Old-Style Decor

As you may recall, when I first moved to the Middle Kingdom, I lived in a really bad apartment, as did most local people at the time. Mold grew inside, it was covered in coal dust, and I got sick all the time. I am happy these days to live in a clean apartment, like a lot local people now also get to do. Here's a mini-tour of part of my apartment.

I've always loved old-style Chinese furniture, but in the USA it is really expensive. When I was buying furniture in 2004, I found the selection of all styles of furniture really expensive at furniture stores, so I went down to a factory in a coastal city and ordered several pieces of old-looking Chinese furniture that were made for me for cheap. It was really cheap. And in 2004, the exchange rate was more in my favor (it's horrible now). 


The top piece is what you see when you first walk in my door. The kitchen is behind it to the left, and to the left side is a very small dining area. Turn right to go to the living room. You can probably see the hallway behind it on the right.


The second piece of furniture holds my dishes (on top) and pantry items (on bottom). The kitchen has very little storage space, so it was necessary to find some other place to store them.

This piece holds shoes near the front door. This picture is not perfectly clear, but the wood alternates between light and dark stain. 


Do you see the mark on the wall on the left? That's where Mimi dug into the concrete wall. I need to fix that some time. 

My TV used to sit on this, but now it stores DVD's, old VHS tapes, and such as that.

This is the main part of the living room, with the main balcony to the far right (where the sun is streaming in). I guess I could have straightened the lamp shade before I took the picture! The upright machine in the corner is the main air-conditioner for the apartment. Each bedroom has a small wall-mounted version. 


I like the brightness of my place. 


I am very thankful to be able to live here. And I hope that someday I'll be able to transport all these pieces of furniture to the USA, but I'm not sure I'll be able to.


By the way, my local friends and neighbors think Chinese furniture is too old-fashioned. They want the modern stuff and find it amusing that I like stuff that is no longer in style here.