WELCOME
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Bear's `STAYING IN CHINA' Page
A residential complex in Shanghai.
A couple of years ago my wife, Bin Huang, purchased a three bedroom apartment on the ground floor of a new complex on the outskirts of PuDong, a suburb of Shanghai, China. Her sister, Jing Mei, purchased an adjoining one bedroom corner unit. They had carpenters put French doors in the adjoining wall, thereby creating a four bedroom, two bathroom home. The kitchen in the larger apartment became an office nook. I used it to set up my computer while I visited over Christmas of 2000.
Like many homes in Shanghai, the apartment is equipped with air conditioning units but no heating system. Unlike most air conditioning units the ones in Bin's house also produced a minimal amount of heat but this feature is seldom used because of the high cost of electricity.
If you look at any of the newer complexes you will see the outside of the structure dotted with air conditioning condensers, hoses running through the wall into the apartments.
The outside of the newer apartments are also equipped with racks that extend out from the balconies to hang clothes for drying.
Newer complexes are surrounded by high fences topped with broken glass. At the entrances are rolling gates and guard houses with uniformed security personnel. Tenants can feel secure in leaving their cars parked on the streets within the complex.
As Bin spends most of her time in Canada and Jing Mei finds the new home too far to commute the house is usually closed. When we arrived in mid December it was very damp and without heat it was impossible to dry it out.
Link to Pictures of Bin's Home in Shanghai.
Link to Pictures of Jun Chen's home in Zhuji.
Link to Pictures of Tian Ning Xie's Home in Shanghai.