Moving Day

I could have sworn I’ve written an entry titled so, seeing as I’ve moved, Victor has moved, the English Department offices and others have moved. I went searching in vain for an entry with that title. And then I remembered: I headed the entry chronicling my move Four Carts, Eight People. The assertion I made in the previous post about not suffering memory problems was a bit hasty, it seems.

On the other hand, all is well because now I can title this entry as I have. And, just to ease your mind, it is not me that is moving but Sam.

Sam and Penny own a nice, well appointed apartment about an hour and a half away from our school. The commute it tiring, even more so now that their baby Erica has come back home to live. Till now she had been in the care of one or the other grandparent, over 2 hours away. Her parents only got to see her on holidays, long weekends or when the custodial grandparent came to visit. 

Penny has had enough of spending too much time away from her baby. I can’t blame her. She is also tired of having to commute so long, spend ten hours on her feet nursing people back to health in the hospital she works at and coming home exhausted, only to find her daughter sound asleep. She feels she is missing out on the best part of Erica’s life. Baby Erica being eighteen months old, I have to agree with her.

Penny wanted to move closer to her work. She can’t help that someone else has to care for her child. That is a fact of life when you are a working parent. But the situation is unnecessarily exacerbated by having to spend over 2 hours on the road, getting to and from work. A sensible, logical argument.  

Sam is also tired of the commute and missing his baby, but he is willing to endure it because their apartment is in a quiet, relatively undeveloped part of town and close to his part time teaching job at another university. However, due to Penny’s insistence he too has seen the advantages of moving. He has caught moving fever.

Sam and Penny’s decision prompted me to ask: how does one move in China? No such thing as U-Haul here. Of course, I knew from my own untraditional move that anything can be used, even handcarts and human labor. Occasionally I’ve seen people pushing bicycles laden with everything from beds to refrigerators going down the road. It seems any wheeled conveyance can and will do, come time to move. But what is the norm?

I asked Sam.

Generally, people don’t change addresses very often here. If and when they do feel that compulsion, they generally don’t take everything in the house with them, as is standard in America.

In Sam and Penny’s case, they are leasing their apartment, fully furnished, to her sister and mother who will take care of Erica while her parents work. Sam and Penny are only taking their clothes and a few personal effects, like their wedding album and Baby Erica’s picture album with them. They are moving into a fully furnished apartment, complete with kitchen utensils, dishes, appliances and linens.

In China, when moving it is customary to divest one’s self of just about everything: furniture, appliances, amenities, utensils. Only personal belongings like clothing and books are kept.

A realtor generally manages the move. It is very uncommon to find apartments listed in the paper or online. Those listings are usually only for people who own an apartment and are looking for roommates. One has the choice of leasing a furnished or unfurnished apartment. If it is furnished, the realtor will detail to what degree. Will there be furniture but no appliances? Will there be furniture with appliances but no amenities? What about cooking utensils and linens?

One can rent an apartment that comes complete with dishes, glasses, chopsticks, a wok, a cutting board and meat cleavers. The basic Chinese kitchen does not come equipped with much more than that. The list of appliances might include a refrigerator, a rice cooker and a microwave oven. Again, not much more than that in a traditional Chinese kitchen. A vent hood might already be installed.   

By amenities I mean a hot water heater, heat lamps in the bathroom, whether a gas cooking unit is installed and if so, whether it requires bottled LP gas or if the gas is piped in. Other amenities might include bed linens, extra storage closets and extra light fixtures. Some apartments are nothing more than concrete walls with either laminate or tile flooring. Closets are usually not built in, unless the apartment has been customized. Each room might have an overhead light. Maintenance is counted as an amenity: who changes light bulbs, and that sort of thing.

You might be wondering why I’m so explicit about the cooking unit. Some apartments do not have any means of cooking anything. The tenant has to buy a one– or two-burner countertop unit and arrange for bottled gas delivery. Or they can make do with an electronic hotplate, as I did in the concrete bunker.

Incidentally: I’m still making do with an electronic hotplate, even though my apartment has a dual burner gas cooking unit installed. The gas has not been piped in yet. Workmen just installed the meter two weeks ago. Maybe in a few months…

Back to moving in China.      

Rent price is determined by location of the apartment within the city, as well as size and by what is included in the lease. Obviously the better located, better outfitted, larger apartments command a higher price than those stripped to whitewashed concrete and laminate or tile flooring. In Sam’s case, his new apartment leases for 1,700Yuan a month. It is situated close to Penny’s hospital in a working class area in Hankou, the premier shopping district in Wuhan. It comes fully furnished with appliances, amenities, a fully equipped kitchen and linens (including bath towels).

In contrast he is leasing his fully furnished apartment for only 1,000Yuan a month because neither Penny’s sister nor mother has a large income. In return they will take care of Baby Erica while her parents are at work. That last is to make up the difference between what Sam and Penny are paying out for their new digs and what they are getting in rent on their apartment. Whether that is equitable is not the question. Baby Erica will be cared for by family and will be closer to her parents.

I have to wonder: with the Chinese becoming more affluent, sometimes owning 2 or 3 apartments and amassing status symbols like fine china, crystal, jade sculptures, wine collections and other expensive decorations, come moving time are they going to insist their treasures move with them? Are they going to start developing attachment to their stuff and want it to go where they go? Will they even consider moving as a lifestyle?  

Gary is in such a predicament. Currently he owns 3 apartments: the one he lives in now and one newly constructed. The third one is still in the building stage. His current apartment is already condemned. When the City starts excavating for the subway in the next year or two, he will have to surrender his current digs. He will get fair compensation for it. Being as his building is slated for destruction he is going to have to do something with all his stuff. Is he going to sell everything and buy new, or transport it all to the new place? I guess only time will tell.  

If I were to move, I too would probably divest myself of anything extra I’ve acquired since living here. That is not much: oven, space heater, grill and crock pot. By Chinese moving standards even my two foot lockers full of stuff are considered excessive.

Good thing this school has granted me tenure!