Coriander in a flowerpot

More photos to come…

By titling this post “coriander in a flowerpot” and uploading the above photos, I don’t mean that I will only write about the spicy herb I like very much as garnish and vegetables eaten raw. Lots of thoughts are crowding on me now. And I don’t know where I can begin to write about them.

First, the home. By “home”, I mean the place that houses my home and that I can call my own. I’d like to guess that the housing in China is the most expensive property around the world. Take residential housing in Beijing for example. Even if you buy an apartment, it’s difficult for you to call it your own, because what you actually buy is the ownership of the apartment and the “right” to use the piece of land on which the block of apartments is located. This means that you do not buy the ownership of the land below your new acquisition.

Chinese laws say that land is owned by the State and you pay rent to have your apartment built over the piece of the land. For residential purposes, the land on which the block of apartments exists is rented to you in a 70-year lease agreement. And it will be the job of the State to decide whether or not you can have your lease renewed. When this lease expires and you fail to have the lease renewed, the State has the right to take the piece of land away, for free.

This is only a small part of the story. Considering the short history of the People’s Republic (1949- ), no one have actually seen houses build after the founding of this State standing in a place for 70 years. As it is, most of them are dismantled to make space for new property projects before they live to be that old. So, these questions crop up in my mind. What if the block of apartments  is torn down, say, in 40 years from now? Will you be compensated for the rent you’ve paid to use the piece of land in the 70-year lease agreement? If yes, how much? I didn’t check the newly passed Property Law at the recently concluded National People’s Congress and don’t know if the law provides answers to my questions.

Again, the above is only a small part of the whole story. In Beijing, even if you don’t buy the land that comes with your apartment, the money you pay to own your apartment is not any less than the amount another guy, who works and earns in a comparable foreign city where land can be privately owned, would pay for an apartment that comes with the ownership of the piece of land on which the block exists. And, of course, I’m comparing you and the other home buyer in the foreign city in terms of income/property price ratios.

Second, … …

I will pick up where I leave off when I feel like it. Please wait, if I may say so.