By Fiona Lee (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-27 12:01

　　
　　Benny Oyama (left), Emma Song (middle) and Peter Walters managed to find an apartment in Beijing in just one week.

Could you find a Beijing apartment in just one week? It's easy if you know how. Emma Song, a Chinese secretary from Datong, Benny Oyama, a Japanese-American musician from New York, and Peter Walters, an American marketing executive from Utah - are close friends who had a week to find an apartment.

At the end of November 2007, Oyama was about to be evicted and Song didn't want to pay another month's rent for the room she was living in near Sanlitun.

Although they had discussed their separate apartment searches with each other for a few weeks, they only made the decision to become roommates two weeks before Oyama's lease expired.

Each had different reasons for moving. Song was looking for a new living experience.

"I've always lived with women and women have their own rules," she explains.

Her previous roommates had strict rules on everything from turning off the light after leaving a room to forbidding friends and relatives from staying overnight.

She was also spending 500 yuan ($70) a month on taxis to reach the Dongsishitao subway station so she could commute to her job at an investment bank on Financial Street, in Xicheng district.

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