Housing

Chinese Track Homepage

Pre-BLCU (Temporary Accomodations)
It can be difficult to arrange permanent housing at or around BLCU without being on the ground. Fortunately, hotel deals are easy to find online. A great site for booking hotels in Asia is agoda.com. There are a few hotels in Wudaokou that are close to BLCU and will be a good place to set up shop until you can get into an apartment. A safe bet would be to give yourself a week before classes start to find an apartment, get settled and explore a little bit of the area. Some hotels to consider are the Xijiao Hotel, Geosciences University Conference Center, Wenjin Hotel, as well as a couple that are affiliated with Tsinghua University. BLCU does have a Conference Center as well, however space is first come, first serve and usually fills up with long-term residents. You can also book a hostel online at www.hihostels.com.

BLCU
On-campus housing - 7 dorms for international students: Dorms 1, 4, and 6-9, and 17 with pricing from 35 RMB - 160 RMB per day. Dorm 1-9 idea.

The most desirable on-campus housing is Dorm 17 - International Student's House, opposite the West Gate and near the bike repair shops and some food stands. No curfew!

Dorm 17 is difficult to get into because of demand and the fact we arrive shortly after the Chinese new year. Many Asians (Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Russian, Filipino, etc.) have the advantage of arriving early or at least before South Carolina's Spring I semester ends, reserving most rooms in the nicest housing on the BLCU campus (and Asian agents often book in bulk). An excellent and recent blog posting on reserving a Dorm 17 room is here.The recent price range for more than 5 months is 65 RMB/night (~$10/night).

Another on-campus option is the BLCU Conference Center. This is essentially an on-campus hotel that rents out rooms to students by semester. It is first-come, first-serve but usually still has availability even after all the dormitories have filled up.

Off-campus Housing
It is highly recommended you communicate with 2nd or 3rd year students who have recommendations on excellent landlords. Before finding a place to live, there are a few things you should know about renting in China: If you are planning to find a place after your arrival (i.e. stay in a hotel the first week), you will have more flexibility to walk around and see all of the apartments/condos before signing a contract. In this case, you will look for real estate (房产 fang2 chan3) signs. They are pretty obvious becuase of the dozens of paper signs posted on the windows with listings (see picture on the right). While many in Wudaokou speak English, almost everywhere else will no one speak or provide contracts in English. Furthermore, any listing agency is in charge of paying the associated fees. Such fees should not be passed on for a middle-man to make a profit off of you. Discuss the options, find a trustworthy landloard by speaking with 2nd and 3rd year students, and negotiate with help.
 * 1) You will be expected to pay a lot of money up front, in cash. It’s very typical at contract signing to pay: 1 month’s deposit, Agent fee (1 month’s rent), plus 3 (or more) months of rent.  This can add up very quickly, so be certain to make arrangements to carry sufficient cash to cover this, checks are not an option and international wire transfers can take a long time, as well as incur major fees.
 * 2) There is an income tax imposed on all property owners who rent out their house for a profit; however, when a landlord rents to a Chinese national, they can claim that they are letting their cousin live there and not pay the tax.  However, when the tenant is a foreigner, there’s really no way around it.  Because of this, it is common for the landlord to pass this tax on to the tenants.  Be forewarned, while it is not technically your responsibility (regardless of what they tell you), you will likely end up paying it. It’s not worth pushing the issue, and the landlord will be happy to move on to the next tenant.
 * 3) You’ll have to sign a contract, but unlike in the US where many landlords are fine to renew a contract or even go month-to-month, Chinese landlords tend to raise rent at the end of a contract.  Take this into consideration as you seek out housing, some landlords will only do a minimum of 1-year contracts for foreigners; others will accept 6 months.

English websites such as Craiglists Beijing, the Beijinger, and ForeignerCN are up-to-date and often offer modern housing near BLCU or around Haidan. More than likely you can find decent deals exploring these website or others. In general, be warned that some rentals offer "present" photos of another property. If the photo appears illegitimate or fake, abort. Always ask for a current photo of all areas within the apartment. A modern highrise, single apartment or studio with modern furnishings in Wudaokou should cost less than 5,000 RMB/month. On the local market and on a budget, you could find significantly cheaper domiciles around 2,000 RMB/month or less. Remember, older buildings at 5 stories often don't have a lift. A non-furnished apartment will save 500-1000 RMB/month and is ideal if you will stay long term and/or perfer your own furniture.

Having a roomate can bring a 7,000 RMB, 90 square meter apartment well below the cost of a single, 55 square meter apartment. Consider that cost differential, privacy, cooking, night life, and common area/TV share a factor in deciding on whether to have a roomate. You may be offered a stay with a family or try to search for a roomate. This is absolutely not recommended. Do not be tempted to share housing outside familiar culture unless you are very familiar with your roomates or seek difficult times. Privacy and priority are important concerns in representing our University and common culture well.

In Wudaokou, there are a couple of decent (by western standards) housing complexes, in particular, Hua Qing ( 华 清 ) and Fu Run Jia Yuan ( 富 润 家园 ), this is where some of BLCU’s foreign students live. This website offers listings in these complexs.

Beyond Beijing
The situation in other major cities is very similar to Beijing: 5000-10000 RMB per month for very decent apartments in the business districts, 2000-5000 RMB for the same apartments outside these districts. Very local housing can cost 500-1500 RMB but are often deteriorating and lack appliances and furniture. While Chinese websites will have listings, it is probably easier and beneficial to take the train or fly to the city and spend a day to locally shop around and visit a few rental agencies (地产). It is extremely, extremely rare for these agencies to speak any English other than maybe "hello." Rental contracts are always in Chinese, so it will be best to bring help to make sure you understand all of the stipulations before signing. Here is a good video describing the rental process, in this case in Shenzhen.