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 plant 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 house. By "house", I mean the place that houses my home and that I can call my own. I'd like to guess that the houses in China are the most expensive property around the world. Take residential houses in Beijing for example. Even if you buy one of them, it's difficult for you to call it your own, because what you actually buy is the ownership of the house and the "right" to use the piece of land above which the house 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 house built over the piece of the land. For residential purposes, the land above which your house exists is rented (perhaps, jointly with others) 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 your house 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 house you buy 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 house, the money you pay to own your house 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 a house that comes with the ownership of the piece of land above which it exists. And, of course, I'm comparing you and the other house 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.

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Coriander in a flowerpot (2)

More photos to come...

Now let me continue with my newly found seven-year's itch I feel about my work. Last night, it suddenly dawned on me that I'd been working as translator for seven years. As I write this post, I also recall that I kept my last job for three years. I now realize they are the legendary three-year and seven-year itches though they are mostly associated with marriage in my reading. Perhaps, the itches might apply in a much wider area than marriage. As time goes on, people are becoming more and more discontented with themselves and everything and everyone around them. Then, they at least want a break from them.

I quit my last job and that saved me from the first itch that broke out last year.

But now, in the seven-year itch, I find myself getting totally stuck between what I want to do, what I can do and what I should do. I want to be a simultaneous interpreter or do some other kind of work. But, I can now do nothing better than just translating in front of a computer screen. And I don't know what I should do to earn more than enough to cover everything.

My family needs a home. My wife and I will plan our kid in a few years. And with the kid comes the caring and schooling bills. Currently, I'm not covered by social security network and I have good reasons to worry about my pension and have to figure out how I will be able to support myself in my retirement years. My wife still studies medicine and worries about where she can get a good job. My mom and dad are sharing my dad's pension. And my wife's mom and dad are better off: they each have a pension.

Moms and dads say they don't need our support now and instead want to help us buy a home and babysit the little one. But, we want to pay for everything on our own and don't want to use their money they would otherwise use to support themselves.

I hope that I can figure everything out in the shortest possible time.