The fundamental reason why the sofa guest can become a culture is that it meets the needs of lonely individuals in unfamiliar cities to make emotional connections with others.
Knowingly, a female travel blogger wrote a post to share her experience of traveling the world for 600 days by becoming a couch guest, with the intention of telling women how to better protect themselves during travel. However, in the comment area, it is almost all unbearable remarks such as "eyeballs" and "shamelessness".
Some people even think that especially in the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, sofa customers are equivalent to exchanging rent for sex, which is actually an excuse to sell their bodies in the name of wandering.
△ Many people choose sofa passengers as a way of travel. /unsplash
There are also those who oppose that the sofa guest can become a culture and be popular from abroad to the country, the fundamental reason is that it meets the needs of lonely individuals in unfamiliar cities to make emotional connections with others. The so-called "need" refers not only to love, but also to family and friendship.
"I like to pick up people, but I don't give them away"
Walk north along the subway station, through a bungalow, and then walk for seven or eight minutes to the community where the landlord Zhang Xiaohua is located. This neighborhood is relatively old, there is no elevator, her home is on the 5th floor, is a two-bedroom living room.
As soon as she entered the door, Zhang Xiaohua took the disinfectant and let us clean. She was a little shy, smiled and said: "During the epidemic, it is still good to protect, I am the landlord, it is necessary to be responsible for the tenants." ”
According to her, the house was rented, after she had lived with her father. Last year, her father left Beijing on a job transfer, and Zhang Xiaohua has lived alone in the house ever since.
Every season, Zhang Xiaohua will habitually sort out her clothes, shoes and hats, and re-store them. She also decorated the room with flowers and greenery. She thought, just find a girl to live with, so that life may be more interesting. So, she hung the house on the homestay platform, rented out the second bedroom and the sofa seat separately, and in this way, she had a new identity - sofa room east.
△ There are many landlords on the homestay platform who rent their rooms. /unsplash
As a single woman living alone, she believes that when renting out a room, it is necessary to ensure the safety of herself and her tenants and maintain normal living habits. Therefore, for tenants, Zhang Xiaohua has two hard conditions: one is that only girls are allowed to stay; the other is that smoking is not allowed.
Asked if these conditions affect the occupancy rate of guests, she believes that occupancy rate is not the most important, and in the case of co-living, good rules can protect the rights and interests of each guest.
Zhang Xiaohua had previously opened an English pub at the front door, and after the pub closed, she moved the sofas back to her current home. "I thought of renting out a couch, and that's what inspired me," she says. ”
△ Beijing Qianmen Avenue is not short of tourists from all over the world. /unsplash
The Qianmen area is a must-check-in place for people coming to Beijing. Zhang Xiaohua received many guests from all over the world there, listening to their interesting stories and sharing the scenery on the road.
One day, a girl came for the second time, but like the first time, she still ordered only a drink. The girl came to Beijing alone to learn the language exam, and she said to Zhang Xiaohua, "Can I sleep on the sofa on your second floor?" After some conversation, Zhang Xiaohua felt that the girl was well-behaved and sensible, so he left her behind.
△ Although the sofa is small, it can also be perched. /unsplash
This stay is half a month. When Zhang Xiaohua had something to go out, the girl helped her look at the store. Usually the two people cook and chat together, and Zhang Xiaohua feels "like family".
Zhang Xiaohua likes to shop for old things. She herself is also a north drifter, if she buys more furniture, it will be very troublesome to move in the future, so she often looks for some cute objects in idle websites and idle groups. She believes that this is saving, "letting the old things circulate", and at the same time, you can also meet some new friends through the exchange of items.
△ The coffee table in the living room is transformed from an old wooden box. /Courtesy of the author
This sofa was found, and Zhang Xiaohua used it for a long time. Directly opposite the sofa is a coffee table made of old wooden boxes, and on the coffee table is a stainless steel electric fan. "I picked up this wooden box in the alley, I caught it at a glance, and then I observed it for several days to make sure no one wanted it, and I moved back home," she said. And the electric fan is what she bought in the idle group, "very compatible with the style of my home, the probability of using it in the summer is very high, beautiful and practical."
Zhang Xiaohua enjoys food, bartending and making tea. She would always mix some wine and make some tea for the girls, and then be a listener, listening to their stories like a sister.
△ The landlord Zhang Xiaohua is making poplar nectar for the girls. /Courtesy of the author
Zhang Xiaohua added: "It may be a bit of an exaggeration to say, but I really enjoy the feeling. Whenever someone wanted to check in, I would greet them at home or go out to pick them up; but when they left, I didn't want to send them, because getting along day and night would build a relationship, and I would be very reluctant when they left. ”
At this moment, the commercial relationship between the landlord and the tenant is broken and replaced by a "private feeling of the same sex".
Take the two-hour subway in both directions
Probably when she lived together, Zhang Xiaohua treated the tenant as a good friend, so she ushered in the girls' two-way rush. Knowing that she was going to be interviewed, at 3 p.m., Guangdong girl Yao Yu took a 2-hour subway ride back here from Changping. She works in Zhongguancun, Haidian, and just moved to the Huilongguan subway station a few days before the interview.
Yao Yu said that because she is engaged in the financial industry, she needs a lot of time to study, but now it takes 1 hour to commute to work every day, so she plans to sublet the house rented in Huilongguan and change to a closer residence - Huilongguan is too far from Zhongguancun.
△ Countless people commute on the subway every day in Beijing. /unsplash
Yao Yu's hometown is at the junction of Guangzhou and Zhongshan, and from her parents' point of view, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are the best places to settle. But Yao Yu returned from staying in the United States and learned that her girlfriend was in Beijing, and that she liked the weather in Beijing — refreshing, unlike Guangzhou, which was very humid — so she went straight to Beijing for a job.
Finding a house around a place of work is a long process. Beijing's express hotels, the room rate is more than 500 yuan per night, a long time in the hotel, the cost is very high; in addition, she believes that only at home can cook, wash clothes, so the pursuit of the home environment let her come to Zhang Xiaohua here. Yao Yu believes that he does not have the trouble of social fear, and he can give himself a "feeling of having a home in Beijing" here.
There are always people who want to stay in Beijing. /unsplash
After Yao Yu moved away, xiao Rou is currently living in the second bedroom. Xiao Rou's hometown is in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, similar to Yao Yu, Xiao Rou also came to Beijing because of work. She said her job search experience can be described as a series of twists and turns.
Xiao Rou said that she would always live here, looking for a job while living, because it was very comfortable here, and when she found a good job, she would move away. If her next job is closer, she will consider staying here.
"I've had enough of the lamb steamed buns, and I want to try the fried sauce noodles"
In this small two-room hall, there is also a girl from Xi'an, Hao Yue. Unlike Yao Yu and Xiao Rou, who came to Beijing for the purpose of hao yue, hao yue came to Beijing to escape the quarrel with her boyfriend and seek a cooling off period in love.
Hao Yue and her boyfriend met at a friend party, even if there is a 5-year age difference, they still hate each other. In the first year of love, the two people are like glue, inseparable. But last month, my boyfriend suddenly said he needed a month to play games on the grounds that he was too stressed.
This made Hao Yue feel strange, and after the quarrel, she directly booked the day's ticket to Beijing and prepared to drift north for a month. She stayed in the hotel for two nights and found that the room rate was beyond her budget, so she looked for a house on the homestay platform.
△ Compared with hotels, homestays are not only cheaper but also more comfortable. /unsplash
When she saw Zhang Xiaohua's house, only the sofa seat was left. She had never slept on a couch before, worried that the couch was not comfortable enough, but after thinking about the budget, she tried to book three nights.
Zhang Xiaohua replied in seconds and asked Hao Yue whether he liked a fabric pillow or a buckwheat pillow. Hao Yue felt that the landlord's sister was very intimate at that time, which made her reassure her and check in the next day.
On the night of the check-in, it coincided with the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games, so the three girls watched the opening ceremony together in the living room and became familiar with it.
△ Xiao Rou, Zhang Xiaohua and Yao Yu (from left) talked happily on the sofa. /Courtesy of the author
Hao Yue said that in Beijing, most people stay in homestays because the price is right. But after moving in, she believes that the landlord's sister is not only a landlord, but also a living Beijing travel guide.
When he came to Beijing from Xi'an, Hao Yue said to his girlfriend: "Xi'an has eaten too much lamb steamed buns, and I am ready to come to Beijing to taste enemas and fried sauce noodles." But when she arrived in Beijing, she took language classes from Monday to Friday afternoon, so much so that for a long time she hardly went out except to the convenience store downstairs.
After Zhang Xiaohua knew Hao Yue's purpose of coming to Beijing, he dragged her to the front door and NanluoguXiang to hang out. They walked around the hutongs together, explored many interesting small shops, and went to Eat at Zhang Xiaohua's private Sichuan restaurant. Hao Yue, who had not been out for a long time, bought a pair of canvas shoes and a small bear bag, and she exclaimed: "On this day, I walked more than 20,000 steps, more than I did to run in the gym before." ”
△ Hutongs in Beijing. /Figureworm Creative
Hao Yue said: "I know very few people in Beijing, Zhang Xiaohua is not like a landlord, more like a sister. Spending time with her makes me feel easier in this strange city. ”
At the end of the interview, Zhang Xiaohua added: "Like many emerging social software now, sofa guest culture is also a normal product of human development to the current era. Therefore, after someone becomes a couch guest, he should not become a joke at the dinner table. However, before entering the circle of sofa guests, both landlords and tenants should think of possible risks in advance and avoid disposal. This is the first lesson of social education and the ability that an adult should have. ”
As the line in The Hunt says, "There is too much malice in the world, but if we support each other, that malice will naturally go away." ”
Have you ever tried this way of traveling as a couch guest?
Du Qian
This article was first published in New Weekly Issue 594
Original title
"There's a feeling called "I want to sleep on your couch".
Edit | Zhou Zhiruo
Typography | Mu Juanting
The pictures in the text come from the Internet