Tag: Moving to China

Reality Sets in the International Era

Post author By Gary Anglebrandt
Post date January 20, 2018

When I signed the lease for my first apartment in Beijing, I knew the place needed some cleaning up. Walls a little grimy, kitchen and washing machine area needing attention. I looked forward to it. Get in there and tear shit up. Make the place my own. Get things done and restore my confidence here in a new country where even acquiring pillows and kitchen utensils has required getting advice from people.

After I moved in, closer details of the place emerged. It would be two months before the full scope of its filth was revealed.

Tags Life in China, Moving to China, Scenes of Beijing

Articles

Getting an Apartment in Beijing

Post author By Gary Anglebrandt
Post date January 7, 2018

Shidaiguoji

I’m in the hotel. Everything’s been packed away back home, cars buttoned up, job left, loft vacated, long journey made, yearlong work permit process almost complete. But don’t get comfortable. Now it’s time to face the thicket of shit that is getting an apartment in Beijing.

Tags Life in China, Moving to China

Articles

The Storage Yard Routine

Post author By Gary Anglebrandt
Post date December 14, 2017

I had two more complications: where to put my cars and how to get to the airport.

Tags Moving to China

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First Days: Life in the Hotel

Post author By Gary Anglebrandt
Post date December 10, 2017

A woman in a four-door Mini Cooper picked me up at the airport. The sky was clear blue. “So much for the infamous Beijing smog,” I thought.

The roads looked brand new. Not a pothole to be seen. Everything was clean and sharp. It was as if the city had just been built. Which is pretty much the case.

She dropped me off at a hotel, where I immediately went to sleep.

I awoke in the middle of the night. The clock said it was just after 2 a.m. That put my body at 2 p.m. I ventured outside and smoked a cigar, having no idea where I was, other than it was probably in east Beijing.

Tags Moving to China

Articles

Life in the Leadup

Post author By Gary Anglebrandt
Post date December 2, 2017

People's Republic of China "Foreign Expert" Working Permit — What all the fuss was all about: My People’s Republic of China “Foreign Expert” Working Permit, a year in the making. This was couriered to me from China in June 2016, after months of delays and paperwork processing beginning a year before. This in turn allowed me to get a special work visa from the Chinese consulate in Chicago so I could get into the country.

The Long Transition

Bureaucracy is why it took over a year to get to China.

The tedium that accompanies any country’s work visa rules was compounded by China’s stereotypically-communist manner of getting things done. The fact that I was to be working for a government organization didn’t speed things up. If anything, it only slowed things down further.

Tags Moving to China

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Chicago Consulate Trips

Post author By Gary Anglebrandt
Post date November 30, 2017

I-94, heading west to Chicago. Dec. 2016

The time from first being interviewed for the job to arriving at it spanned 14 months.

Tags Moving to China

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First Night in China

Post author By Gary Anglebrandt
Post date November 30, 2017

When I got here, I was dropped off at an upscale hotel in the afternoon. I woke up in the middle of the night not knowing if I was in the city center, the outskirts, or what.

Tags Life in China, Moving to China

Articles

Shidaiguoji Apartment Life

Post author By Gary Anglebrandt
Post date July 26, 2017

My first smoggy days of Beijing. December 2016.

My apartment is in the Shuangjing neighborhood of Beijing.

Tags Life in China, Moving to China, Scenes of Beijing