Since I arrived back in Shanghai, now almost 16 months ago, I have lived in three different locations so far. As soon as I left the hotel, where I spent two weeks in quarantine, I settled in a accommodation I already know – a hotel that offers so-called service apartments, or rather say, small rooms that have everything you need – from kitchen, shower, bed, laundry machine… all of which is squeezed into a space of less than 20 square meters. The hotel is located in the Songjiang area, which is quite far from the center of Shanghai, but it is right next to the subway, so overcoming the distance is not too much of a problem. I was staying in this hotel for the third time now, in fact I was accommodated in the exact same hotel room on the 10th floor, as twice before. I had already written about life, when in this room, in one of the previous posts. Why I keep on coming to this place? Hotel’s policy is very customer-friendly and flexible in signing the accommodation contract, as it allows shorter stays. Unlike agencies that offer apartments only on condition that you agree to at least one year of rent. With a visa valid for only 2 months at that moment, this hotel was again the best option for me. I signed a 3 month contract. Later, I managed to get visa for longer period of time.
After my contract expired, in early February 2021, just in time of Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), I moved into an apartment for models. I had not lived in an apartment for models for at least 6 to 7 years, until then… To be honest, it was a kind of step back from living alone to sharing the apartment again, but still, I was looking forward to new acquaintances there and new adventures. Changing the location happened completely unexpectedly.
A longtime friend Emma, who is one of the main managers of the modeling agency in Shanghai for which I used to work full time before – found out that I live in a hotel. This seemed strange to her. She kindly offered me one of the rooms in the apartment, they rent to accommodate models from all over the world.
Covid-19 has not spared fashion either, in fact it is one of the industries that has suffered the most, so there were not as many models in the city as usual, and the rooms of model apartments were empty. So, Emma offered me a room in one of their apartments, for a monthly fee that was a third lower to one I was paying in a hotel. I accepted.
I knew the location as I had lived in the area before – it was a modeling apartment as well, which was actually on the same street as this one, only 100 meters away. What a coincidence. It is a prestigious area called Gubei area, mostly inhabited by wealthy Japanese and Taiwanese. Gubei lies between the Minhang and Changning District and is, from direction of Songjiang District, already pretty close to the strict city center. The aforementioned Emma, a friend of mine as well as an agent, told me, before moving in, that the apartment has been renovated and that only one model currently lives in it, Brazilian Diego, who is (supposed to be) a great guy. I haven’t known Diego before, but now, since I do, I can attest he really is a great person. Diego is also one of the best models in Shanghai – if not the best -a boy with a darker skin, in his early twenties, who, besides mastering the fashion scene, constantly monitors the stock market, which is, together with fitness, his passion and obsession. By investing in stocks, he is earning some fabulous money already, so he says.
The apartment on the 3rd floor was really renovated, nice and spacious. Only the bed in the room that was intended for me, was too short for me, shaky and with broken springs in the winter. Luckily there were 2 beds in the room – in order to accommodate as many models as possible, when the fashion market is booming. Later I combined them both (beds) to sleep diagonally and replaced the mattress with one of the mattresses from the adjoining rooms. So it was all good. The view from the room reached out to the trees, growing in a small space between the other buildings in the compound, and below them, there was a small spot for exercising, where I then exercised regularly, doing push-ups, bar-liftings, etc.
When I moved in, it was just the time of the Spring Festival, a Chinese (Lunar) New Year, the greatest holiday for the Chinese and extremely important to them – that’s when the biggest migration in the world happens, as most of them leave the big cities where they work and visit their families and their homes for a week or so.
The first time I entered the apartment, it was empty. Diego went on holidays to Hainan island during the Spring Festival. When I entered, the hallway was quite dirty, with empty bottles, cigarette butts, and a used condom on the floor. At that very moment, I questioned my decision to move here. I took a few breaths and decided not to rush in changing my decisions and let me just try to live here first – in case of my discomfort I can still move out whenever I want later. The modeling agency had a hired cleaning lady, who came twice a week to clean up the apartment. I guess, at the time I moved in, she was also out of the city duo Spring Festival. So when I dropped off my luggage and finally settled in, I tidied up a bit myself. Cigarette butts did not give me peace at all. I really don’t like smoking indoors and I’ve already thought of sentences in my mind, how to kindly explain to Diego, I would be very grateful, if he could smoke on his balcony from now on and not in the common areas anymore. In the hall, in the corner on the floor, just below the big window, there was also a terrarium, which at first I thought was home to a hamster, because of all the stuff inside – but after a closer look, I found out, it is a (real) snake’s home, still a baby snake, about 40 centimeters long. I unfortunately forgot the snake’s name, so I can’t share it with you, but I know that they fed it once a week with live, just born mice, which are ordered and delivered by post. I wasn’t overly upset about the snake, as I can accept (almost) everything.
The first days, when I was alone in apartment were great, but then on the fourth night, at about two in the morning, I was awakened by the voices of two people, a man (Diego) and a child or an adult. From the bed of my room and behind closed doors I really couldn’t tell, if she was a woman or a child, but certainly it was a person with a slightly thinner voice. Later on, few minutes after, I smelled smoke coming from the doorway. All these loud voices, noise and cigarette smoke did not fill me with happiness at that very moment. In my head, I was already imagining me packing my bags again. After about an hour, as it was already more than 3 in the morning, everything went quiet. We all fell asleep.
We met the next day. The person next to Diego was his girlfriend, Leila from China. Leila is an very energetic girl. She has a shorter stature and very athletic body, with some tattoos and a unique style that suited her very well. As a student at one of the universities in America, where she had lived for years, her English was just perfect. Like to many, Covid-19 thwarted her plans too, so she decided to return to China for a while, where she met Diego. At that time they were together for about 3 months and love is lasting today still.
They are both great people and we became good friends. Later, it turned out that they were not smokers, only here and there they lit a cigarette or two, which is not worth mentioning. I did not have to use the sentences, I was composing in my head – when, in the beginning, seeing the cigarette butts and smelling the smoke – after all. Diego assured me, Leila would only come to visit him once or twice a week, but in reality she was always there, night and day, even when Diego was not at home for several days, she was there. Basically, we were 3 flatmates. Her apartment was too far from the center and Diego, so life in our apartment suited her better. Still, there were days, when she wasn’t with us. When she was gone, the apartment was very calm and quiet. Then, Diego and I did our own things, sometimes we exercised together outside of the building, we talked about modeling and stocks, etc. Shortly… Living in an apartment without Leila was something completely different, it was a normal flatmate kind of life as it should be. I was even able to stick to my routine of getting to bed early, which is at 10pm, that peaceful it was. On the other hand, when Leila was with Diego – at the time, our habits and schedules didn’t match at all. They were both going to bed very late, even at 4 in the morning, and waking up just before noon. These were completely different habits, which I am used to. All of this is perfectly understandable and I don’t want to judge anyone.The age difference and our way of lives were too big of a factor. When they were awake, they were quite loud, with long debates in the hall of the apartment, so they were always heard, not to mention walking in shoes and high heels around the apartment late at night, not only disturbing me but also the elderly lady, a neighbor, downstairs. The lady, Emma said, had addressed several complaints, not only to her, but also to district administrators and compound security guards, saying she is already on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and I believed her. There was one more thing I couldn’t bare, as well as understand. By no means did they know how to turn off the apartment lights and air-condition, while turning everything on. Many times, at the day time, all the lights were on, absolutely all, together with air condition, warming apartment up to 30 degrees already, giving us nice sauna feel. So, I was turning the lights and air-condition off, especially at night when I went to the bathroom or when I woke up in the middle of the night. Just… It seemed to me too much of a waste of energy, which would not give me peace, before I fall back to asleep. The electricity bills were, of course, paid by the our model agency, if they had to, it would probably be different. Why didn’t I urge and talk to them!? I don’t know. Usually am not afraid to do it. In a friendly way, all can be arranged and discussed, I think. I guess, I just didn’t want to do scenes, since deep down I knew, it was only a matter of time, before I leave this place.
A man gets used to everything quickly and so did I. I started going to bed later and no longer getting up with ”chickens”, shutting down the devices became automatic. Life went on without any problems. After a month and 10 days I decided, when I found another apartment, to finish the chapter here and move on. Nevertheless, in the end, it was actually a very fun experience. By sharing this story, I didn’t want to judge anyone, everyone has their own way of life. Who to blame for me being 15 years older than them. It is all fine.
I moved even closer to the center, to a very convenient location on Dingxi Road, right next to metro lines 2, 3, 4 and 11, with less than 2 kilometers away from the famous Jingan Temple. I live right next to the beautiful Zhongshan Park and the Suzhou River, where I go for walks and exercise almost every day. Not far away are Changfeng Park with a huge artificial lake and a smaller Tianshan Park. I have been living in a very large apartment on the 27th floor for almost a year now (one year to be on 28th of March). I decided again for a shared apartment. I am sharing it with four Chinese people. Each of us has its own room and we have two bathrooms to share. The special feature of this apartment is, it is operated by Korean named Steve, whose main idea is to have a school “Speak@home”, that unites English-speaking foreigners (in this case: me), who want to learn Chinese and Chinese people who want to learn English. All living together under one roof. So far I am very satisfied how things are going on here. I have a nice room and all the peace I need. Despite all the superlatives, I still have a feeling that it will be time for a change again soon. Where and when, perhaps, in one of the following posts.
In the video below, I’m attaching one of my favorite daily routines