Moving to Dongguan - Questions...

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Permalink Reply by Michael on March 14, 2010 at 8:30pm

Welcome to expatacular and Dongguan Lars!

1. Dongcheng is the district of Dongguan that most expats live in. IEO Dynatown, New World Garden and Moonbay Garden are the three apartment complexes that most expats live in. Of the three New World Garden is the least expensive. The other two are roughly the same.

I would recommend getting in touch with one of the local real estate agents to discuss your housing needs. Lisa Lu has been of great help with may expats in town and comes recommended.

2. Electric Brain is currently looking for qualified Project Managers and Business Development Executives in Dongguan. If your fiancé could fit one of these positions, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Michael Slatoff
President, Electric Brain

www.electricbrain.biz
US: +1 (858) 618-3311 x808
HK: +852 6374-3311
CN: +86 (769) 2313-1031 x808
Electric Brain - Global Tech Solutions

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Permalink Reply by Lars H on March 14, 2010 at 11:47pm

Many thanks for your quick and informative reply Michael!

Will be in Shangahi in a few weeks, and hope to have some time to make a trip down to Dongguan as well. Still I have a few more inquries for you.

1. Are these newly developed areas and what standard is normally included in the rent e.g oven, dishwasher etc? Is this enclosed living with facilities such as gym and what is the range of rents plus availability?

2. I will let my fiancé make contact directly if she finds this inetresting.

Many thanks for your assistance and advice!

Best Regards,
Lars

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Permalink Reply by jack xiao on March 15, 2010 at 12:11am

dongcheng is recommended as the best living place in dongguan.
you can consider my 3bedrooms apartment.
the link below:
http://www.expatacular.com/group/dongguan/forum/topics/new-world-ga...
thanks.

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Permalink Reply by sps on March 17, 2010 at 5:06pm

Hi Lars,
I suppose you have been to Dongguan before? It is not the same as Shanghai. It is now boasing a few not garbage italian restaurants in a rather boring industrialized area. The downtown (there are several of them) has generally walking street where there is nothing you would want to buy. Luckily cheese has come to town. For the average foreigner who likes Shanghai, you could commute from the more cosmopolitan Shenzhen or Guangzhou and still be disappointed. I find it ok but lots of people would not prefer to move here.

You mentioned do the villas come with dishwashers? I think you don't want to do it by hand yourself, you'll have to hire the dishwasher. Gyms, there are a couple, but many smell bad, one really smelly one has the smell of sewage. But if you are nice to one of the hotels you can buy a good membership from a five star hotel, those are nice. A good house should start at around 300 to 400 euros. a nice attached villa should be about 600 Euros. A real boss place should be aboute 2000 euros. You can live in Dongcheng near the stores that sell cheese (new world garden and IEO), or you can live in some more stately place with real security, like King's View Garden, Royal Lagoon Golf Course Villas (that's bossy for sure), New Century City and some other places a few km from middle of the dongcheng downtown.
Enjoy your move and make sure you got a real Z visa as it can be hard to get it done here these days.

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Permalink Reply by Lars H on March 18, 2010 at 5:32am

Actually not been there before, but discovered that there seems to be two sides one that have a more negative view and one that find it as a beautiful place. Anyway I will be there in a few weeks since I come to China in some other business so it will be interesting to found out myself.

Have a nice day!

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Permalink Reply by Steve on March 18, 2010 at 9:33am

Lars

I would suggest New World Gardens, it is very safe and long established and is typically where the wealthy families live.

I would not propose Dynatown / IEO as it is very new with many teething problems. You also have to question their security as a South African was mudered there last year.

Dynatown is typically where the new money resides and you can make you own judgement about New Money.

I would sugest that you contact my good friend Lisa Lu who is a member on this site if you want a top class estate agent.

Yours in Peace

Steve

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Permalink Reply by Uncle Bob on March 18, 2010 at 10:24am

Geez, another murder at Dynatown? Or just the one.. different stories on that one.

One thing about NWG apartments, many not done to high end western standards, not sure about the villas. Dynatown may have some upper end places, but security not so great. Moon Bay seems to be slottted in between, the higher end Dynatown and lower end NWG. Some nice foreigner owned apartments there, some for rent possibly, so you may find places with auto dishwashers etc., and security seems to be pretty good, you need key cards to get into the grounds mostly and into the buildings. Of course if someone is hell bent on causing trouble, not much going to stop them.

Then again, some nice complexes in Nancheng, but not so convenient walking distance to groceries, etc.

You'll need to check the various places, see what complex you feel more comfortable in. I've lived in NWG and Moon Bay, would be comfortable in both, not so much in Dynatown.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Jacobs on March 18, 2010 at 12:53pm

Lars I would be careful about some of the information you are getting here. I've only been here a short time myself, and did the same information seeking mission that you are doing before I came. When I got here I found a lot of the advice I received was circumstantial or simply not true. Wherever you live, you are going to be ok. There's pro and cons to everything, but you won't really know for sure until you try. My advice for that would be to seek a shorter lease periodon your apartment so if things aren't working out you can move out and try again without complications.

I live in Dynatown, and will definitely be moving out at the end of my lease. Thats not to say its bad however. I feel safe in there, people are friendly and have never had any problems with the management. It does feel like a bit of a 'bubble' in there though,when walking around I feel like I'm in a holiday resort. But I'm a single guy looking for an experience, for you, it may suit perfectly, especially if you plan on starting a family.

I can't comment on the others, but my friends who live there seem happy enough.

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Permalink Reply by Prue on April 16, 2010 at 4:47pm

Hi Lars

I'm not sure if I will be much help, but we are moving to Dongguan in a couple of weeks. We currently live in Guangzhou.

We spent many weekends looking at apartments and villas in Dynatown and New World Garden as this will be the third move for us in this area and we don't want to move again. We finally found one in Dynatown that we are happy with.

For the record, I did not like New World Garden as much as Dynatown. Aesthetically, NWG still looked very Chinese with lots of tiles covering all the buildings. Dynatown is much more modern and therefore had non-Chinese look. However, I could see that NWG had a lot more people living there compared to Dynatown - perhaps that is because of its age.

I also noted that the security at Dynatown was much more strict than at NWG. It seemed at NWG anyone could just walk in. However on 2 occasions at Dynatown we had to wait at the gates for about 10 minutes until they agreed to let us in.

From what I could tell you could get a Villa in either place for around 10000 to 18000RMB. If you wanted an apartment, the ones we saw ranged from 6000 to 12000RMB.

Good luck with your move.

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