a shameful waste of madhouse time » real estate

Beijing white-collars: 80 people living in a 100 sq. meter apt?

peijin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:58:19 +0000

Frankly, when i read this headline I didn’t think it could be true, but here’s the article, judge for yourselves. You remember this issue cropped up in Shanghai maybe a couple of months or a year ago, when they started cracking down on people living together and demanding more red tape if people wanted to live together. Well, if this article is true (and why shouldn’t it be) then this problem, at least in Beijing, has not yet gone away. What is amazing is that they used partitions to divvy up 100 square meters into 20 rooms, each of which has at least 2 people or, if the headline is right, an average of four people per room. There is only one bathroom and one “kitchen.”

It’s amazing that something like this might exist: I suppose when you’re poor there’s not much choice but still to lower yourself to sleeping like this, and to let that damn landlord make money off you that way…well, it leaves me speechless.

Controversial Chinese housing ad: “those worth less than 500,000 need not apply”

peijin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:32:28 +0000

售房广告称"50万以下身价者恕不接待"引争议(图)_网易新闻中心 via kwout

This ad for some posh Chinese apts featuring pictures of some poncey-ass Chinamen like you’ve never seen raised some hackles because of its main slogan: those that are worth less than 500,000 RMB need not apply. This got some people pissed off because they might not be worth that much at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t find some way of financing the house. The company when contacted, stated that they weren’t trying to be offensive, but just wanted to make it clear that this was a posh place full of poncey-ass wankers. I think they made the point quite clearly. Give that copywriter a fuckin raise!

Anhui “white house” official linked with mysterious death is suspended from job

peijin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:43:23 +0000

See that building above? That’s what people in the Yingquan district of Fuyang City in Anhui
province sarcastically call the “white house” and is the building wher ethe local government
does its work. The local party secretary is named Zhang Zhi’an and was one of the people
responsible for the construction of this building. Earlier this year, in March, one of the people
that worked under him�Li Guofu�was found dead, from apparent suicide, in the prison
where he was being held. Why was he in prison? Because he’d done a bad thing: he
ratted on his superior, Zhang Zhi’an�and made several trips to Beijing to do so.
Li, in several reports/letters he wrote to Beijing authorities, claimed that Zhang had taken
bribes, forcefully reclaimed land from peasants, and taken public money to finance his “white
house” among other projects (golf courses, race tracks, etc.) and in general was a bad apple.

Danwei had a good post about it called Darkness in the “White House” which can you read for the rest
of the background…well, it turns out that three of the top officials in the district�Zhang and two others�have been suspended over the dubious suicide. Those guys spent
1/3 of the district’s revenue building their copycat “white house”/Capitol Building…even
without a probable murder to mix things up, these guys deserved their comeuppance long ago.

Technorati Tags: white house, fuyang, anhui, corruption, li guofu, zhang zhi’an, peasants, land, property, real estate, crime, suicide, chinese