My new blog-pal Tony - author of my "find of the year", the wonderful Other Men's Flowers - chooses this description of my home as his recommendation, a post which he says "succinctly conveys a great deal of information on an important topic". I suspect he is being facetious, as usual. And perhaps, too, he is mischievously seeking to taunt me with this unhappy reminder of my thwarted avarice. Way back in the early summer, I still thought there might be some Olympic tourists this year; not many, but some; and that I might just possibly find a lucrative summer sub-let for my apartment. Hollow laughter. Bitter tears. Chewing of rug.
Or perhaps the dear chap is afflicted with a goldfish memory, and had to look to the sidebar for inspiration in making his selection.
The nicest apartment in Beijing?
first posted on 29th April
Well, I think so.
It's not as swank as some, but it is very spacious, and has an extremely enviable location.
I'm just outside the North 2nd Ringroad, adjacent to the Shichahai district - one of the last parts of the city centre where a substantial amount of the traditional hutong-style low-rise housing still survives. I'm close to a subway station and some useful major bus routes (27, going west to the Zoo; 60, going south to the Wangfujing shopping district and the Temple of Heaven), only about a 15-minute walk to the historic landmarks of the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower, and the attractive Houhai lakes area, and not very much further from Nanluoguxiang, these days one of the nicest bar and shopping streets in the city, and some very good live music venues (MAO Live House for rock'n'roll, East Shore for jazz, and some others too).
What's more, I am more or less mid-way between The Forbidden City (about a 40-minute walk due south), and the Bird's Nest Stadium (just a bit further away, north and east).
I have a large, L-shaped dining/living room, two large bedrooms (the second with an ensuite shower/bath), a further shower room/toilet/utility room, a modestly well-equipped kitchen (toaster, microwave, mini-oven, blender, coffee-maker, two-ring gas stove, extractor hood, large fridge/freezer), and a study which can serve as an additional bedroom (there are a couple of sofa-beds in the living room too). And a rather nice enclosed balcony which overlooks a small park. Nearly 1,500 sq ft in all. Air conditioning in all the main rooms.
It's on the top floor of a quiet, clean, fairly modern building. No elevator, but it's only 6 storeys. It is 'Chinese housing', so the level of decoration and equipment isn't quite what you'd hope for in a Western-style apartment, but it's perfectly comfortable.
I have a broadband Internet connection, and I am contemplating getting an international satellite TV hook-up.
An ideal place to spend the summer in Beijing! Is anyone still thinking of coming to the Olympics? Do you need a place to stay?
Drop me a line. I am looking to sublet for a while.
2 comments:
The trouble with trying to enliven one's dull prose with an occasional gentle attempt at satire, irony, etc., is that unfeeling readers immediately assume unjustly that everything one writes is mere sniderie and without sincerity.
I meant exactly what I wrote about your post.
Goldfish memory is the least of my afflictions and it ill becomes a friend to sneer at it.
Sorry.
But my paranoiderie about your choice and your description of it do not seem unreasonable, I think.
Post a Comment