it's a long and miserable story, just hear me out...

Incident 2: The floods
Just within few days of moving in, I came out of the shower to a floor that was completely submerged in the water. After this problem was semi-fixed (now the water still leaks somewhere from the floor, but not that bad so we just wipe the floor after each shower), we still heard some dripping noises. The maintenance guys came and poked the access panel on the ceiling with a stick, all of a sudden, a gush of filthy water splashed through the access panel, which was already rotten on the other side. Then, they went up to fix the pipes, at the same time, discovered tons of trash on top of the ceiling. Just to be safe and to be done with these maintenance works once and for all, we asked them to check the water joints in the bathtub and in the kitchen, to our dismay and seemingly of no surprise to them, lots of trash were hidden behind these access panels. Again, we blamed these on the wealth gap issue in China, and realized that quality control is so bad in China that even expensive buildings like the Beijing Millennium Residences can not guarantee the normal functioning of the simplest things! Anyway, at the time, I was quite happy to discover these things early on during our stay, and thought that it must be normal to encounter these inconveniences when one moves in to a newly-constructed building. What I didn’t know is that these inconveniences would keep happening and get to a point that I feel unsafe in my own apartment…

Incident 4: The Smells, Smells, and Smells!

I am sure that most people here are familiar with the unidentifiable and unpleasant smell that sometimes appears in the bathroom out of nowhere. Well, there is no escaping that at the Beijing Millennium Residences either. Though surprised that such smell also happens in this kind of building, we are quite satisfied that it happens less frequently than our previous non-serviced apartment.

However, there are other kinds of smells instead. First, for a period of a few weeks, our apartment had been enveloped several times in a pungent odor of paint because they were painting the parking lot. I know we opted a lower floor apartment for a cheaper rent, but hey, it’s still some distance away from the underground parking! What incredible paint with a super smell that can shoot through 6 floors! We didn’t even bother to complain. We just took it as the downside of moving into a newly-constructed building.

What really got on our nerves was that since we started using the central heating system, we began noticing occasional cooking and smoking smells (not our own) in our apartment, one time the smoking odor was so strong that it woke us up from our sleep. Ok, here, I gotta admit that my boyfriend and I are both smokers, but we are probably the weird kind of smokers who like to keep the air in our apartment as fresh as possible. So, we have 2 air purifiers at home, running non-stop except when we are sleeping. And, whenever we smoke, we put on our coats and blankets, and open the windows even in the coldest winter. After we smoke, we leave the windows open at least for another 20 minutes (usually one hour) to air out the apartment.

After putting up with all the other crap here, we really lost our temper this time. Then, it was just amazing to us that the central heating system in this building is set up in a way that smells travel between different apartments. The management insisted that the central heating and the ventilation systems for each apartment are independent from the others, and suggested that we negotiate with our neighbors about the smoking smell issues! What a brilliant idea! Making one smoker go ask another smoker not to smoke in his own apartment! We decided not to use the central heating system and asked them for electronic heaters to use instead.

However, with more people moving in, the smell issue has continued to worsen despite the fact that we've not turned on the central heating ever since. Maybe it’s not the central heating nor the ventilation systems, but somehow, the smells of cooking or smoking just travel between different apartments. We never complained about it anymore, because we know nothing can be done. Just as I’m writing this now, I can smell the sweet and sour fish someone is making somewhere in this building…

I know, we've noticed that too. The standard of high-end anything in China is just way too low. It seems that to get the best value, one has to go mainstream.

By the way, any pointers as to where to look for our next apartment?

At least a "controllable" ceiling lamp...

But, I had to admit, maybe our expectation of a 5-star hotel in China was too high...

When I think of a 5-star hotel, I think of l'Hotel Ritz in Paris, or the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. But, what was I thinking!!!

hahaha, funnily, your comments gave me a good laugh! THANKS!

Incident 5: Blanket Shrinking Magic

Very soon after the smoking smell incident, one day, after running around Beijing all day long, at bed time, I discovered that my large blanket had been changed to a small one. It was already midnight, I didn’t want to bother the housekeeping at first and tried to put up with it. But the blanket was so small that when I turned sideways, it couldn’t cover my back; this was during one of the coldest days in late November last year and it was just too cold. After 30 minutes of struggling, I asked my boy-friend to call them for a bigger blanket. At the next housekeeping service, I asked the cleaning lady if they had to change our blanket for whatever reason, please replace with one of the same size.

I wasn’t being accusative because I thought they probably changed the blanket for washing purposes and this was a new cleaning lady who probably just didn’t know or pay attention to the differences. But, she replied to me saying that she didn’t even change the blanket! I got annoyed and asked if she was implying that I was lying. I’ve been using a large blanket for 8 months now, I know when the blanket is of a different size. She said, she wasn’t implying that, but at the same time, she wasn’t lying either, she really didn’t change my blanket. So, I asked her if she meant that someone else came into our apartment and change the blanket after she cleaned. She said, she didn’t know.

At the time, I felt that it was really unlikely for someone else to have done this after her cleaning (I mean, what for?!), and felt that this new cleaning lady can not even assume the simplest responsibility. So, I explained to the housekeeping department that we’ve already developed a pretty trusting relationship with our previous cleaning lady and asked if it was possible that we continue to have the same lady to clean our apartment. A BIG NO. The new cleaning lady came back and told me that they’d figured out what went wrong. Somehow, she turned the big blanket the wrong way and, voila, fitted it into a small blanket cover…… Yeah, whatever. And most importantly, what can we do except to put up with everything they decide to give us?

Incident 6: Ever Popping Light Bulbs & “Uncontrollable” ceiling lamp

I guess we were on our lucky streak during that period. Just one day after the blanket incident, my boy-friend turned on the ceiling lamp in the living room just to see a light bulb shooting through the lamp, the broken lamp glasses, along with the light bulb, flew around everywhere.

We’ve always known that their light bulbs are really unstable, and I think if they apply for the Guinness World Record of “the hotel with the most popped light bulbs in a year”, they might just make it. Sometimes, the light bulb dies instantaneously after being installed onto the lamp. If we ask the maintenance guy to replace the light bulbs whenever they pop, the maintenance guy would have to come not everyday, but several times a day. Knowing this, we still didn’t expect that the light bulb could actually explode and detach itself from its base and have the force to shoot through and break a glass lamp!

We were shocked by this incident, and what pissed us off even more is that the management said it was an “uncontrollable and unpreventable natural phenomenon of heat expansion and contraction”! So, what were we supposed to do? Taking our chances? The ceiling lamps just right on top of the guest and master beds are exactly the same kind!

I really don’t get what’s preventing them from taking the responsibility in their quality control by saying that they’ve noticed the previous light bulbs installed have some defects and that they will do a thorough check up on the lamps and install more stable light bulbs. Even if it’s a lie, I would have accepted it and would have felt much better.

So, we decided that we didn’t want to stay here any longer and felt entitled to an early termination of our lease with an immediate full refund of our 2 months deposit upon departure. Noooo… The contract says a one-month notice prior to departure!!! Tada ~~

Fine, we needed time to find apartments anyway. So, I sent the GM an email and cc the maintenance head to make an official request for an early termination of our lease, and asked them to give us a written confirmation of the earliest date that we can move out without being penalized. (Hahaha, I’m just realizing how ironic it is as I write, us, penalized!!!) LONG SILENCE from them!!! We never got any replies from them concerning this matter.

It’s like, I do a trade with them by giving them 18000 RMB, and they say, ok, we’ll give X RMB worth of services and products back to you in return. Somewhere along this trade, I realize that X equals way less than 18000, but instead of saying “this is how the trade is going to be, take it or leave it!”, their attitude is “this is how the trade is going to be, DEAL WITH IT!” I don’t mind that the trade has been unfair to my disadvantage the whole time, but it is tough to not have the “take it or leave it” option, and have to deal with the fact that I have no choice but to stay in this unfair trade longer than I legally have to, or else I run the risk of having my deposits forfeited.