Week 7 - Lazing in Lingang

Half of the food is set

This week was mostly spent recharging after the time in Shanghai, but it did include work and dinner at friends’ apartments. I should say, one of the things about China that perplexes me is their approach to real estate and homeownership. It is incredibly complicated, but I will briefly just say that the government owns all property and people can only purchase 70-yr leases. If the government determines conditions too poor for living, the land is repossessed and tenant transferred to another parcel of equal value at the government’s choosing. Leasing prices are set as a price/square meter. In Beijing, prices downtown with approach 70,000RMB (maybe around 10,500 USD) per square meter. In Lingang, there are more affordable prices, as the government is attempting to lure highly educated people to this new city. Two of my friends just moved into an apartment that was approximately 2200RMB/sq. meter. It is a typical apartment, with 2 bedrooms and a connected living/dining room plus a small kitchen and bathroom. In these apartments, there were dinners for 12. Space was difficult to come by on the table, but it worked without too much trouble. Miserably hot, however, as the A/C could not overcome the amount of people. It was good to soak up some of the Lingang atmosphere, as I am starting to feel the end of my time closing in…