An amazing thing happened today – we signed the contract for an apartment! Normally in a city of 5 million people, such an event wouldn’t seem to be so amazing. But when that city is quickly growing to 8 million people and many old apartments have been demolished to make room for new ones, the demand has dramatically outstripped supply.
There isn’t a central clearinghouse for apartment rentals in our city, so the process starts by traveling from one apartment complex to the next and visiting the real estate offices. Sometimes we walk and sometimes we ride – here’s a picture of Susan riding to see an apartment with a friend.
The real estate offices usually have just a few apartments for rent, 
but often will try to use “bait and switch” tactics to get you to look at something that is quite different than what you might actually be interested in. Each complex will often have quite a few of these storefront operations, each with limited access to what might actually be available. After a week of searching, we had only viewed a few apartments (unacceptable ones) before finding the right one for us.
The owners are moving out to live with their newly married daughter, something that is not unusual in China. They seemed glad to have a foreign teacher and his wife as tenants, trusting that we will work to keep the place clean and in good condition. We were wonderfully blessed to have the help of a Chinese friend (Kevin) in the negotiation and contract writing/signing process. Here’s a picture of Susan “authorizing” her signature (who needs a notary public when you have a thumbprint?).
And here are the happy landlords and tenants posing for a photo in the apartment. They plan to spend ten days cleaning out their stuff before we move in. Since they are moving over to their daughter’s house, they are willing to leave behind any furnishings that we need (and we are willing to have them!).
After the deal was done, Kevin treated us to a wonderful celebration dinner at a local hotpot restaurant. We are grateful for good friends who have helped us so much as we seek to settle down in our new city. And we are especially thankful to the One who has provided us with a decent apartment so close to our school (about 15 minute walk).
I am thankful that once again you have been provided for. So many times it has seemed like everything would fall apart, but in the end it has worked out. Not that this isn’t all very scary and difficult even with many things working out! You guys give a new understanding to the term culture shock.
So very thankful to see this happy day!
So VERY happy for you both!
Now that you have room for visitors, we are packing our bags.
yeah!!
WOW! Sounds great! So wonderful that they are willing to leave furnishings that you want. That will make life so much easier not to have to completely outfit yourselves for now, but Susan can add her own touches to make it feel a little more like home! Sounds like you found a great place!
Oh, and again, do some shopping on Ikea if you need to and send us a list! We’d be happy to send you a box of odds and ends that you may need! AND we are looking forward to seeing Tim in a couple weeks!
To Brian and SB: Thanks again for the offer to send stuff from IKEA. When we finally move into the place at the end of next week and take an inventory, we may be in touch to take advantage of your gracious offer. We’ll also check out the stock at our local FAKEA…
To the McPhersons: We’d love to have you visit, but you might want to wait a while if you’re interested in eating something other than oatmeal and peanut butter. Regina would enjoy this place from a “master gardener” perspective. They began a “green city” initiative a while back and have planted over 100,000 trees. With regular irrigation from ditch water, they seem to be growing well too (but not always smelling good).