Tianjin

We moved to Tianjin on Monday, and have lived in our new place for a week now. Here are some photos:

View from our back window. We live on the 11th floor of an 'old' building (built in 1998). It is so old, that there are no cables for Internet. We have to use wireless.

View from our front window. After having lived in Beijing for nearly a year, it is so calm and quiet here :)

Our study room with balcony

We bought fish

Study room with computer

Bedroom

Bedroom

Bathroom

The living room
The decoration in our place is somewhat old fashioned, but this is much better than the newly built apartments, which all look like hotel rooms.

Kitchen

View from the kitchen

Living room

More fish

Our new birds. We bought a male and female couple, and hopefully have some eggs soon :)

Their favourite spot

They are always together

When we bought the birds, we got this kitten for free. A policeman, who was hanging around at the animal market, gave it to us for free.

I have been very busy this week with job interviews, and have already taught a few classes. I teach English to children, adults and business English class. The wages are very good here, because there are not so many foreigners in Tianjin. In Beijing are too many, so I couldn't find a teaching job there. Here there seems to be a big demand for foreign teachers.

New stuff

I spent the whole week buying new stuff for the apartment. It is amazing how many things we 'need' to survive(rice cooker, water boiler, DVD player, rug for the bedroom...) Anyways, after a couple of day trips to IKEA, Carrefour and the bird & flower market, we're just about settled in our new place in Beijing.

This is our new friend 'xiao pengyou' - he doesn't have a name yet. He is only one month old and eats and sleeps all day. These birds are great fun. Soon he'll be guarding our new place against burglars..

I've been carrying my half PC all across China (I only took the expensive parts with me, such as processor, HD and the screen) so now finally it found a place. In a big computer market I bought a new box and some parts to fix him right up again.

The couch (already being used by our visiting friend from Shanghai to sleep on)

The kitchen is now full of pots & pans, all kinds of knives and assorted cutlery, Chinese sauces and lots of chili peppers of course.

Our bedroom has a lot of light, and a great view over the streets below (we're on the 17th floor)

East view

West view

Westward view from the living room

At 18:00 it's already dark, and the view changes completely

Beijing

After returning to Beijing from Hong Kong, I quickly located a visa agent. This one can provide me with a 12 month visa for a reasonable price. This basically solves all my problems and I will apply next week.

My girlfriend and I stayed in a youth hostel for a week or so, and made plans. We looked for a place to live. There are many agents who rent out cheap apartments in Beijing. The cheapest rooms cost 100-150 Euros and are very small or located in old buildings with broken walls and no heating. A decent room costs 200+ Euros depending on the location. Anything within the fourth (!) ring road is more expensive than apartments in far away suburbs. We managed to find a place in the Puhuangyu area (8 subway stops from Tian'anmen Square; not too bad...) on the 17th floor. The size of the place is alright, but what I like most is the view: sunsets every night and we are located on a crossroads, literally on top of a subway station and a hypermart ('Wu Mart'). This means that we don't have to go outside this winter. We had to pay six months' rent in advance, which is not uncommon in China.

This week was spent buying various accessories and bedside tables, etc etc etc. Our apartment came with a bed, TV, fridge (with rotten food inside), desk and couch, but nothing else.

Five minutes after we received our key. Obviously, the place looks different now. Pictures will follow later.

The kitchen, before a 2 hour cleaning session

We're nearly completely settled now; just have to buy some plants and a new carpet. Next hurdle: look for a job (and money as I nearly spent all my savings by now)