Extreme Small Space Living in Beijing: Long-Term Apartment Pods

Many of you might have thought that I lived in a sterile, super tiny apartment (around 450 square feet in total), but it does NOT compare to this.

Each small apartment, at 2.4 meters long, 0.90 meters wide and 2 meters high, has space only for a single bed and a dressing table, with TV set and Internet connections.

This blogger (Zhang Qi) does it so that she can save money to send back to her family.

She used to rent an apartment with a roommate for 800 yuan a month, and now she rents that pod for 250 yuan a month, saving an extra 550 yuan to send back to her mom & siblings.

Extremely admirable, and very… very.. minimalist.

I can see why she does it and she has made the choice to do it. She wasn’t forced into it, and she feels like it’s a good compromise to be able to save 550 yuan (!!) or 68.75% as a result.

In principle, we’ve done the same thing — moved from a 1 bedroom apartment to a studio.

As for a bathroom, they have a public toilet outside, and I think she eats out — perhaps the street food there is healthy & cheap?

As for the developer:

Huang’s entrepreneurial move was inspired by Ant Tribe, a well-publicized book about new graduates who make little money and are forced to live together like ants in small apartments in villages in Beijing.

Huang hoped to provide better accommodation for such “ant tribes”. He spent about 30,000 yuan to build eight capsule apartments in the three rooms, completed in March, for which he pays about 2,000 yuan rent every month and charges 250 yuan and 350 yuan per month for a 90-meter or 120-meter space.

“I was deeply disturbed by college graduates who are forced to live in slums far away, and have to take hours to go to their workplaces,” Huang told Asia Times Online.

The compartments are similar, though more basic, to sleeping capsules available in Tokyo, but there they tend to be rented by the night by salaryworkers (salarimen) unable to get home on any particular evening. Huang’s creations are for more long-term residents.

It’s been fully rented.

Read the entire Asia Times Article here.

And that space would be enough for my clothes & shoes.

About the Author

Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver. I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year. Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about my story here, or visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist.