Jinan, goodbye

So far, the three cities that are mainly related to me are Yantai as my hometown, Beijing as the place where I have been working since graduation, and Jinan as the place where I bought a house.

After so many years abroad, many people asked me where my hometown is, and they said it was Yantai. Everyone would praise Yantai as a good place. A colleague who had traveled to Yantai told me about some of the scenic spots in Yantai, but I couldn't answer the conversation. Colleagues who plan to travel to Yantai want to seek my advice, but I can't give any advice. Although I am from Yantai, I come from a village in a county below Yantai. Since I was a child, I can count the number of times I have been to Yantai City on one hand. Because I didn’t have any relatives to stay at in Yantai before, so every time I went there it was just a short stay. But to be honest, I am really not familiar with Yantai City. Although I have heard of the famous scenic spots in Yantai, Changdao, Penglai Pavilion, and Yangma Island, I have never been there.

1. Buying a house in Jinan

My relationship with Jinan was due to my first time buying a house. When I just graduated, my family decided to buy me a house for the sake of my future marriage. I chose Jinan at that time. Speaking of this decision at that time, I was deeply impressed because it was unanimously opposed by my relatives and classmates. My cousin from my hometown specifically called me to dissuade me. My classmates in my hometown also criticized me in various ways, using words such as "idiot" and "uninformed" to describe me. For a long time, Yantai has been the second largest economy in Shandong Province, surpassing Jinan. It was only surpassed by Jinan in the past two years. Therefore, many Yantai people look down upon Jinan. Strange to say, I didn’t know what medicine I took at that time, but I was determined to buy a house in Jinan. I completely ignored these voices. I really didn’t have any worries about my decision at that time.

Before I decided to buy a house, I had never been to Jinan. It’s just that I have another cousin who works in Jinan. When I went back to my hometown on May 1st, I told him about this matter. He said that when he returned to Jinan, he would drive me to Jinan to have a look. At that time, he had just bought his second home. When he went to Jinan, the first thing he saw was the property where he was buying a house. The surrounding area was surrounded by construction sites. He listened to the real estate consultant describing to me the wonderful future development of the surrounding area on the sand table. In fact, I was completely confused at the time and had no way of judging how realistic the real estate consultant’s words would be in the future.

Speaking of the entire process of buying a house, the number of times I went to Jinan was only 3-4 times, and each time it was only on weekends. I only looked at two new properties, and one of them was not considered because the price was relatively high and exceeded the budget. Now that I think about it, the process of buying a house was really fast. I don’t know why I quickly made up my mind to buy the house, sign the contract, and apply for a loan. Now I am a little vague about the specific process. I just follow the instructions of the real estate consultant. You can do whatever you want in one step. Thinking about it now, I can only say that I didn’t understand anything at that time, I was simple-minded and didn’t think much.

Now looking at the surrounding area of ??the community, what the real estate consultant described to me at that time has basically been realized. The most important thing is that after the industrial park next to it was established, many companies settled in, which promoted the development of the surrounding area. Other communities around the area have now handed over their apartments and become more popular. Commercial facilities have also been improved. There is also a large Ginza supermarket to meet the shopping needs of surrounding residents, and there are buses for transportation. At that time, my cousin told me that it would take 10 years to develop the surrounding area. Now it seems that it has developed very well in 7 years.

2. Return to Jinan to work

At the beginning of 2016, I really wanted to go back to Shandong. I was tired of life in Beijing and hoped to be more stable after returning to Shandong. My girlfriend and I had big differences about returning to Shandong, so I thought I would go back first and then let her go back after settling in. She is still working in Beijing. If I can't stay in Jinan, I will go back to Beijing so that I can have a good job after returning to Beijing. In fact, it can be regarded as leaving a way out for myself in Beijing.

Fortunately, I was lucky and God helped me. I successfully found a product manufacturing job in a state-owned enterprise in Jinan. When I mentioned my workplace, I became the envy of people around me. After all, unlike cities like Beijing and Shanghai, Jinan is filled with many large companies and well-known companies. There are only a few nationally renowned companies in the entire city, so if you can work for just a few companies, you will enjoy enough If you pay a certain amount of social security and provident fund, and have legal holidays prescribed by the state, you can easily become the envy of people around you. It is synonymous with "stability" and "regularity".

Although my house in Jinan was handed over in 2014, it has always been in a rough state with no decoration and no habitation. In addition, my workplace was quite far from my house. There was no subway in Jinan at that time and the traffic was very congested, so during that time I rented a house near my workplace and walked to and from get off work every day.

The reality is not as good as expected. Living in a different place with my girlfriend makes me very painful. Furthermore, I couldn't stand the atmosphere in the unit. The leader was really a leader, so after working for more than a month, I decided to resign after some consideration.

After resigning, I did not return to Beijing immediately. It felt like a waste to keep the house vacant in Jinan, so I took advantage of this gap to find someone to simply renovate the vacant house and rent it out.

In my previous perception, the location of my house was relatively remote in Jinan. I always thought it would not be easy to rent. However, I didn’t expect that there would be many people viewing the house after it was listed, and it was quickly rented out. Most of the interested tenants are young people working in the surrounding industrial parks. Chatting with some people who came to view the property also changed my view. I originally thought it was not a good location. But in the eyes of many young people in Jinan, it is already a very good place.

The time I went back to work was the longest I had stayed in Jinan, more than two months. But during this time, I was also quite depressed. I was busy with projects and sometimes had to work overtime on weekends. Life is basically between work and home. My understanding of the city of Jinan has not increased much.

3. Return to Jinan intermittently

From the beginning of looking at houses to now, Jinan is the city I have visited most times except Beijing. But every time I go there, I have to do errands, such as viewing houses, settling in, completing house transaction procedures, etc. I come and go in a hurry, and many times I go back and forth on the same day. In total, I have dealt with many government affairs departments in Jinan, such as the police station, real estate trading center, immigration bureau, civil affairs bureau, etc. These departments have given me a very good impression, which is why I always advise everyone to say that if When returning to your hometown, it is best to go to a provincial capital city. Good government services are a big advantage. Of course, my conclusion is partial and complete.

Among my college classmates, the city where most of them worked after graduation was Jinan. In the first few years, our classmates also agreed to get together in Jinan once a year. But later on, because everyone was busy with work, got married and had children, and had many things to do, and some classmates often traveled on business, it was difficult to get everyone together again, so we didn't get together for many years.

In fact, every time I go back to Jinan, I miss it a little, and even look forward to it. Firstly, returning to Shandong makes me feel very friendly. Secondly, the most important thing is that I am a foodie and I look forward to eating some Shandong delicacies when I return to Shandong. Speaking of Shandong cuisine, I don’t know if Jinan is the most representative city in Shandong. There are many delicacies such as pork belly, mutton soup, fried chicken, etc. that are not from Jinan, but they are also very common here. It’s also very strange. The same things can be found everywhere, but the methods are slightly different in each place. Take braised food as an example. I have never been used to Beijing’s sauced beef and pork knuckles, but I still think the ones from Shandong are the most delicious. So every time I go back to Jinan, I will buy some cooked food back to Beijing. But in the past two years, I have become tired of eating some things, and some things can be purchased online, so now that I return to Jinan, I basically don’t buy anything anymore. It’s just that I’m quite satisfied to have a meal of Shandong cuisine every time I go there.

4. Selling the house

When the rent of my house in Jinan expired in 2019, I didn’t want to renew the lease and wanted to sell the house. Then I found three agents and listed the houses separately. I used to chat with my classmates and said that this house is the link between me and Jinan. If this house is sold, it will be equivalent to the break of this link. Although I have never lived in this house, every time I go back to Jinan, it makes me feel very familiar. Deep down, I feel that I have a home in Jinan, and it is a large three-bedroom apartment with an area of ??more than 100 square meters.

When I was selling the house, the agent asked me if I bought the house for investment purposes. Although I have explained it many times, they still look dubious. I'm not from Jinan, I haven't gone to school here, I haven't worked here for a long time, and I don't seem to have anything to do with this city. It is said that it is self-occupied, but the house has never been properly renovated over the years. It does not look like it is intended to be lived in by oneself. It does sound easy for people to suspect that it is a house for investment, but it is not really the case.

When selling a house, I feel a lot of reluctance deep down in my heart. Even though I have never lived there, I have been there many times intermittently in the past few years, and I am familiar with the community and surrounding environment. And this has a deeper meaning to me. This is not only selling a house, but more importantly, giving up the future life in Jinan that I have been planning.

Since buying a house, I have begun to pay attention to the development of Jinan. I have gone to some forums to check the changes in urban construction in Jinan, and joined some WeChat groups to discuss the development of Jinan. This is also human nature. Everyone hopes that their city will get better and better. The development of the city will indirectly drive the appreciation of their fixed assets and improve their quality of life. The speed of Jinan's development in recent years has also verified that my judgment at the time was correct. In particular, the construction in the east has changed everyone's impression of Jinan's "earth".

Perhaps because of the deep love and hatred, what surprises me is that most people in Jinan have a very low opinion of Jinan. Every time I take a taxi in Jinan, I often chat with the taxi driver. My eldest brother always talks about Jinan with disdain and likes to describe it as a "big county". But in recent years, we have also found that everyone's attitude has changed. Although they still despise it, their attitude changed after they despised it, and they admitted that Jinan has developed rapidly in recent years.

After completing the house transfer procedures and selling the house, there is one less reason to come to Jinan in the future. Even if I won’t come to Jinan for business in the future, there will still be opportunities to pass by me many times every year.

Jinan, I have to say goodbye for now!