Moving to GZ with a 2 year old in 2 months

Hi,

We will be moving to GZ in 2 months with our 2 year old girl due to my husband's work. I have never been to Guangzhou, so all my knowledge about the place was only from what my husband said (he visited there around twice) and some postings on this site.

I am wondering what kind of place is good to live in GZ.
My husband will work in Yuexiu area. Through postings I saw , I think we might be interested in living in Tianhe, Ersha or Clifford in Panyu, but still not sure what kind of places they have there.
We are looking for a place with good location (strategic, near to supermarket, malls, transportation, etc), especially when thinking that I might go to learn chinese there. And since we have a toddler, we are looking for a place with the least pollution and convenient for her to meet other kids and play with them.
If you could recommend some places or even apartments name with the budget range, that will be good. I still don't know our budget for housing, but my husband's predecessor lived in a service apartment in Tianhe.

Also, I want to ask if there are apartments in GZ which whole building is run by a company, not an individual. Saying thing because a company will respond faster to problems inside apartments (if there are), and our current apartment (outside China) is run by a company and they always respond quick to our problems (cracks on the wall, etc).

Welcome to Expat-blog, csguangzhou :)

Hope that members soon reply to your query and provide you with information about accommodation.

Regards,
Sheetul

Clifford in Panyu is a good place to live coz it is cheap and nice.the rent might be 2000rmb/month. but since there is no metro nearby and your husband work in yuexiu, that means it might be inconvinient for him to work. did i recommend you to live in Panyu district? i think i did.at that time i didn't know your husband would work in yuexiu district.
the rent in ersha and tianhe would be expensive.
maybe you can live in somewhere as long as there is subway station nearby. how do you think?
i totally agree with that building  run by a company would be the best choice coz it is kind of a community, the surroundings would be much better than the individuals.
these days i rent a house for a foreign people in haizhu district which is next to the xiaogang station of metro.  there is a company named Fuli Qianxi Garden (i don't know how to translate it into english) which is pretty nice. i think it is a good place to live, especially for the kids live there, coz the security is pretty strict , you don't need to worry that your kid is missing when playing in the garden of the buildings. the garden is built for the kids and elderly people, we can find there are a lot of kids playing there.but to be honest, most of them are chinese, i found there are some foreigners living there, but i didn't find foreign kids.
i can give the links for you to check the house and the surroundings. the rent is about 3200rmb with two bedrooms , one kitchen room, one living room, one bath room, one balcony.it is reasonable coz it is located in the downtown of the city.
the links: rent.gz.soufun.com/chuzu/3_6832904_1.htm
rent.gz.soufun.com/chuzu/3_6809040_1.htm
rent.gz.soufun.com/chuzu/3_6921092_1.htm

Hello Michelle,

Maybe you should also post an ad in Guangzhou's Classifieds -> houses for rent?

It might help you renting your house!

Cheers
Arlette

feeacer:
i beg your pardon?
you think i am an agent? come on , i am helping people!!!

Hi Michelle,
Sorry if you misunderstood me but the Classifieds section is for the usage of every member! I just offered you to post it there also to increase your ability to rent it out :)
Cheers
Arlette

i am not trying to rent the houses out, i don't have houses, i just gave the information to csguangzhou, coz she was looking for the information.

im not sure there are such apartments run by a company. i think most are belong to individuals. as i know there are some big hotel can offer apartments. but the price is higer.

Living in Guangzhou is going to be a real different experience. The housing is not going to be what you are custom to and it will be like going back in time 50 years.  I have lived here for 7 yrs and renting from a company does not mean they will fix things faster, usually the companies never fix or maintain anything very good.  Its best to rent from an indiv because they will fix things fast or you can have it fixed and take it off the rent.  Many areas you will still see people letting their kids goto the bathroom on the streets and sidewalks, many babies don't wear diapers but the parents just let them goto the bathroom on street or sidewalks too or on the floor in a store.  It will be an eye opening experience for you. You can contact my wife and I if you wish when you get here and we will show you around.

Thank you for all the responses!
We will visit GZ for apartment hunting next November or December. Hope to be able to see as many choices as possible during limited time.
To drkight: Thanks for the input! Will be happy to meet you and wife when we are there. BTW, do you have kid(s), too?

so have you arrived to gz now?

Have been to GZ for house hunting and so far interested living in Zhujiang new town. There are 3 compounds we are interested in: Central Park View, The Cosmos, Top View. If any of you live in one of them, can you give me opinions about them (convenience, rates, kids friendliness etc)