Description:
In this section, you will be able to see few pictures of our (nice) flat. I lived there with Jean-Marie (a nice Shanghai Kid from my promotion). I will try to describe you shortly how we have found it, where it is and how it looks like.
How:
First of all, I can affirm you that finding an apartment in China without speaking Chinese is maybe the most difficult thing. Thanks to a japanese friend of us (Kayoko), we have found it within four days. She can also speak English and Chinese (she had been living in China for 4 years now), so she helped us, went with us in real estate agencies and told them what we were looking for: our criteria was 2 bedrooms, at least 1 living room, 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom and that is what we found! Anyway, without Kayoko, we would never have found it so, again, thank you Kayo! We are paying 3500 RMB per months for 120 m² without including hot water, electricity and Internet. We have air-conditionners in almost every room, a television and a refrigerator.
Where:
The name of the street is Bao Chang Lu 550. For the people who know a little bit Shanghai, it's near the subway station called Bao Shan Lu (Line 3 & 4). We like the area where we are living because it is much more typical than living in the center, I mean we are living among Chinese people which are working in little stores which stay open day and night and living in decrepit apartments (see pictures). It is quite interesting to see how those Chinese people are living in their everyday life. It is not far from the center and also not so far from our university (about 15 minutes with the subway from each of them).
You can just have a look at the pictures to see how it is. I won't make comments anymore ^^.
