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shared living / co working facilities

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

The only time I have seen anything like this was some art and design folks who rented/shared a large penthouse apartment on Hongshandong Lu. I no longer have their details.
You could start something like this yourself.

If you don't need to be in the center of the city, there are lots of apartments 2-3 km out. One person would need to take on the lease, and then sublet rooms. The very old apartments are much cheaper.
If you want to go really cheap, you can find undecorated properties. You will need to spend a little, putting in a functional toilet and cooking area, but not more than 2-3000

newlaowai (20 posts) • 0

@tigertiger

i was thinking this could be a good business, was thinking about larger scale though. coffee shop, laundry room, gym etc... along with comfortable room, with bed and ensuite. these type of places are popping up in europe. useful for those people that are working away from their home location long term and don't want to stay in hotels. i also know of some in thailand. Surprised this sort of things doesn't exist in Kunming.

thanks for the input.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

I know what you are talking about. There are also a lot of these startups in places like Detroit. The closest I have seen in China was the art colonies in Shanghai.

From what I have seen, apartment hotels in China are not a cheap option. Although you can rent the Chinese equivalent of air bnb at for much less.
There was a couple of guys tried to launch a maker space in Kunming, I am not sure how they got on. However, there was no living space.
The Youth Hostel down by green lake has nice public areas, and space to work on a computer. I think there is coffee and snacks available too, but the public areas are only suitable for laptop work. No office space or wet/messy area.
The other option would be to rent a room or small place above/near a coffee shop with free wifi. Which is what a lot of people do.
Forget renting a commercial space. Commercial rents in Kunming are higher than they need to be. The cheapest out in the burbs here was 60rmb/m2/month, 2 years ago. We get less for our commercial space in the burbs in Shanghai.

michael2015 (784 posts) • 0

About the closest thing to the entrepreneur's colony for expats is the YFBC (Yunnan Foreign Business (Owner's?) Club. Some of these business owners occasionally advertise for "virtual" office space - offering to share office space.

I don't know how that affects your ability to legally register various types of companies and that also doesn't resolve one's living expenses. Home offices (SOHO) are probably a superior solution - but piggy backing on someone else's brick & mortar infrastructure can be useful for hosting meetings and telecoms.

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