One of the first things I decided to look into is a place to stay, because I would rather not commute from Hong Kong, even though it’s “only” 1.5 hours each way. The possibility of overtime makes commuting impossible, since border-crossing buses at the nearest crossing stop after 22:45.
So I googled and found some useful advice right away:
- do not trust agents, ever
- do not believe the photos you see on real estate websites
- best to rent from owner directly
- talk to security guards of housing complexes because they might know who’s moving out soon
I ended up creating an account on douban, a Chinese discussion forum, and started browsing the listings of nearby areas. Many of the listings were people looking for roommates, because Nanshan district, the technology center of Shenzhen (and southern China), attracts a ton of young talents that aren’t married and would rather live with roommates to save rent. Places with squatting toilets and no elevators were cheaper, and places with separate showers (ie. separated from the rest of the bathroom by glass panels) cost more. I was looking for an empty place, but almost all of the listings came with furniture and agents were baffled when I told them I wanted ones without.
After going up 3 times to look at apartments in 3-4 different areas, we decided to rent an apartment in a complex built by the China Merchants’ Group in Shekou. It comes with some furniture, but the building is brand new (complex was completed in 2015 but buildings were rolled out in phases).
Of course, this being China, where things never play out the way you want it to be…
I was told that I needed a bank account before I can rent a place, but the bank told me I needed to have proof of address from the local government office before I can open one. In the end, we used a family friend’s bank card to rent my place, and I was able to register at the local gov’t office to obtain a proof to open a bank account.
But banking is another story that deserves its own post, so I’ll write about that next time.