It's been more than a week since I arrived@Beijing...My trip a year ago was different in many ways, i was on vacation, everything felt new to me, i had a blast and the entire trip changed me in many ways. I felt more motivated and questioned hard what I was doing the whole time in Canada. Thoughts lead to action and after returning to Canada, I immediately quit my job and started full timing poker...
Fast forward to the present, in all honesty I almost had to cancel this trip and had doubts many times leading up to Beijing. Back of my mind I constantly worried about poker's time running out eventually, losing my entire bankroll at the time also was worrying...I practically had to use my emergency funds to start a new roll and at the same time grind out $4k profit in 1 and 1/2 month for Beijing expenses. Once again, stress was built ontop of stress...miraculously, I took shots and hit my target, cashed out and Western U'd every cent I made and hopped on a plane...
Things refused to go smooth for me, for one, Me n CJ overlooked the fact that finding a 1 bedroom apartment is a difficult thing in center BJ...and the $2500 RMB/month rent we researched last year was bullshit...the ones we looked at averaged at about $3500/month and all of them required payment of 6 months advance...
I arrived at 3pm on my first day, checked into my hotel and went to a place for peking duck, then right away started looking for apartments through realtors on the streets. My 1st night in BJ = right to business, we scouted 2 places that night, walked blocks because it's impossible to drive around without wasting time parking. day 2 = realtors bringing us to see more places, bullshitting us along the way, using whatever tricks to scam us (my i.d was asked for whatever reason I no longer remember which required my passport...this was clearly a big mistake)As we looked more, we realized that the acceptable ones all cost over $3500 and bargaining was pretty much useless because rentors were even paying EXTRA to get their hands on these places...However by the time I figured this out I lost 2 places which were really baller to other bidders...one of which was super sick, nicely located/renovated and located right between CJ and a subway station.
day 3....things start to get shitty, after an exhausting day 2 (walking all day, looking at 8 different places) I lowered my standards abit and we both decided to seal a deal by end of the day...10 am, our 1st target...place was alright, kinda far but CJ pointed out that his instincts told him the landlord lady is bullshit and she lives too close...ELIMINATION. NOON, we call the realtor who showed us the baller apartment last night at 10pm to negotiate price but was told that it was sold...WTFFFF, that was a huge blow and silence surrounded us for the rest of the afternoon. We went even further, trying out different realtors and found a branch where 2 dudes in their early 20s were cool enough to let us use their computers and find places directly using their PRICELESS INFORMATION. That was a fkn BREAKTHROUGH because we had on our hands what we needed...information on all available 1 bedroom apartments in west beijing...SICK...
However, at this point in my story I was about to make my 1st big mistake in Beijing...these 2 dudes started bringing us to places we were interested in, 1st 2 were bullshit, 3rd one was good, only drawback was it lacked air conditioner but we were willing to buy one myself if the landlord can pay half and they get to keep it when I leave...The landlord asked me a few questions, but we had to step out because someone was there before us...we wait downstairs, 30 minutes go by, we start talking about CS and guns with the realtor dude, turns out he used to be in the military...SICK....then we get a phone call...it's the landlord and O MY...the previous people who entered 5 minutes before us took the place....WTF WTF...
We grew even more silent, found a place for dinner...CJ joked that this is not my year, from April-August, one thing ontop of another, I joked that I should just go back...We decided to have some alchohol to change my luck...by the time the bottle ran out, CJ got a phone call and an apartment we saw on the 2nd day became available again but the landlord requires 6 months upfront@3100. CJ told me the situation and I snap called with K high.
We rushed to the realtor dudes and prepared to set up a time for that night with the landlord to sign...At this point CJ reminded me the fact that We saw this same place on day 2 with a different company and signed a contract...We both agreed that we wanted to give the business to the current dudes, so we told them our situation and they straight up said it was fine, that these things happen all the time in their line of work and it's normal...we took their word...
6 months of rent = a lot of chairman maos (chinese 100s) It was late, dark, bank was closed...I had about 10k in an envelope in my hotel, $1k in my wallet, CJ had $3k in his wallet and more in his car. The plan was to find his car, count how much we had on hand, I go and start signing with the realtor/landlord, while CJ cabs back to the hotel to get my passport and cash. We were counting on the street, tired and stressed out. By the time I got to the realtor place and met the landlord, they gave me a bad piece of news: LANDLORD = NOT REAL LANDLORD, HE RENTED THE PLACE HIMSELF AND IS SUBLETTING...This is bad for me, since CJ have no experience in renting in Beijing, we both didn't like this piece of info...after deliberation, we decided to negotiate and finally accepted on the condition that I pay only the deposit and 1 month upfront...we spent 3 hours signing the fkn contract because the landlord is such a POS tard, i felt like punching his face...he is the purest example of a typical chinese citizen....THEY WANT EVERYTHING FROM U, greedy motherfker won't buldge a single bit...the default copy of the contract provided by the realtor used by millions of landlord/rentors is not good for him, he fkn had to change the wording so many times to finally get what he wanted.
hours pass, 11:30 pm...signing is complete, I pay him and we rush to the place to hand over the housekey...We get back to my hotel at 1am, and moved my shit to my new apartment...4th floor, no elevator, heavy ass suitcases, no lights, tired as fk...
next day, hectic as fk, I had the internet ppl over to set up internet, at the same time hired 2 cleaners to thoroughly clean the place while we watched over them. At the same time I find out the washer is not working...called the landlord who fkn gave me lame shit, at first refused to fix but finally came up with a very lame alternative, troublesome solution...the cleaners leave, we smoke on the couch, sign of relief...CJ suggested I count how much cash on hand I had left and see if the numbers are correct after hotel fees, rent and paying upfront for 1 years internet.......result = I ended up about 1kish short...we recounted a few times and added up shit again and again but still 1k short...I started recounting what happened on the previous hectic day and leaned towards dropping some in the cab because the jeans i wore that day had very shallow pockets...that was the most likely thing to have happened out of all the other possibilities.
We head out to buy stuff for my new place, bed stuff, appliances, etc...CJ's been just as if not more tired than me these past 3 days, after dropping those things off at home, we go for dinner and it start raining. Soon as we sat down, his mom called and she was stuck outside, couldn't get home. We stood up, CJ had to walk 30 minutes back to his car in the rain because there were no cabs at dinner hour (drivers refuse to take customers) I felt really bad at this point...he's been more tired than me in a lot of ways these past 3 days...he havnet been able to spend time with his mom whos been very fragile emotionally since his dad passed...I called him to make sure he was alright...For the first time that night since back in beijing I felt relief...I was hungry because we couldn't eat dinner, I called HMM and cabbed 40 minutes to her place at east end of beijing for dinner....my mood was starting to change as I looked forward to seeing her, I step out the cab infront of the GUCCI store near her place, light a ciggarette and my phone rings....literally seconds after getting off the cab....
TO BE CONTINUED.....
