Perhaps some future faculty members might be interested in seeing what sort of accommodations are available for visiting scholars here…et voila. I hope this description is useful.
I live on the 4th floor of a 4-storey building, Zi Jingyuan Hotel. Some of the foreign scholars are housed here (others are elsewhere; I don’t know the system). Staff members at the reception desk have some English facility. I try to use my Chinese, but sometimes need their help translating. There is a restaurant here in the same building, serving breakfast (dim sum!!), lunch and dinner. It’s popular, inexpensive, and the food is good. Much to my delight, there is a tiny “Quicky Mart” across the parking lot from us, with chocolate bars, the requisite sodas (including diet coke “Max”), instant noodles, beer & other Quicky Mart-type stuff….plus peanut butter, notebooks and mops.
My apartment has a bedroom with 2 beds, minimal bedding (recommend purchasing your own), a vanity, and a night table with a lamp and a direct line telephone. I like the big window on one side (with door to a balcony), but wish I could put something up on the walls (from what I can tell, they are plaster and I can’t easily decorate them). In addition to bedding, I’ll have to buy a cheap rug. The air conditioner in the bedroom is great! I have an internet connection here and can work on my laptop in air conditioned comfort. By the way, the internet connection is fairly slow. Pictures take a while to load, pdfs take a very long time, and I haven’t even tried to upload videos.
Bedroom, view #1:
Bedroom view #2
Next up, the living room. It has a dining room table, a sofa that splits into three chairs, a coffee table, a TV & console, an armoire, a bookshelf and a desk. I bought a cheap plastic tablecloth and hangers for the armoire.
Living room view #1:
Notice the table fan (came with the apartment)! I use that every day to dry out clothing — notice the running shoes getting their fan treatment. I love my 3-speed oscillating fan! View #2 of the living/dining room:
OK, the kitchen is small and unremarkable. It features a 2-burner gas stove, a mini fridge, a microwave and a water cooler thingie. I buy a big water jug whenever I run out (about one/week and each one costs 12 yuan = $1.80). The water is not potable so it’s important to have a water cooler. My mini fridge is gutless, but the microwave and gas stove are stout-hearted appliances.
Yesterday, my 10th day here, I saw a cockroach in my kitchen! Egads! Well, if I see one roach only once every 10 days, that’s not the end of the world. (He was very large, though.) I bought all of the necessary cookware to stock the kitchen; a pot, a pan, a few dishes and cutlery. Didn’t cost much. For example, my saucepan was 20 yuan (about $3).
Finally, your basic bathroom — Western style toilet, shower (recommend buying a pole and shower curtain), and out of view of the camera, sink and washing machine. To dry your laundry, you either hang it outside on the balcony as most normal people do, or hang it all over the apartment, as I do. Things dry really quickly here, even though it’s humid. I bought all the cleaning supplies and towels. Recommend buying some more racks to put stuff in. I also bought an iron, and use the chair for the bedroom vanity as my ironing board (with a towel thrown over it). The iron cost $21 or so and works great!
The entry way (not pictured) has a huge closet with a safe.
The apartment door sticks on humid mornings. I can close it from the outside on those days by pressing on a certain point on the door. However, if I’m in the apartment and want to close it, I can’t reach that spot, so I have to leave it somewhat ajar. The humidity falls as the day goes on, and soon I can close the door. When I depart at dawn to run, however, if I need to do my secret spot-press trick to close the door, I know it will be a humid run that day…
Every morning before 8am, someone comes by to sweep the outside stairway and pick up the trash I’ve set outside the door. That’s convenient! Cleaning service is available, as is laundry service, but I figured I can save a bit by doing these things myself (the laundry charges are a bit unreasonable, I thought).
Prospective Fulbrighters — note that housing is free (for the China program, that is — this may differ if you are posted in another country). The only expenses I pay are for the water cooler jugs, as far as I know. The Chinese host campus pays for these housing expenses, and the Fulbright program pays for my salary.