International Wonderland

I have a home.

After two weeks of living, at my company’s expense, in a spacious but rather camp monstrosity of an apartment complex somewhere out on the fourth ring road in the east of Beijing, I have found a nice little apartment, all to myself right in the middle of things in sanlitunrrrrrr.

From yesterday, I am now a proud(ish) resident of block 2, room 407, International Wonderland, Beijing.

I think the developers may have been just a little bit high when they named the apartments this, because although it does seem fairly international (have spotted quite a few laowais tottering around between the buildings, it really is a stretch to call it a ‘wonderland’

My colleague, who is also slightly randomly my new next door neighbour, described the complex as looking like “something built in the 1960’s Hackney”, and that is pretty accurate. It’s not a beauty. But inside its perfectly presentable and I look forward to putting my stamp on it.

The real draw for me was the location. In 10 minutes I can be drinking, shopping, sipping tea and reading, buying DVDs, or wandering the back streets, exploring the little restaurants and dodging tricycles piled high with watermelons…a further 10 minutes will get me to work, but let’s not dwell on that.

Last night i went for a little wonder down the street by the side of my new home. As far as i could tell, it boasts, a primary school, a noodle restaurant (with the obligatory seven waiters, and six cooks, all looking somewhat bored) a DVD shop which i poked around in whilst the fuwuyuan insisted to me that i should buy the box set of Heroes, season 3, a 名酒名烟 cigarette and alcohol shop and a dry cleaners...so, i am all set.

But for now, my priority is to make my new home a little more..well, homely.