In Beijing, we live on a compound. The compound is attached to where I work, and all my fellow compound-livers work there too.
Before we arrived in China, I worried that living where I work, with people I work with, might be a bit suffocating, a bit too close for comfort. And I worried that compound living would feel like living in a bubble, and prevent me from really experiencing living in China.
While these issues do pop up now and again, the cons of compound living are far outweighed by a huge, surprising benefit.
Living on a compound, I often feel like I live in 1953: I know all of my neighbours, by name. We greet each other from our front porches. We stop in the road to chat. The kids play together in the street- the few cars that come by know to watch out for little ones- or at each others’ houses. Pretty much just how I imagine life in 1953, minus the cute dresses!
Seriously though, what I love best about my life in Beijing is this sense of community. I feel a connection to the people I live with, and know I can turn to them for help when I need it (and, as a temporary single-mom, I often do). Charlotte is safe here, everyone knows her and watches out for her. In turn, I care about my neighbours and my community, and do my best to help others and to improve our little neighbourhood.
Honestly, without my community, I’m not sure I would’ve survived these past seven months on my own.
While I look forward to returning to the comforts of Canada next year, I also worry about returning to a life without a sense of community. In our modern, western world, we live such isolated, independent lives. Which is unfortunate, because the further we isolate ourselves, the harder we make life for ourselves. No man is an island, and it’s too bad that we sometimes live as though we are.
I hope that we eventually reach the point when we realize that our neighbours are people too, sometimes pretty cool ones at that. I hope that we get over our fears and insecurities and hang-ups, and let the neighbours in, both literally and figuratively. And I hope that we eventually move back towards living in communities, like people did back in 1953- or, at least, how they did in my imagination 
I was dreading moving into our condo complex and we have found the same thing. Every day after work, the kids play and ride their bikes while the parents chat. I have at least 5 families to turn to in a pinch. Its been a blessing
Isn’t it great? I’m sure once #2 arrives, you’ll find it even more helpful
Having folks you can trust that are close is critical when you live away from family and old friends. We had to move six hours from the closest relative for my husband’s job and in this rural area, community is hard to come by. I’ve found my best friends through library storytime and the mommy support group. It’s great you’ve your neighbors!
Back in Canada, I barely new my neighbours, but like you luckily found some amazing moms who became my community. Glad you at least have access to mommy resources!
Wow, that sounds like such a neat experience–embrace it and enjoy!
I’m jealous! I like most of my neighbors and do know most of their names, but we don’t really hang out together. It’s sad because there’s a little girl that’s just one year older than my son and it would be awesome if they could play together but somehow that hasn’t happened yet. I think people do tend to be a bit closed off when it comes to neighbors and privacy which is unfortunate.
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I hear you on the sense of community bit… In Kuwait, our entire school staff lived together in two {fenced in} apartment buildings. I had the same fears about living and working with the same people, but it turned out to be such a blessing. There was always someone knocking on your door checking in on you, someone there to lend you an egg when you were short, or someone to visit with on a Friday evening. When we moved back to Canada last year, not having that community was the hardest thing to get used to. While we know our neighbours well enough to say hello or drop off some goodies from our garden to, it’s just not the same. Now, almost a year later, I feel like we’re getting into our groove. Not that we’ve found that same sort of community here, because we haven’t – but because we’re finally getting used to not having it.