Any insight?

HSSpeducator

Hello!

 

I posted recently on FM regarding a possible (most likely) move overseas, and I also posted here a couple months ago about international schools.  It seems you all are all over the place.  I was wondering if anyone had any insight into the Tongzhou District in Beijing (rather outside).  

I greatly appreciate how helpful you ladies have been.  Thank you.

ukyankee

Tofumonkey probably will but she's on a flight back from China at this moment so may take a bit of time to get to you...

Jigginjessica

Not much help with Beijing specifically, but I live in China (Suzhou, near Shanghai) now so I might be able to answer other general questions. It's still somewhat new to me but I'm slowly learning!

 Good luck!

GilliC

I don't know anything at all about Tongzhou. I lived in Chaoyang and worked in Haidian. Not sure I've even been to Tongzhou.

Everyone I knew in Beijing who had children sent them to school in either Chaoyang or Shunyi. Tongzhou is pretty far out and not a well-developed expat community as far as I know, so it would probably be a much different experience than living in the city, so I guess I wouldn't be much help.

Have you considered living in town and commuting out to Tongzhou? I know plenty of people who commute into town from Shunyi, and I would think it would be easier to commute out of town versus into. Especially if you lived somewhere in east Chaoyang (e.g. Park Avenue).

HSSpeducator

I'm ok with being out of the way.  The school I'm interviewing with is Shuren-Ribet Private School.  The school is close to Artist's Village.  We would live on campus.  We will find out for sure by Friday.  The way the first interviewer spoke, the job was mine.  That's what I get for assuming.

Tofumonkey

Hey there!

First off, I'd be careful with a lot of the advice you get from people that have moved abroad for work - i.e.: transferred on an expat package. Most of these packages involve annual flights home with hotels and expenses, moving your furniture and pets, additional pay, allowances, etc.

You're moving to take a job abroad, not being transferred for one, so it's difficult to ask for the same things. As well, you're moving to a school in China, not a bank. So it's an entirely different ball game as well ( and not an international school, either ).

It sounds as though your pay package is going to be great, that's wonderful. I'd be leery to have them arrange an apartment for you before you get there and ask for them to either arrange a hotel or a 1 month temp apartment so that you can look around and find one that works well for your family.

Flats in Beijing, even with the amount of bedrooms that you will require, are not expensive and the area you are going to is not too pricy.

Food is dirt cheap, often eating out is cheaper than buying and cooking at home. Taxis are cheap, buses are stupidly cheap and the subway in Beijing is great.

A tip for living in China in a non-expat area - learn a wee bit of Chinese before you go, be unfalteringly polite (even when people point and stare) and when you move in IMMEDIATELY go out of your way to be nice and make friends with your elderly neighbours. These are the people who will make sure that you are taken care of in the community. Make friends with the seniors and you'll be treated like gold.

This is such an exciting opportunity and more than a few of us have lived in China before, ask away if you have any questions! 

GilliC

The best resource I found for ex-pats in Beijing was the forums on The Beijinger (back when it was still That's Beijing):

http://www.thebeijinger.com/forum

There are a few people out in Tongzhou these days, so you might get a bit more specific information.

HSSpeducator

Thank you very much.  I will check both those sites out.  My husband has also been doing way more research than I thought he was.  I'm happy that he's engaged in this and finding out about it.  

I do have a question about finding an apartment.  I've been looking at websites trying to find just information about rent and area and all that.  There is so little for Tongzhou.  

How does one find out that stuff?   

Tofumonkey

I haven't lived in Beijing, but I have lived in quite a few other cities in China. Based on my experience there are three main ways of finding flats in the large cities:

1. Your employer finds one for you before you get there - I'd advise against this and ask them to arrange a temporary accommodation for a month near the school, which would give you time to find something that fits you well.

2. Online - the listings that you will find online are mostly marketed toward expats and are either in expat areas and/or are rather expensive and not necessarily representative of the actual costs in the areas that you may want to live.

3. Letting agents - tiny offices in holes in the wall. When you get there you would go around (probably with a handler from the school) to a couple of letting agents in a couple of areas that you like (take some time to explore these areas - you'll want somewhere with reasonably few spas, KTV places, massage places and hairdressers. You'll want to keep an eye out for parks, green spaces, elderly people milling about, Korean restaurants and vegetable street markets because these are typically good areas. The letting agents there are very cheap and will work their butt off to find you the perfect place.

 

HSSpeducator

Tofumonkey,

 

Thank you so much.  That is incredibly helpful.  I find out Thursday (Friday in Beijing) if I have the job for sure.   

Tofumonkey

Good luck!

GilliC

We went through a real estate agent arranged by the company. She took us around to see a bunch of places and then helped us set up the contract. If your job is offering a housing allowance, you can usually play around a little with it. If a place is under your budget, you can often work in that utilities are included or building facilities like gyms that might otherwise carry a separate fee. We even knew a lot of people who got an ayi contract included in their rent, so the company paid the landlord, and the landlord paid the ayi.

Tofumonkey

GilliC:

We went through a real estate agent arranged by the company. She took us around to see a bunch of places and then helped us set up the contract. If your job is offering a housing allowance, you can usually play around a little with it. If a place is under your budget, you can often work in that utilities are included or building facilities like gyms that might otherwise carry a separate fee. We even knew a lot of people who got an ayi contract included in their rent, so the company paid the landlord, and the landlord paid the ayi.

I could be wrong, but I think that schools in China hiring expats are really different than transferring companies as expats in the expectations of each side and what the employer should be offering / taking care of.

Chances are that if you want to hire an Ai Yi (we had one, even before we had kids. It was great.) but the company won't pay for it they'll still have your handler help you to interview and arrange one.