Tales of City

I have been looking for an apartment in Shanghai for several months, but without any progress, I am still waiting for a better timing since it looks like that the house price is slipping in China. The question is when it is the best chance?

This July, I had gone to see two residential quarters in Jiangqiao town of Jiading District. The average price was about 20k RMB per square meter. Recently I have received several text advertisements, all said that the property developers have special discount. Xiangfuwan, for example, has 10% off discount and provides extra 25k funds for buyers.

It says that Vanke, the top resident property developer in China, is selling all its houses with as much as 30% discount. The sales office of  its property called Qinglinjing was smashed by its customers who bought their apartments before the discount with higher prices. Similar smashing occurs in several other sales offices, not only in Shanghai, but also other cities, like Beijing.

Now the government still claims that it will not loosen the economic policy, and Premier Wen Jiabao said that the government is determined to control the house price. But to be true, the government lost its credit in the past years.

If it is not the best timing to buy an apartment in Shanghai now, then when?

China is definitely a big market contributor for Apple, and its front line cities play major roles, such Beijing and Shanghai. There are 3 Apple Stores in Shanghai and 2 in Beijing till now. I have introduced the Apple Retail Store located in Hongkong Plaza in July, and this time, I want to introduce another 2 stores in Shanghai, Lujiazui and East Nanjing road Apple Stores.

The first Apple Store in Shanghai is the Lujiazui Apple Store located in the IFC building. You can go there by metro line 2 at Lujiazui station.

 Lujiazui Apple Store

The Apple Store in east Nanjing road is the third one in Shanghai that opened last month, while the second one is that in Hongkong Plaza.

 Apple Store in East Nanjing Road

Apple Store in East Nanjing Road in night time

As east Nanjing road is a walking street and is a famous sightseeing place in Shanghai, the Apple Store there attracts many tourists from other cities, what usually makes the store very crowded. It may be not a good idea if you go to this store to buy Apple products.