Many international students in China prefer to rent an apartment outside campus, so that they can have a private room. However, for international students who have just arrived in China, to rent an apartment outside campus can be difficult. Here in this article, we will give you 5 useful tips below.

Rent an Apartment outside Campus Tip 1: Get Permission

Almost all of Chinese universities provide accommodation for international students in China, and it is actually very safe to live in campus. If you want to rent an apartment outside campus, you need to get permission from your university, otherwise you may break the school rules and miss the scholarship. Usually, it's not hard to get the permission, it's better to let your teachers know where you live for your own safety.

Rent an Apartment outside Campus Tip 2: Define Your Criteria

How much money would you like to pay for the rent? Do you want to live in an apartment close to your university or not? Do you want to rent an apartment or just a room? Whatever the answer is, to have a brief idea before you start to look for apartments will always lead you to the right direction.

Rent an Apartment outside Campus Tip 3: Ask Chinese Friends for Help

If you can't speak any Chinese, now it's the time to go to your Chinese friends for help, tell them the answers you've got from Tip 2, they will help you rent an apartment outside campus. You can also think about rent a 2 or 3 bedrooms apartment with a Chinese friend, to have a Chinese roommate who can speak English is a bonus, that means you will have someone to look after you.

Rent an Apartment outside Campus Tip 4: Check online

There are some English websites in China you can check, I recommend Beijinger, Smart Shanghai and City Weekend. If you know a little bit Chinese, then you can check 58.com, ganji.com and soufang.com. These are the 3 most popular websites in China for finding apartment. On these websites you can filter location, price range, number of bedrooms, which is good. But the bad part of online searching is the apartment may not be that nice as they said on the websites.

Rent an Apartment outside Campus Tip 5: Find an Agency

If you can't be bothered to spend time on finding an apartment, you can find an agency, that's the fastest way to rent an apartment outside campus. There are some trustworthy agencies in China, such as Homelink etc. But you know, to get help from agency won't be free, agent fees typically run you month’s rent, so get your money ready if you want to choose the lazy way. Try to avoid agency is you want to save money.

Good luck, hope you can find an apartment you like outside campus soon. The CUCAS team is always happy to provide useful information and quality advice for International students in China. Stay tuned for future updates and more handy advice.

Written by Tina Ma, editor of CUCAS team