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?

Yesterday afternoon, two trains crashed in Shanghai subway line 10. Till now, 271 people have been injured without dead.

At 14:10 on September 27 (Beijing Time), because of the equipment failure at Xintiandi station of metro line 10, the subway trains slammed to brake. Then the section between Jiaotong University and East Nanjing Road was scheduled artificially. At 14:51, two subway trains collided at Yuyuan station, the very central of Shanghai.

The signaling fault was supposed to be one of the accident cause. The signal system provider of metro line 10 is CASCO, and the same train signal system was used in Wenzhou train crash accident.

Although the metro line 10 resumed operating 4 hours after the crash, part of the line (from Yili Road to North Sichuan Road) is out of service for further investigation.

I am looking for an apartment at Jiangqiao of Jiading District, where is very close to Changning and Putuo District. After two weeks’ field investigation and related information search on internet, My final decision, concurring with my girlfriend, is to  quit from the Jiangqiao area.

Last Wednesday, we went to Jiangqiao at first time via metro line 11 at Taopu newly Village station. It is only 3km far away from Jiangqiao, but there is no direct bus and we had to take a tricycle. When crossing Taopu highway, we saw many dense residential buildings, which does not give us a good impression. We knew they are Jiacheng residential quarters later. Read full story…

Followed by the shutdown of Jifeng Bookstore in Metro City, Fuxing Road and Jingan Temple, Jifeng Bookstore in Raffles City will close in the end of this month (July, 2011). The owner of the bookstore Yan Bofei tells the lease is due in July and the rental will rise, which is unaffordable.

Jifeng Bookstore is a comprehensive bookstore that mainly deals in humane and academic books, which can not attract enough business in Shanghai (typical in China) though. Yan insists not to sell textbooks and supplementary books in the bookstore. “Humane and academic bookstore is Jifeng’s ideal”, Yan says. Read full story…

Shanghai is a city with mixed culture. There are many churches in Shanghai that have very long history. Here is a list of top 6 churches in Shanghai.

1. Xujiahui Catholic Church. The formal name is St. Ignatius Cathedral of Shanghai and is a Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral. The address is No. 158 Puxi Road of Xuhui District. It opens to public at the weekend from 13:00 to 16:00.

2. Shanghai Community Church. It is a famous Protestant church in Shanghai and near consulates. The address is No. 53 Hengshan Road, Xuhui District.

3. Qingxin Church. It was the first church established by American Presbyterians (North) in 1860. The address is No. 30 Dachang Road, Huangpu District.

4. Shanghai Grace Church. It is the first Protestant church in Shanghai. The address is No. 375 North Shangxi Road, Jingan District. Read full story…