Finding a new apartment

We have decided it is time to find a new apartment. We have lived in the Changping district of Beijing for the past two years and we love it here. But to accomplish more of the goals we have while in Beijing, we have decided to find an apartment more towards the center of the city in the Haidian district.

For the past couple of days, we have been going from rental agency to rental agency of which there are many in Beijing. Agents try to find suitable apartment for us to look at. Rent prices are much higher than in Changping. Our present apartment is quite nice, and our rent is RMB 1,500 ($200) per month. For an equivalent apartment in the area we are looking in will be around RMB 4,000 and maybe more. So we are diligently looking and praying for a great deal. When we tell agents our expectations (1. very clean; 2. two bedrooms; 3. RMB 2500-3000), some have actually laughed. We will see...