I often walk past these boards on the pavement advertising apartments for rent and it astounds me that anyone on a local salary can afford to live in the French Concession at all. The first flat on the list is 9 square metres for £180. So that’s about 3 metres by 3 metres, just jut big enough for a bed and some room to turn around in but certainly not big enough to do anything but sleep and cry. And not all these flats have windows. One of the rooms below me as I type is not actually a room at all, it’s the space under the stairs and is certainly less than 9 sqm.
And it’s not as if these tiny flats have been modernised. One of my neighbours (again downstairs on the ground floor) wanted me to find a foreigner to rent his room – 15sqm with a shared bathroom and shared kitchen – for £300 pcm. I know foreigners like to live in this area but I don’t know any who would pay that much for a small dark sweaty room 5 x 3sqm with no facilities and with one small windows with bars. Do they think we’re all crazy?!
I am lucky that I get 55 sqm for £500 but for that money you get an old house with vermin (rats and cockroaches), filthy rubbish strewn external environment, only elderly Chinese neighbours and the smell of smoke coming from the communal rooms downstairs. I am not complaining – there are numerous people who would love this flat if I were to give it up – but in this area, if you’re paying less than £800, you are having to compromise on something.
If you want to go crazier still and buy a house, it’s impossible to get anything liveable for less than £500k. Here we see 45sqm for £400k and 26.5sqm for £235k. So both those are one room with everything crammed in, and you have to sleep on a shelf!
The flat next to mine is £12sqm and his cooking facility (there is no kitchen) is a hob on a shelf outside my door. Luckily he never comes to his flat as he lives in London but sometimes when I am leaving my house I can hear and smell the neighbour cooking in the communal corridor on the floor above me.
We are all piled on top of each other in Shanghai and it’s a miracle there is not more disputes but I guess people have to get along. My neighbours often walk around in their underwear in the summer, sit with their friends playing cards and drinking beer in the shade of an umbrella in just their boxers. They seem to be completely at ease. Of course, having communal bathrooms and everyone hanging their washing out downstairs, means that we all know the intimate details of each others lives. It’s like being in a very large family.
So there are pros and cons with living in an old Chinese community but I would rather live here than a new apartment block, even with all its rats and poor water pressure and frequent power cuts. My neighbours are great – always friendly and helpful and greet me when I return from work.
What’s that worth? Well over half a million pounds apparently!
