Here is the Worst Way to Meet Your New Neighbor in a New Country

How the neighbors know there’s a new foreigner in town

Imagine being an elderly person enjoying a nice evening with your spouse. You hear someone knocking. When you open it, there’s a horribly sick foreigner asking for medicine. What do you do?

Spring of 2014 was an odd way to start my first year working in China. I was supposed to be working in Tianjin. Not long after I found an apartment, the company got out of that city. So I decided to go back to Beijing so I could stay in China longer.

It meant having to go apartment hunting again. In Tianjin, I found a nice apartment at a reasonable price. I didn’t have to get a roommate, either! Beijing, however, is a more expensive city, so I didn’t know what to expect.

In Tianjin, my apartment was new, so there was more space for being a studio. I had enough room to have a curtain divider between my bed and my apartment’s living area. And it was 500 kuai (about $70) cheaper than my apartment in Beijing.

My Beijing apartment was a huge downgrade. There was enough space for one person alone. If anyone visited me, I would’ve had to find a decent hotel for them. Everything was so old that whenI left that the apartment’s pipes above me burst and destroyed the kitchen.

It was a dump. But it was cheap, and I didn’t want a roommate. A year there wouldn’t be too bad as long as I kept the place looking somewhat clean.

I lived in between two couples. One couple was about my age and newly married. I met them when I accidentally locked my keys in my apartment. They were the only ones in the building who spoke English that I knew of. My Chinese wasn’t great, but it was passable for simple things. I still needed my lease translated to me, for example, before I signed anything.

The young couple told me the apartment next time mine had an older couple. I’m sure the couple noticed the occasional white person going in their building, but I don’t think they put two-and-two together until one awkward night.

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