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Is this Beijing's tiniest home?
A Beijing resident breaks up with her boyfriend and becomes the first tenant in the city's 'capsule apartment' complex
The view from inside a Tokyo capsule hotel. 78-year-old Huang Rixin was inspired to create his itty bitty Beijing dwellings after reading about Japan’s capsule hotels in a newspaper last year. This story about a married couple Zaarath and Christopher Prokop sharing a 16 square meter apartment in New York City caught our attention a few months back.
Now, China’s Legal Evening News (法制晚报) reports that 25-year-old Zhang Qi (张琪) has upped the ante on the Prokops, moving into an apartment 27 times smaller than theirs in Beijing’s Haidian District.
The two square meter capsule apartment, one of eight designed by retired engineer Huang Rixin (黄日新), is cozy, to say the least.
While some netizens are calling it insane, Shanxi-born Zhang is confident in her thrifty lifestyle choice, and says she plans to live in the capsule for at least one year, or maybe until she gets married. Zhang pays just RMB 200-250 per month for her pod, while renting out her own home in Shunjing for RMB 1,200 per month.
Zhang, who works for an advertising agency, has been busily decorating her new digs with wallpaper and artwork. Once it’s all spruced up, she plans to invite friends over. No word though on where they'll sit.
