I am in Beijing now and spent a couple of days looking at apartments. I contacted two agents and met with one of them. It seems like there are still plenty of apartments available. A furnished one bedroom apartment in reasonable condition can be rented in a popular expat neighborhood, for around 3500 yuan, about $500.

Since I only want the place for 6 months they wanted to charge half a months rent as an agency fee. I also looked at a studio for 3300 and I didn’t have to pay the agency fee. The landlord’s wife of the 1 bedroom place, didn’t want to rent it for just 6 months, so wanted to increase the price to 3600, but they would pay for the internet. They also said they had other people coming to look at the apartment. I didn’t want to get into a bidding war, so I told the agent I would take the studio. The owner of the studio apartment wasn’t interested in trying to profit from the Olympics.

The agent kept calling me that night, but I was out so didn’t answer my phone until the next morning. Apparently someone wanted to rent the studio for a year which suited the owner better and since I hadn’t put down a deposit, I lost that place. The good news was that the 1 bedroom’s owner brought the price back down to 3500 and would pay for the internet. Perhaps not answering my phone was a good move and made the owner worry that I might not take the apartment.

This seemed like a good deal so I checked out of my hotel and took a taxi across Beijing to the agency. I met with the landlord and was worried that he might reconsider after seeing a scruffy looking guy with a backpack looking to live in his apartment. Apparently he has a business in Australia and wanted to become friends. I had a vision that he lived next door and would be coming to visit me everyday. I had heard of some horror stories of people getting cheaper rent in exchange for a few English lessons. It sounds like a good deal, but after a while it can be difficult to say no and to set limits. Fortunately he doesn’t live close, but did sound like a nice, genuine guy.

He kept saying “wu-so-wei”, which translates to something like “whatever” when the agent brought something up - my kind of guy. I paid the deposit and three months rent up front, in cash. The highest Chinese note is 100 RMB. I had to make multiple withdrawals from an ATM and stuffed the cash into a plastic bag.

So for $500 a month it is a pretty good deal for a furnished apartment including internet and a couple of cable channels - HBO and CNN. Chinese apartments have an interesting system for utilities. You have a kind of debit card which you charge at the bank and when your electricity goes down you need to put the card in the meter. I think you are then more conscience as to exactly how much gas and electricity you are using and you don’t have any worries about unpaid bills or having to get things put into your name when you move in.

It seems like landlords across Beijing are trying to increase their rent for the Olympics. The problem is that the Olympics are only two weeks and by leaving their apartment vacant in the hope of trying to find someone to rent it at a premium rate for the Olympics is probably a losing venture.