Where are you gonna live?

The reason i'm going to China instead of Japan(where i REALLY wanna go) (**UPDATE** China totally surprised me and I love China now) is because my aunt is posted there as a journalist for a newspaper for 5 years and is living in a pretty sweet townhouse in an expat community in Beijing. **UPDATE** she will only be there through January so I will have to find an apartment or something for the last 5 months of my China adventure** She said I could come live with her and my cousin. At the complex there is an indoor and outdoor pool, and even a skatepark! I think i might start skating again. It's called the "Beijing Riviera" (their website for more amazing pics). After seeing this website and realizing that I have been getting enough steady freelance work to actually do this crazy adventure I said i'm outta here! Now i'm sure that these photos are fluffed up and might not even be real but a guy can dream right? In the fall my aunt was talking of moving to an apartment in the heart of beijing which would be a better cultural experience than living with a bunch of foreigners in a gated community. I wanna get to the down and dirty china! When I'm in Japan and Korea i have no idea where i will live. Anyone want to help me out with some info? **UPDATE** The Beijing Riviera was a nice gated community and was not China at all, which is why it's not so bad that things worked out they way they did because I wouldn't have gotten to experience real china life if I kept living there. After the riviera we moved to a diplomatic compound across from the Beijing Friendship store on JianguomenWai Dajie for about 6 weeks. I lived there solo because my aunt moved back to the US. It was a pretty sweet and excessively large place for 1 person. The tenants were diplomats and other important people and then there was me. After that I got an apartment in the old part of Beijing with my friend Nana. It was a great experience living in an Old part of town.