Hello, all.

A drill that takes half a day in Shanghai (apartment search), required 3.5 days of my time last week. The real estate agents here just don't seem to care all that much, and the landlords are terrible about keeping appointments. On one occasion, we waited for an hour so a landlord could finish his afternoon nap. But, I'm sure Shanghai used to be like this before it evolved into an efficient business center. I told this tale to one of my new expat friends here, and he opined that: 1) like many places in China, Nanning has great hardware but horrible software; 2) Shanghai and Guangzhou are the only two cities in China that have both.

In the end, we got the apartment that I wanted. People say that I overpaid, but by the end of the 3.5 day search, I really wanted to put this task to bed (plus, every hotel night was the difference between a fair price and what we paid).

In one of the earlier posts, Jiatong mentioned that the CBD is rather sterile, and removed from the action. He is correct on both counts; it's very similar to Lujiazui in this regard. That having been said, while I would never dream of living in LJZ again (because the rest of Shanghai is awesome), I had absolutely no interest in living elsewhere in Nanning. It's sort of like Shuangjing (where I used to live in Beijing); lots of cool apartment complexes, trees, and rich people. It took 5 years before interesting businesses attacked Shuangjing, and I believe the same trend will take place here fairly soon. In fact, I am going to encourage some of restaurant friends to open stores here. The rents are no more than 25% of BJ/SH, they can charge BJ/SH prices, and their is intense demand (anyone who drives a Bentley will gladly pay a premium for quality food of any kind).

As of now, all of the retail space in the area is filled with real estate offices, banks, convenience stores, and hole-in-the wall restaurants that lack air conditioning. The 5 minute walk to Mixc in order to avail of acceptable food isn't such a big deal, but if you were to give me anything comparable on this side of the street, I would be happy as a clam. (Off topic: The reason Cantina Agave --Shanghai-- exists is because the owner, who is in the garment trade, was frustrated by the fact that all Mexican food in China sucks, so he took matters into his own hands... that place is always packed.)

While I was initially a bit hesitant to leave behind my sweet life in Shanghai (and I haven't really "left"), I'm now 95% sure that this decision will pay dividends. Basically, I was in Shanghai and Beijing during both of their respective rises to greatness (the former was late 90s; the latter was 2001-2008), but I failed to capitalize on these trends because the Chinese were simply better connected. (I'm not alone; very few foreigners cashed in on these booms.) However, the instant case is different because the people here don't have access to foreign companies, and foreign companies have yet to see the light. They need to be lured in.

I'm going to be here for at least a year for 60% of the time. If any of you are interested in exploring business opportunities (or simply hanging out in a place you would never fathomed visiting in your wildest dreams), please feel free to email/PM me, and we can discuss. Even if the Chinese economy implodes (as many predict), my new neighbors will continue to have 7 figure (USD) bank accounts.