If you’ve been in Beijing for some time, then you are probably aware that there are many apartment complexes around the city that lack elevators. While this is undeniably good for your gluteus, it can be a big mafan for those of us with small kids, pets, or strollers and wheeled objects of all shapes and sizes.
Luckily this is all about to change. But, it will come at a price. South China Morning Post reported that starting last year an elevator company in Beijing began installing elevators in older apartment complexes in Daxing, with the first one becoming available for use just last week.
While these lifts attached to the outside of buildings will make life easier for families and Beijing’s elderly population, the companies who are in charge of the construction have enacted a top-up card system that requires you to pay RMB 0.2 for each use.
A family of three would spend about RMB 60 to RMB 100 a month to use the lift, the firm that installed the elevator was quoted as saying. That would end up costing around RMB 1000 every year. The company also plans to use advertising as a means to help cover construction costs.
While many of these buildings aren’t very tall, it will be a welcomed addition to the 2,264 buildings in Daxing built before 2006 which do not have lifts, according to the report. Also, it will make the process of relocating into these building much more manageable. We still have nightmares about carrying boxes and furniture up and down six flights of stairs at our previous abode.
Photo: The Beijinger
