Shanghai at 100 is nothing. Try Wuhan in the summer. It's called the oven of China because 40 degrees Centigrade is a typical summer temperature.

pedant alert
 

To be fair: 40C is 104F -- not that different tbh! However, I think that it can be much more than 40C in Wuhan. Beijing is currently only mid-30s, but I fully expect it to be over 40C within a month.

tb

I lobbied really hard for the apartment with the nice pool. We could have gotten a place twice as big for the same price, but we really don't need 250 square meters, and our location is really great... employees can come here from the west side of town by bus, and we swim every day after work. One of them, who used to be lazy, even moved in. In addition to swimming, I have helped his social life a great deal (wechat). Now, he works until 1a!

You're kidding, I hope. Another employee just decided to move into your new apartment, permanently? And a whole gang of employees comes to use the pool every day after work? Does your building allow this? (I hate to think how many people might have moved in if you had a much bigger apartment; you'd be operating a dormitory for your company.)

The apartment is also our office for now, and I like this arrangement because I don't really need to leave during the heat of the day. All of our employees are welcome to live with me. I teach them swimming every day after work.

In some Chinese cities, this is actually pretty normal, to have combined-use buildings that have both commercial and residential functions. Even 10 years ago in Beijing and Shanghai it was very very normal, until local regulations abolished the practice and forced new construction to be one or the other. Remember that all around Asia with lower-density architecture, the "Chinese shophouse" form of building layout (shop on the ground floor, residence above) is still a very common cultural standard.

When I first moved to Beijing in 2001, the local manager had a rent-free satellite office already arranged from one of our developer clients in one of their brand-new buildings--it was a rather decent duplex apartment and the employees were to work downstairs and my quarters were to be upstairs. I declined the arrangement for a variety of reasons, and found my own place in a dedicated residential building.

I recall visiting many factories' sales offices located in apartment buildings and also hotel rooms. Seemed odd the mixed use, maybe the management gets some extra side money?;)

Our old office was in a true office building on the west side of town.

While our employees all live over there, I could not stand it. Furthermore, 90% of our customers are near the CBD.

Our rent is only 3,200. To get something comparable in Shanghai would cost 20,000.

I find all of the foreign university offices in hotels to be a bit strange in China, although I once noticed a foreign university program in Singapore that was run out of a suite in the public library. (AFAIK no one lived there.)

I guess I would want my own apartment, although being in the same building would be ideal. It's partly a matter of privacy and wanting sometimes to escape from work to a different place. Also, I think it would be hard to share an apartment and still function as the boss when needed.

To me, even swimming lessons cross a boundary, although for somewhat different reasons: would an employee feel free to reject the offer of learning to swim or fear that poor swimming would mean bad evaluations or assignments at work?

Reminds me of Singapore Airlines and their requirement for FA hiring to
bring a bathing suit and jump in a pool, to see if they might be hiding any
tattoos. Definately wouldn't "fly" over here.

It was their request, not mine.

I'm ready to sign up as a Laowai swimming instructor. :D

http://images2.sina.com/english/city...0827002415.jpg

Hello, all.

Now that I've been here for several weeks, and have adjusted to the heat to the best of my abilities, I'd like to provide a bit more info. During previous posts, my knowledge level was 5%; now I'm closing in on 20%... putting me close to the LP and Google, which I promise to eclipse within 6 weeks.

Random observations:

-I met a tour guide on wechat, and she told me that Nanning itself has almost nothing on offer in terms of "sites"
-my white face grants me access to pretty much anyone; while I am pretty solid at networking in BJ/SH, I don't even need to utter a single word in order to command respect here
*I went to a popular HK restaurant in Mixc 2 days ago, and 30+ people were waiting for tables; I got a table instantaneously (I feel kind of guilty about this; I was prepared to wait)
-taxis are very hard to fetch here... maybe even worse than Beijing
-I don't really go out that much because my apartment is nicer than any bar I've visited (the Library bar is an arguable exception because the library is simply beautiful, but I don't care enough about it to sit in a cab for 20 minutes in each direction)
-property is undervalued
*I pay 1/3 my Shanghai rent for a place that is 3x as nice
*While I understand that Shanghai is probably overvalued, the 9x difference is a bit much
-Nanhu （南湖）reminds me of Houhai （后海）in Beijing before it became touristy about 12 years ago. The problem is that none of those places are really open before 8p (at least during the summer)
-during the daytime, people seem to a bit of work, and take a very long nap
*I took some pictures of my staff's nap this afternoon, which are really amazing, but I will refrain from posting them here in order to protect their privacy
-the locals actually use MoMo for business purposes
-Samsung is king of the smart phone market (i.e. 20 to 1 advantage over Apple, based on my observations)
-western toilets are very hard to find, but Mixc has them (one stall per bathroom... denoted by a priceless emblem)
-top 5 answers when I ask my friends what they are doing:
*Mixc (it's a shopping mall)
*watching TV
*sitting
*music
*nothing

In closing, Nanning is not a tourist destination by any means, but I'm trying my best to unearth its soul. Within 6 weeks, this thread will be the most definitive Nanning resource on the internet; mark my words.

Of this I have no doubt. ^ ^ ^

南湖 is really really beautiful. I spent ~5 years in Beijing and always miss my days there. 后海 and its surrounding area is a big reason. But when I had the chance to check out 南湖, I was very impressed by its beauty. Although not as many bars, restaurants, small shops to chill out.

I was shocked by the nap epidemic too... equivalent to a Spanish lunch in length.

MoMo for business purposes?? like what?

most definitive Nanning resource on the internet. Ambitious!