Harbin to build apartments for single teachers

"I finally felt a sense of belonging after I moved to the apartment," said Han Lingling, a young teacher from Harbin's Songbei Experimental Primary School. She said she felt very happy to be living in such a clean and well-equipped flat.

To improve teachers’ living conditions and attract more teachers with professional skills to work in Songbei district, Harbin launched a program to invest more than 5.8 million yuan ($840,000) in developing a special apartment building for single teachers working in the district.

The building, the No. 2 building of the Runhecheng community, has 46 apartments and 184 rooms. On the first floor, restaurants, stores and laundries provide daily convenience.

The standard monthly rent is 150 yuan per person and the rents are all used to pay fees for heating, property management and elevator maintenance.

For young teachers such as Han Lingling, living in an apartment can not only solve their living difficulties, but also increase their enthusiasm for their jobs.

Han Lingling has been living in a one-room house together with one of her colleagues since she graduated from Northeast Normal University in 2013.

"In recent years, some private schools asked me to work for them, promising to provide better pay and living conditions," she said. "I couldn't make up my mind whether to continue working here until I moved into this apartment."

Wang Tianqi, a teacher at Songbei No. 1 Kindergarten, had a similar experience.

"I only get 2,000 yuan a month, and I felt a little uptight about paying house rent, so I lived with one of my relatives," she said. "I felt so excited because I finally have my own room."