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My husband and I are thinking of relocating to Dalian to work at the new Intel facility. The relocation would not occur for quite a while (maybe not until 2009) but we are curious about the area where Intel is building. Does anyone know about the area where Intel is building? I'm made to believe it will be in the Development Zone near the entrance to the Golden Pebble Beach Resort. Looking at Google Earth, all I see is construction in this area. Is it a suburb, or a future suburb? Just a pile of dirt?

Regarding housing, is something like a 4 bedroom, 2 bath villa or apartment common in Dalian? Expensive? We have two small kids and would prefer to have enough space to isolate them when we need some peace We would also like to have enough space to host visitors from America whenever possible.

Any information or opinions are welcome.

-Edith

To answer your first question, I don't know a lot about the New Development Zone (Kai Fa Qu "ka-eye fa choo&quot, so I'll let you know what I do know. As I research and learn more I'll amend or add to this post.

Kai Fa Qu would be considered a suburb of Dalian by our standards. Dalian and Kai Fa Qu would be something like South San Francisco and San Francisco or Bellevue and Seattle. There is an elevated train (the Qinggui "ching gw-eh&quot that runs from Dalian to Kai Fa Qu in case you are in dire need of a Frappuccino.

The area was opened up for foreign investment, so a lot of companies have set up, or are setting up, factories and offices there. This means that there is not a lack of construction there at the moment. Kai Fa Qu has all the infrastructure and amenities of a normal city so, no, it isn't just a pile of dirt. In fact, Jin Zhou, where Kai Fa Qu is located, is housing the stadium for Dalian's professional soccer team.

As far as housing goes, a four bedroom home is not the norm, but also not impossible to find. I looked at some houses/apartments in that area last year and they were quite nice. Many of the complexes had a lot of green space and were rather peaceful; not too many cars on the nearby roads and not too much construction. There are several different types of apartments to choose from. There are the regular apartments which go up several stories, the townhouse style apartments, and some villas.

You can spend about 10,000RMB (about $1,300) per month for a really nice townhouse or apartment. A villa is going to be more and a nice comfortable apartment will be less. Most of the apartments are not furnished and you'd have to spend a bit more money for a furnished one. I am sorry to say though, after talking with some real estate agents, that they expect prices to go up...but, what I quoted you at the top is higher-end.

Because of the high demand for furnished housing for the Japanese expatriates there, there are a few complexes with Japanese speaking staff and fully furnished apartments that run at 4,000RMB per month. These apartments only have one bedroom and one bathroom, but are completely furnished and tailored to the Japanese. If Intel and other companies bring in a lot of expats from the U.S. I can see an apartment complex like this opening up and catering to the English speaking residents.

Some of the apartment complexes have their own recreation areas and kindergartens built into them. This is nice if you have younger children. If you are worried about working out it is really popular right now to have a full service fitness center in the complex also.

Here are few links that have pictures of some apartments (just to give you an idea): http://dlbbs.soufun.com/1618107904~-1~451/327660_327660.htm http://dlbbs.soufun.com/1618107904~-1~451/1252157_1252157.htm http://dlbbs.soufun.com/1618107904~-1~451/329115_329115.htm

I'll add what I can as I find out more.

Plizman,

Thanks for the information. After several days of mulling, my husband and I are about 90% sure that we want to pursue this opportunity. I am pleased to see that such nice housing opportunities are available in Dalian. (For us, it will be an upgrade, in fact.)

It appears that Intel is also going to go a long way to make accommodations near their facility very attractive to Americans, so the options will no doubt increase. For us at this point nearly all the information we can get about that area is from Intel, so it is nice to hear other opinions about the Development Zone.

My latest area of concern is mosquitos. I've read quite a few posts here about the nasty buggers. Are they as bad as advertised?

-Edith

Mosquitos

To give you a frame of reference, I'm from Louisiana. I don't think it's bad here compared to anything south of I-10. There are some mosquitos during the summer but since we're on the coast with year-round breezes, they aren't that bad unless you get a really calm night.

I would rate the pest problem as about 3 on a scale of 10. While we're on the subject of pests, the buildings are normally constructed of cement so there are very few roaches, unless you live in a VERY old building.

The only chronic complaint I have heard in Dalian is water issues. You need to keep a close watch for mold in almost every house. There are no fungicide additives to paint here (that I've seen yet) so it's common to have small problems with this if you don't keep things dry.

Dragonflies eat the mosquitos.

And we eat the dragonflies...