Good home is hard to find

I've been in Beijing for a year and I've edited lots of stories about the crazy housing market.

In recent weeks, I've gone from reading about it to experiencing it - and I've got to tell you, what I found out there isn't pretty. In fact, it's as ugly as a bullfrog that's shunned by the other bullfrogs for having too many warts.

As far as I can tell - and I admit I'm no housing market expert - there are almost 20 million people in our city. There's 16,800 sq km of land. Thousands of high-rises and apartment buildings. Millions of households. But there are only 12 vacant apartments in my price range in the whole metropolis.