Voices

Material desires can't trump true love in capital

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-07 08:11

High prices, low quality

I understand the renting vs. owning debate but I never would consider renting to be a second-rate life. That is just insulting.

What I find even more insulting is how poorly houses are designed and constructed in Beijing (elsewhere also) and the prices they command - 10 times more than the value.

As a foreigner in China for seven years now, I have seen the prices go up and up. Seven years ago I said I wouldn't buy. I still won't.

I will buy back in my hometown, where I can get a house, not an apartment, for 50 percent off, a big yard and swimming pool in a clean environment.

I find it disturbing that my Chinese friends will spend their life savings on a house. I just hope the economy in China continues to boom. Otherwise people are going to be very upset, not to mention broke.

I am not slamming China, but am stating a known fact that the quality of the homes is very poor for prices that are so high.

I don't think it's an investment. I think it is a rip-off.

A girlfriend and her family might think I need to buy a house before we marry, and it's their choice to have that outlook. But if someone asks me how much money I make, whether I have a car or own a house ... well, that is one of the biggest turn-offs to me.

If I don't know you and you want to date me but ask me those questions, my initial thought would be that it is not your business.

To me, people who put such a high stake on the value of having an apartment or a car have shallow values. Because money, cars, houses, jobs - everything that has monetary value - can be lost in the blink of an eye.

True love doesn't require those things. I do not care what my girlfriend has or doesn't have.

Sure, I'm a laowai and don't purely understand the Chinese way of thinking. However, I do know that materialistic values are international.

I have friends in Beijing who have had relationships with their boyfriend or girlfriend for 10 years and still they haven't got married because of housing and money concerns.

Don't you think this is a bit unfair? To place the importance of house or car over the fact that they have loved each other for so long?

Money can be lost, my friends. Love can't.

David

On Mourning Beijing's lost charms

Comforting communities

Yes, it is sad to lose hutong. While it is great for architecture that some old neighborhoods are gentrified and repurposed for retail use, the neighborhood communities will be lost. New apartment amenities are comforts, and landowners get a nice profit from building upward, but society loses the rich sense of community found in one- and two-story flats. I'll shed a tear with you.

ShowShanti

Best book on old Beijing

I grew up in the Houhai area in the 1960s and 1970s, and have led a transnational life. The Years That Were Fat by George N. Kates is the best book ever about charming old Peking. The book depicts Kates' life in Beijing in the 1930s, with beautiful and captivating writing.

The vivid and precise descriptions (more so than by anyone else, Chinese or foreigner) of the city and people of all walks of life touched my heart and soul with fondness.

Of course, his life was one of a scholar-literate. Kates also published a small book on Chinese furniture, again beautiful and lovely.

Ddhw

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