Hello all, your resident japanese gaijin back to ask another question on Kunming.
I was wondering which areas/neighborhoods you live, or perhaps would like to live and more importantly why.
Are you single or married ?
what do you feel is a reasonable monthly budget for a top floor apartment with a southern exposure ?
which neighborhoods are convenient/safe/quiet etc.
Some of the things that I value are
1. I do quite a lot of my own cooking so shopping at a farmers market is appealing for me and my wife. I love to follow a whole food diet and don't eat fast food if I can help it.
2. Quiet at night. I am in my mid 40's and have had my single life living in Manhattan and San Francisco. Married and value a good nights sleep :) I don't mind travel to get to a hopping night spot.
3. Ideally would like to be near the subway station. This is so I can access the town but I suppose I will try and find some teaching work while I do my diligence about starting up a business or three. 5 minutes walk would be fine.
4. My wife and I love to swim and would love access to a pool
ok I guess thats enough
thanks again in advance I very much appreciate your comments from my introduction thread. If and when I am in town the first round is on me.
dp
That's quite a shopping list.
In the spring we moved up to YinYu Lu beside the north bus station. It's really convenient having 12 plus bus routes at the door. So far we've found 3 farmers markets within about a 5 minute walk, so food is quite available. There are also numerous restaurants, shops, banks, etc. right at the door. We're a 15 minute walk (I'm old eh) from the Wal-Mart at Beijing Lu and this is where the subway will be, presumably with bus connections. By bus it's about 30 minutes to the city centre.
Our apartment faces the road and we're right at the corner so there is a bit of road noise, but not bad at night. Most of my sleepless nights come from the hard mattress.
We pay 2,400 plus condo, plus parking plus utilities for our 3 bedroom apartment. I've seen others listed where the price was higher but it would depend a lot on how it's finished.
Our daughter goes swimming somewhere around here but I don't know where. It could be where her boyfriend lives and that wouldn't help you.
Sorry, yes. All prices are paid in RMB.
I thought so but you never know unless you check right ?
thanks so much for posting alpage
curious what your condo fees are or failing that the parking utilities ? The avg electric bill and whatnot
Our parking is 180 per month (underground reserved space), condo is less than that but I don't remember exactly. We've only been here three months so I haven't seen enough utility bills to get an average. The first hydro for 2 months was 366 and that included some heating since we were still at the end of winter.
I guess it's also important to note that although rent, condo and parking fees are quoted by the month they are paid a year in advance.
I also found out from the daughter that she goes swimming at a pool beside the Expo Garden Hotel which is not too far east of here (but perhaps too far to walk). It's probably a 10 minute drive or there are buses from the door.
I appreciate your information. Do you know what your daughter pays to swim at Expo Garden ?
I ask because my wife has given me a short list of things she "must" have to relocate and one of them is a decent swimming pool.
Paid a year in advance you say ? interesting. Here in Japan I can pay monthly or get an approx 5% for paying for the year in full.
Do you have insurance ? if so what kinds ? can you shop around or is there one flavor ?
No idea what the cost is for swimming but it's probably not too much. We didn't bother with insurance in the apartment. When my wife renewed the insurance for the car she shopped around and got a better deal. I would imagine the same goes for other types of insurance.
