of the worst that Beijing had to offer and after telling my new friend that I would ‘consider all the options’, which in Chinese means you’re not interested, I called it a day and decided I would start the next day in a new area.

Day two began with me wandering through a promising area looking for ‘To Let’ signs (出租) in the windows and even though I had made a resolute decision to go it alone and deal with owners directly, it wasn’t long before I had a gang of 5 or 6 willing agents skipping along after me enquiring about what I was looking for and could they show me this and that. After assuring them that I was not paying any commission over and above the rental price I agreed to go along with them. As can only happen in China, I ended up at one of their homes drinking tea and chatting about the rental market which they all assured me was good for everyone except the agents but that they would help me anyway because I was a friend.
The great news is that my new friends did indeed help out and Meryl and I can move into our new home on Friday. I was also reminded that you can’t do anything in China on your own terms and ‘service’ is just part of the deal.