News Translations Published September through December 2015
Chinese Stories in English
1. Lecher Photographs Beauty's Thighs
2. Card Room Becomes Gambling Den
3. Young Couples' Rules for Happy Marriage
4. Mortgage Slaves' Stories
5. Man Goes Shopping in Underwear
Click here to see the Chinese text for these stories
1. Man a Real Lecher, Photographs Beauty’s Thighs
Police Check Phone, Find Near 100 "Porn Pix"
Trainee Reporter Ye Louting, Correspondent Wei Min, Dispatch to the Evening News
"He took a sneak photo of my girlfriend!" On the afternoon of September 5, Mr. Dong and his girlfriend, Miss Hu, were heading home on an e-bike. On the way, Miss Hu noticed that a man kept taking pictures in her direction with a cell phone. When Mr. Dong confronted him, the guy had an extremely bad attitude and wouldn’t admit he’d been taking pictures. Mr. Dong had to call the police. An officer checked the man's cell phone and found almost a hundred candid photos of girls.
Miss Hu is 160 cm tall [5’3”], with charming facial features and a graceful figure. At about 6:00 p.m. that evening, she and Mr. Dong had gone to Aviation Eagle Avenue to buy some fruit. On their way home afterwards, Miss Hu, who was wearing a miniskirt, was sitting sidesaddle on the back of the bike. They had traveled some distance when Miss Hu saw in the rearview mirror a strange man that she felt was tailing them. She looked at him in puzzlement and noticed that he was pointing a cell phone at her.
"He’s sneaking pictures of me!" Surprised and frightened, Miss Hu subconsciously pulled downed the hem of her skirt, but the man kept on pointing the phone at her and kept pressing on the screen. Miss Hu immediately told Mr. Dong. He confronted the man, but the man insisted he had not been taking candid pictures of Miss Hu. He claimed he had only been shooting scenery.
Mr. Dong thereupon called the police, and an officer from the Aviation Life Police Affairs Kiosk hurried to the scene. The man continued to state categorically that he had not taken candid photos of Miss Hu. The officer resorted to looking through his phone: it contained almost a hundred photographs of a sexual nature, mostly candid photos of girls on the streets or in markets. Most of those were of the thighs or breasts. A few were nude pictures from the Internet. And the man did indeed have candid pictures of Miss Hu, six photos of her legs in all.
A mountain of evidence.
"I just like to look! When I take pictures, I can take my time looking at them at home!" The man admitted to the officer that he usually collects nude photos and enjoys them repeatedly when he’s alone. Just then he’d been hanging out on the street, and his desire to sneak some pictures had been aroused by Miss Hu wearing a miniskirt with her two legs exposed bare on the side of the e-bike.
Officers of the Aviation Life Police Affairs Kiosk criticized the man severely and educated him. At present, he has been transferred to the Five Li Checkpoint Police Precinct where he is underdoing further investigation.
Liuzhou Evening News, 2015-09-07, p. 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Card Room Becomes Gambling Den
Fourteen Arrested
Correspondent Yang Wenkui, Dispatch to Liuzhou Evening News
During a recent community visit, a police officer from Five Li Station Precinct received reports from residents under the jurisdiction of Newly Soaring Community claiming that strange faces had been appearing recently at a custom-built residential tower in the community. Further, they were all going toward a mahjong parlor on the first floor of that tower. Most times they had noticed more than 20 people going in and they suspected illegal activities.
Police launched an investigation surrounding the mahjong parlor without delay. They collected a large volume of data from peripheral sources while simultaneously putting a police stakeout in place. After two days in position, the officers had a handle on the employees' basic operations: a "silent alarm" system had been set up outside the door to the premises which required not only an introduction by someone familiar with the person wishing to enter, but also passage through several layers of "gatekeepers" on the periphery. The parlor opened every day at dusk and customers coming to gamble reached a peak during the early hours of the next morning. Officers verified that it was a gambling den soliciting customers to gather together for the purpose of wagering but operating under the guise of a parlor for board games.
On the 26th at about one a.m., more than 20 officers quickly took control of the gambling den's entry and exit. They entered the mahjong room after first subduing a male doorman at the entry. Inside they found that mahjong tables had been set up and over ten gamblers were taking turns as dealers for the games. They were playing the gambling game "three-card monte" using poker cards.
An officer sounded them out by asking "What are you doing?"
One of them blurted out the truly shocking words, "We're gambling!"
"You are indeed, and you've been caught!" The commander gave the order and all the police officers stepped up to take every single gambler into custody.
The officers conducted a thorough search of the gambling den right away. They took into custody fourteen gamblers and staff, including the boss, and seized 5,770 Yuan used in gambling. Investigation revealed that the owner of mahjong parlor is a Ms. Jiang, a 53-year-old woman from this city. She owns a condo in the building as well as the mahjong parlor. According to her statement, a few days ago some frequent customers talked about betting on "three-card monte" on her premises. She didn't see a problem and agreed, and also arranged to take a ten Yuan cut from every hand. They proceeded in this manner and she had not directly participated in gambling through the time of the investigation and seizure by the public security organs.
Upon review, the 14 people involved in the gambling candidly and fully admitted to the facts of their participation in the illegal gambling crime. They were each given five days administrative detention as authorized by law.
Liuzhou Evening News, 2015-09-29, p. 9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Wife Can't Stay Out Late, Hubby Hands Over Money,
Man Cooks, Woman Makes Money….
You'll Be Thunderstruck by Young Couples' Rules!
by All-Media Reporter Fan Zhen, Trainee Jiang Hui
Talking about household rules, it used to be that "the man plows and the woman weaves." The man was the lord of the family and the woman had to keep "the Three Obeys and the Four Virtues." Nowadays, though, the idea that "the man rules outside, the woman rules inside" is gradually fading. So, in the New Age, does your family still have household rules? Probably not turning over your salary every month, or kneeling on a keyboard [or washboard when you make a mistake], right? Let's listen to some Liuzhou residents' banter about the "new household rules" –
Husband to Wife: Don't be Too Beautiful, and Don't Stay Out Late
Rule One: No more than one hour on make-up "That one, it's just that she spends too long putting on her make-up, so I told her I wanted her not to spend more than one hour at a time on it." Mr. Lan and Ms. Wu have been married two and a half years. He laughingly says he was attracted to her back then because he thought she was pretty, diligent and good. After they got married, though, he found that she'd spend at least two hours putting on make-up whenever they went anywhere.
Mr. Lan, a restless fellow, often complained that flowers could wilt in the time he had to wait. He says that a man's patience has limits. He couldn't stand his wife being so "gorgeously dressed", so after they'd been married half a year, they set a household rule: No more than one hour putting on make-up.
Rule two: Home by eleven "After we got married he said he wanted me to get home before eleven o'clock, and that I couldn't have contact with too many men at work." Ms. Guo works in a milk tea shop and became acquainted with Mr. Ding there. They fell in love and got married.
For work-related reasons, Ms. Guo can't avoid chatting with male customers while on the job. Also, she sometimes has to work overtime after ten p.m. She's felt a bit constricted since they've had this "no staying out late" household rule. She feels her husband doesn't understand her job and that he's controlling her.
"I really don't get it. Such a liberated day and age, and he's still got so many scruples." Ms. Guo finds it both funny and annoying.
Wife to Husband: The Money's Mine, and You Cook
Rule One: Hand over your salary every month Ms. Jiang is 56 this year. She's been married for 20 years and has descendants. Her life is happy and full. When speaking of household rules, she says proudly: "After we got married, I told my hubby I wanted him to give me his salary every month." Thinking back to when they'd just gotten married, she wanted him to give her the money to take care of so that their family could have some savings. Then she gave him 60 Yuan [≈$60] spending money a month. Now they're living well, but they've still kept that rule. "How could it be OK without a woman taking care of things? If I keep control of the money," she says with a laugh, "I can keep control of my husband."
Rule Two: At home you have to cook Mr. Liao and his wife, Ms. Li, are newlyweds. Before they married the couple was trying to figure out how to live happily and decided: "She'd cook and I'd do the dishes. I'd be responsible for all the heavy or dirty work." That seemed like a good rule, but after they were married, they did a 180-degree about face. Now Mr. Liao has become a new age "kitchen guy."
"Now it's me who cooks and me who does the dishes." Mr. Liao says his wife is a photographer and is usually very busy at work. When she gets home in the evening she has to put in extra time editing and really doesn't feel like cooking. In contrast, he works an eight-hour day with regular hours.
Ms. Li was too busy so they agreed on a household rule: Her husband would cook for her every day when he got home from work. Seeing how hard things were on his wife, Mr. Li could only do as she asked. "We haven't been married long, but my cooking is really progressing. Now I can figure out how to make something different for her every day." Mr. Liao finds happiness in this.
Rule Three: If I'm mad, you buy something good to eat Young Liang, who is 26 this year, is a chubby girl, but she really doesn't worry about her figure.
She says, if a good man loves her, what's there to be afraid of?
"At the time I didn't want anything except for him to be good to me." She married her current husband, Young Zhao, when she was 22. The two are very affectionate, but couldn't avoid arguments after they got married. To keep the peace, they agreed on a household rule: If she gets mad, he has to buy her something she loves to eat. Young Liang is known to be a "foodie" and her mood improves if she has something to eat.
With this household rule, Young Liang no longer needed to worry that she'd be bullied by Young Zhao because whenever they had a fight, a box of chocolates or a piece of buttery cake would enable her to put her bad feelings aside. "Look how I've been spoiled by him." Giggling, she says that every now and then, something good to eat is a necessity for maintaining one's composure. Eating something you like improves your mood, of course, and then there won't be any misunderstanding between the couple.
Internet Users Speak: Other Miraculous Household Rules that Struck Us
Each family has its own style of getting along. Some couples are always fighting, some are affectionate, but no matter what, they're successful as long as they can live well together. A new age has new rules, so let's go back and take a look at methods used by netizens——
Netizen "Good Wife in the Family": These days we don't kneel unhappily on a washboard, we all kneel down at the computer keyboard; that's what we kowtow to.
Netizen "777 Wonders": The wife says I absolutely can't lie to her, or if I do and she finds out, she'll serve me with a broom!
Netizen "Daphne": Never stay apart from each other more than 10 days.
Netizen "FZZZZZ": Never carry a grudge overnight; if you fight, make up the same day.
Liuzhou Evening News, 2015-10-14 p. 6
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. How Long Until the New Nanjing Condo Can Be Sold?
Mortgage Slave Stories: My Happiness is Unrelated to My Condo
[Abstract] "People born in the '70s who've taken out mortgages are the happiest, and those born in the '80s who have mortgages are the saddest." This year mortgagees born in the '70s, who were China's first generation of mortgage slaves, will focus on paying off their debts and getting "out from under". A reporter from Modern Express newspaper approached some of them to hear the stories of them and their homes. Although the condos they purchased have appreciated significantly, they don't seem as happy as people say....
Mortgage Slaves: Story 1
A Mortgage Slave Thrice Over
More and More Pressure
Mr. Huang of this city [Nanjing] took out a loan to buy his first-ever condo at the end of 2000, joining the army of first-time mortgage slaves. Later, when his place of work changed and his child was born, he became a three-time mortgage slave by getting additional mortgages to buy a second and then a third home.
"Everyone says the first group of mortgage slaves is the 'happiest', because home prices went up, you know," Mr. Huang sighed, "but I didn't feel happy at all. I took on the role of mortgage slave three times and felt more and more pressure every time."
Mr. Huang went to college in Nanchang and stayed there to work after graduation. Starting with the story of his first home purchase, Mr. Huang says he just "fell into it" by happy accident. "I was still single, didn't even have a girlfriend, and thought that buying a condo was something I might do in the distant future. One day I went with one of my co-workers to buy a home. He made a down payment, and the developer ended up talking me into buying a place, too." He says home prices were very low at the time, around 1,900 Yuan a square meter [≈US$27/ft2], and the total price for a 120-square-meter condo was just a bit over 200,000 Yuan. The minimum down payment back then was only 20 percent, which meant you could buy a place for less than 60,000 [including closing costs and decorating fees].
"At the time I figured I had two savings accounts, one with 28,000 Yuan in it and the other with a little over 30,000, enough for the down payment. So on impulse I put down a 2,000 Yuan deposit right then and there." The next day he went to the bank to make a withdrawal, because the first payment had to be paid in full within a week. When he checked the ATM, though, he was blindsided. "I had 28,000 Yuan in one account but only 3,000 Yuan in the other, not 30,000-plus." His first reaction was to hurry and get his 2,000 Yuan deposit back, but the developer insisted the deposit was definitely nonrefundable, although he could back out of the purchase commitment. The best thing for him to do was scrape together several thousand Yuan by borrowing from relatives to make the down payment. So Mr. Huang, with the first debts of his life on his back, became a mortgage slave.
"At the time I owed around 200,000 Yuan on that condo, and the monthly payment was more than 1,000 Yuan." Mr. Huang says his monthly income back then was a little over 2,000 Yuan. He figured a 200,000 Yuan loan, totaling not quite 400,000 with interest, would take him decades to pay off. "I was from a rural area [so I couldn't get Public Accumulation Funding available to city residents -- see https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/Public%20Governance%20Issues%20in%20China.pdf. Buying a home and paying off the loan was all on me, so the more I thought about it, the more the pressure built up. For two whole nights before signing the loan papers, I couldn't sleep from the stress of worrying about repaying the loan." Once he took out the loan, Mr. Huang says, he was especially worried about getting sick or losing his job. "If I couldn't make the payments, what would I do? I didn't know anything those days. I just felt the bank would take your home away if you didn't make the payments. I'd only had a few thousand in savings and I'd just spent it all to make the down payment. So I worked hard back then to earn the money to make the payments. I was afraid the bank would take my home if I didn't." Mr. Huang told this reporter that he still remembers clearly a couple of times when he was a day or two late making a payment. He made special trips to the bank about it, and with the greatest of trepidation asked the bank staff if there would be a penalty or if his payments would be affected. Bottom line, he was worried that the bank would take his condo.
Four years later he moved to Nanjing for work, so he sold the place in Nanchang and prepared to settle down in his new home. "I really didn't make any money when I sold that first condo. I got rid of it for a profit of just 400 Yuan per square meter, and if you count the interest I'd paid to the bank over those years, I really didn't make anything." That's how Mr. Huang's first brief career as a mortgage slave came to an end, because of a work transfer.
After he'd been in Nanjing for a year, Mr. Huang became a mortgage slave for the second time. He took out another loan to buy a small, 70-square-meter condo in an area two bus stops from the city center. "The second time I bought a place, the total price was around 6,500 Yuan per square meter, or over 400,000 Yuan." He says he was quite fearful of being a mortgage slave again, since he'd barely managed to pay off the loan for the first condo, so he did whatever he could to put down as much as possible for the second one. He only borrowed a little over 200,000 Yuan. "I was married at the time, so there were two people who could make the payments. Also, my income was higher than it had been before, so at the time I felt that a 2,000-plus Yuan monthly payment wouldn't be a problem. Aside from that, I made two or three advance payments and paid the loan off in just two or three years."
But after only a few relaxing years of freedom from "mortgage slave" status, real life problems returned – a child was born, and the old folks came to help take care of it, and soon it became clear that the little condo was just too crowded. "If I was late getting home, I didn't dare turn on the lights because it would wake everyone up. The old folks had their bedding on the floor in the living room at the time. So, that's when I realized that we'd have to get a bigger place."
In 2009 Mr. Huang set his sights on a 115-square-meter place in a commercial development north of town. Then he had to get ready for his third stint as a house slave. What he didn't expect, though, was that his third stint would be the one that hit him most deeply "in the pit of his gut".
"The total price for this place was more than one million. At first we were ready to put 300,000 Yuan down, but as it happened we ran into some regulations. The bank said that thirty percent down wouldn't cut it and we'd need at least forty percent." Adding ten percent to the down payment meant that he'd have to come up with over a hundred thousand Yuan more, so he went to one of his former classmates to borrow the money. But once he'd borrowed the 100,000-plus, the loan policy changed again. The required down payment went up to fifty percent. "What could I do? I couldn't afford the place." Fortunately, the developer later advanced him the extra funds for the down payment, interest free, payable after one year. "Not only did the down payment go up and then up again, the mortgage rate took some twists and turns as well. From a preferential discount of thirty percent off the benchmark rate at first, we ended up doing a loan that floated up 1.1 times. Besides that, the maximum amount that a husband and wife could get in a Public Accumulation Funding at that time was adjusted from 600,000 to 400,000, so once again, we had to put together a 200,000 Yuan commercial loan. That's why I say that the third time as a mortgage slave is the one that hit me deepest in the gut."
By living frugally for a year and borrowing a little from relatives, Mr. Huang was able to repay the money the developer had advanced him for the down payment. "Now, although our monthly house payment is only a bit over 3,000 yuan, we also owe more than a hundred thousand to outside lenders. When you add on the kid's school expenses and the old folk's medical expenses, people in our age group have the most pressure of all. On the surface we have a condo and a car, but in fact we're really under the most pressure."
Mr. Huang says that being a mortgage slave three times in a row, the stress got greater every time.
Mortgage Slaves, Story 2
Twice a Mortgage Slave
Enjoys Only "Paper Wealth"
When speaking of his first experience getting a loan, Mr. Sun, who was born in the 1970s, says that the psychological pressure was enormous. "Those of us in the '70s generation were taught from childhood, first, don't get into debt, and second, build up your savings." Although his monthly payment on the loan wasn't great, the psychological pressure he put on himself for becoming a mortgage slave was difficult to bear.
"When I got my first loan to buy a condo in 2003, I had my eye on a place near (Community Network Forum) on Watergate Avenue West. At the time the unit price [per square meter] was 4,800 Yuan, for a total price of about 500,000 for the condo." Mr. Sun told your reporter that, to buy this place, he sold a small piece of commercial property he had in the west part of the city and used the entire 200,000-plus he got from that sale for the down payment. He did this because he'd never borrowed money before, and because he'd accepted from childhood the traditional teaching that one couldn't borrow outside the family. "All I could think of then was to borrow as little as possible, and to pay back what I did borrow as soon as possible. After [selling the commercial property] me and the wife just had a total debt of 240,000 in a publicly funded loan."
Mr. Sun only applied for a three-year loan that first time "because I didn't want to owe money, and besides, three-year mortgage rates are the lowest." He and his wife had only one goal the next couple of years, and that was to earn the money to repay the mortgage. As a result, they were able to pay it off in just a little over two years.
Looking back on it now, he says, he really didn't have to sell that property on the west side after all. Lending policies were so loose at that time. You only needed 20 percent down, so he could have done it with only 100,000 Yuan. And with a longer loan period, he could easily have covered that condo on Watergate Avenue West (Community Network Forum) himself. "That place I sold on the west side is in a school district. If I'd kept my hands on it, I could sell it for almost a million Yuan today."
A couple of years after paying off that loan, Mr. Sun started thinking about changing condos because he and his wife had had a child. In 2007 the couple picked out an approximately 130-square-meter unit on the south side of the city. The price was about 1.5 million Yuan. "At the time, we could've toughed it out even if we didn't sell the condo on Watergate Avenue West, just by borrowing a little more." The couple's income had increased substantially during this period because both Mr. Sun and his wife had senior management positions in their respective companies.
"But we still didn't want to owe people money, so we sold the condo on Watergate Avenue West to buy this place. We paid about a million down and only had to get a loan of about 500,000 Yuan. We applied for a five-year loan, which added a few thousand to the monthly payment." He says the loan has already been paid in full. "Commentators on the Internet say that the condos purchased by the first generation of mortgagees have increased in value several times over, and how they've made money every which way. But in fact, for me, every time I changed condos it was to get a better place to live. I got more living area each time, but the money I got from selling the last place always went into the new one. I can supposedly sell the place I'm living in now for more than two million, but I only have one condo. If I sold it, where would I live? So all that wealth they're talking about, it's really just on paper."
If you gave Mr. Sun a chance to do things differently, allowing him to put less down and borrow as much as possible each time he bought a condo, he would have his hands on at least three condos now, with a market value as high as five or six million Yuan. But Mr. Sun says he has no regrets. "After all, there's too much psychological pressure when you owe people money. If I had an opportunity to get another loan to buy a condo, I'd still hold firm to two principles: one is to borrow as little as possible, and second is to pay back what you do borrow as soon as possible."
Mortgage Slaves: Story 3
Since Becoming Mortgage Slave
Greatly Decreased Quality of Life
Despite what people imagine, the first generation of mortgage slaves are actually not all living the "Life of Riley". Mr. Li, in his middle years, is one of that first generation. He feels clearly that his quality of life has decreased greatly since he became a mortgage slave.
In an earlier time, Mr. Li had a humble abode in a small, 50-plus square meter set of rooms in the northern part of the city. In 2001 he took a fancy to a larger, 120-square-meter condo in Jiangning [River Peace] District. "River Peace is a very nice area. Home prices were quite cheap back then, and in River Peace at the time they hadn't even reached 2,000 Yuan per square meter, so the total price for a 120 square meter condo was around 220,000." Mr. Lee made a down payment of 150,000 Yuan and took out a loan in the amount of 70,000 or 80,000 Yuan. "I got a 15-year loan with a monthly payment of 1,200 Yuan. I just finished paying it off last year."
Mr. Li says he was making 3,000 Yuan a month in 2001, "so I figured it out very precisely. The payments on a loan couldn't exceed 1,500 Yuan a month. Any more than that and the pressure would be too great." Mr. Li says that was because he had in fact only come up with 30,000 Yuan of the down payment himself, and had borrowed the remaining of 120,000 from two friends. "Aside from the regular loan, I also had to repay my friends' loans within two years, so I didn't dare waste any money. Back then I got year-end bonuses of 10,000 or 20,000 Yuan every year, and my usual savings amounted to several thousands more, plus my family had some CDs that reached term. I did pay my friends' debts off first within two years."
As for the loan of seventy or eighty thousand Yuan, Mr. Li took the full ten years and finished paying it off last year. "I made regular payments all the way through, and whenever I scraped together 10,000 Yuan from my spending money, I hurried on down to make an advance payment. I had to hurry for fear of spending it. My monthly payment would go down a little when I paid off part of the loan in advance. At the end it had dropped steadily down to a hundred Yuan from the 1,200 it was at the start." He remembers clearly that his monthly payment was 100 yuan for the most recent five or six months before he paid it completely off last year.
With such a low balance remaining due, why didn't Mr. Li pay it off all at one time? "I didn't dare! My son needed the money." Two years ago his child went to Canada to go to school, and that first year cost him a hundred seventy or eighty thousand. "My son needs forty or fifty thousand each year just for living expenses, so I don't dare spend whatever money I might have on me. I've got to leave it all for him." Mr. Lee says that since the beginning of last year, grandpa has begun helping pay the boy's living expenses. "On several occasions Grandpa has given him money for living expenses, a hundred thousand Yuan all together. That has greatly reduced the burden on me."
Mr. Li took out his cell phone, "Have a look. There's only 72.70 Yuan left in my paycheck account for this month. I'll have to tough it out for the next few days until I get paid again." He pointed to the clothes he was wearing and said that now he only spends one or two hundred Yuan on clothes to wear. He keeps things as simple as he can. In addition, he hasn't worn leather shoes for many years. "I always wear athletic shoes now. They're casual and keep out the rain. If it was back in the past, I'd insist on buying leather shoes for upwards of a thousand Yuan."
Mr. Li did two other things during the loan period. He bought a car, and he bought another small condo in the North River district for 400,000-plus Yuan, with grandpa making the down payment and him making the loan payments. "This time buying a condo I got it all figured out. The Public Accumulation Funding just covers my monthly payment, so there's no extra burden on me. That's the only reason I bought it." But after buying the car, to save on expenses Mr. Li now drives it to the subway entrance every day and takes the subway to work.
"I feel that my quality of life decreased greatly after I borrowed money to buy the condo. Next year, though, after my son graduates, I'll be OK."
Mortgage Slaves: Story 4
Starts with 100,000 Down Payment
Now Has Two Properties
In 2002, Mr. Jin put down 100,000 and got a loan for 300,000 to buy his first piece of property. "Bank interest rates were low, you know. It would've been a waste not to borrow the money." He says that, six years later, he got another loan to buy a condo, using the savings he had on hand as a down payment.
Mr. Jin says that he came to Nanjing for a job after graduating from college in 1998. At first his monthly income was only a little over 1,000 Yuan. "At the time I often looked at the buildings standing so tall on both sides of the road and wondered, 'When will I be able to afford a condo?'" It took four years for him and his wife together to save up 10,000 Yuan in a savings account.
"One weekend I said to my wife, 'We've got nothing to do. Let's go look at condos.' So right away I looked at the bus stop to see which bus we could take to get somewhere where there were condos under construction for sale." Then he took his wife on the first bus that came along, and went to a construction site in the south part of the city.
"At the time I got excited as soon as I saw the community. The new buildings were so beautiful, and there were trees and grass all around. The community even had fountains. Plus the sales girl kept on describing how it was planned to be even more beautiful in the future. The most important thing by far was that the price for a condo back then was only a little over 3,000 Yuan per square meter, so the total price for a new condo around 110 square meters was less than 400,000 Yuan. You just had to put 20 percent down, so you only needed less than 80,000 yuan to buy one." Mr. Jin says he paid a deposit to buy this condo the same day he went to look at it.
"We paid more than 2,000 Yuan per month on the loan. We made regular payments back then and didn't think about making advance payments." He says he always thought the bank interest rates were low, so it would've been a waste not to borrow the money. "Back then most of the loan was from Public Accumulation Funds, so the interest rate was very low. My wife and I just made one advance payment each year to the Public Accumulation Fund as an advance loan repayment. Each one was 10,000 Yuan. We were elated when we saw that that shortened the term of the loan by several months."
When you've put a little money away in savings, Mr. Jin says, you don't like making advance payments. By 2008, following an increase in their income, he and his wife had accumulated around four hundred thousand in savings, so he started getting ideas about buying another condo. He saw one he liked in the River West district. It was a bit over 80 square meters, small but elegantly decorated, for total price of just over 900,000 Yuan. "In order to use the relatively low-interest Public Accumulation Funding, I paid off the 50,000 remaining due on the Public Accumulation Fund loan for the first place before I bought a second one. Then I took out a 400,000 Public Accumulation Fund Loan, plus a commercial loan of more than 100,000, and bought the second place. The loan term is 20 years and the current monthly payment is still just over 2,000 Yuan. "
Mr. Jin says his wife was very worried both times they borrowed money to buy a condo. "She always said our income was so low, and we were borrowing so much, when would we ever be able to finish paying it off? But I think people have to look to the future. Your income will always continue to grow. Now when you think about it, it's lucky we were brave enough to take out those loans. The condo we bought for 400,000 has appreciated to around 1,500,000, and the one we got for 900,000 has gone up to around 2,000,000." Looking at it now, he says, borrowing money to buy condos is in fact the best investment strategy.
Soufang.com [Housing Search] Comprehensive Collation, 2012-12-13
http://news.nanjing.fang.com/2012-12-13/9175872.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Man in Underwear Shops Brazenly in Supermarket
Missing Almost Half a Year, Police Take Him Home to
Unexpected Reunion with Family
Reporter Huang Xiaoyi, Correspondent Huang Wei, Dispatch to the Evening News
Against expectations, a thin, weak man recently went shopping in a supermarket in broad daylight wearing only his underwear, startling city residents who were there buying things at the time. The people were all buzzing about it, saying "Even when it’s hot, there’s no need to dress in such a revealing way, is there?"
Around six p.m. on the afternoon of the fourth, a supermarket near Liushi Road was open for business when a man wearing only blue underpants sauntered in. He was holding some money in his hand. The other people in the store all avoided him when they saw the situation.
Store personnel saw that the man’s bizarre behavior had already interfered with the normal shopping public, so they called the police.
When the police arrived on the scene, the man was still inside the supermarket selecting his purchases. The officers took him out of the store.
Questioning revealed that the man, a Mr. Chen, is 26 years old and has lived in a nearby cave for nearly six months. Living on the mountain, he has nothing to wear and little to eat, so he came down to buy some things.
Following information provided by Mr. Chen, the officers got in touch with his relatives. When his family heard what had happened, they expressed their unending gratitude to the police for their help. It turns out that Mr. Chen had left home nearly six months ago and that the family had been looking for him ever since. They said he has a touch of mental illness and his mind is somewhat unclear. Now that he has been found, the family is finally reunited.
Liuzhou Evening News, 2015-09-07, p. 3
Chinese text available here.