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Why this guy is in love with his RV

By Wu Wencong (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-26 07:59

As a recreational vehicl enthusiast, businessman Wang Hongxing, 53, gave up his 100-square-meter apartment and has lived in his RV for five years. Photos by Zou Hong / China Daily

Life on the road, or even on a makeshift campsite next toyour house, is free and easy, Wu Wencong discovers.

There is nothing new about someone traveling in a recreational vehicle (RV) or even living in one if they cannot afford a proper home. But if someone parks his RV beside his 100-square-meter apartment and lives in it for five years, you might well call him weird.

Wang Hongxing, 53, is the guy who has blurred the lines between using an RV as a mode of travel and a place to live.

"I loved it at first sight," said the Beijinger, who looks at least 10 years younger than his age. "And I wouldn't trade my current life no matter how fancy the house is."

Wang runs an RV club called Vagabonds. His neighbors probably see him as successful and rich, with more than a dozen RVs and several housing properties to his name. But Wang has seldom slept at his home since he bought his first RV in 2006.

"I like eating, drinking and playing in an RV," he said. "It gives me this free and easy feeling, and keeps me close to nature."

Most of Wang's RVs have been let to production crews for films and TV series. The other six were parked outside the residential quarter where his mother, wife and son live, with parking fees the same as for a normal private car.

The RV Wang lives in is not very large, with the bed on top of the cab instead of in a separate bedroom, two double sofas and a removable table.

Wang said the RV can take three or four tanks of water with each load, which will last three days for a family of three. He has installed a pipeline that goes from the basement of his apartment to the RV, which saves him the trouble of loading the water.

Wang said he is obsessed with the feeling of climbing up on the bed, and setting up and dismantling the table every day.

"I think it's great fun," Wang told METRO. "A RV is more than simply a mode of travel to me; it is a way of life.

"You would say someone is rich if he drives a Mercedes-Benz instead of an RV. And RV owners don't have to be the rich ones, either. I'd say we just know more about what is real happiness in life, something more than just buying luxuries."

When he was young, Wang used to shoot documentaries and do all kinds of business. The only thing he did not do was work in an ordinary nine-to-five job.

Apart from his pursuit of unconventionality, support from his family has also helped him stick to his lifestyle.

Wang and his wife have a 27-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son. Although they are not as fanatical about RVs as he is, they all understand his hobby.

"We'd drive out on weekends with a bunch of friends, usually about 20 RVs as a group," said Fang Lianxia, Wang's wife.

"And I think it's nothing strange for him to live in it even when we are at home. We even join him sometimes, especially our son."

Among his friends, Wang is not the only one who uses his RV as a permanent home. Wang Xudong, chief information officer with the Beijing-based RV website 21rv.com, also does the same. It is just that in his situation there isn't much of a choice.

Being unable to afford a proper apartment in Beijing, Wang Xudong has chosen to live in an RV, which is worth more than 100,000 yuan ($15,400), on his employer's campsite for the past two years.

"With the support from a professional campsite, life on an RV isn't much different from living in an apartment," Wang Xudong said. "You have the Internet, TV, an air-conditioner and tap water."

He suggested people who have some money, but not enough to buy a proper home in Beijing, should buy RVs and park them on the campsite in Fangshan district.

"It costs 100 yuan a day, but only a little more than 10,000 yuan for a whole year," he said.

But Wang Xudong admitted that he will eventually buy an apartment and move in once he has the money.

The two friends believe living in an RV as a house without the support of a campsite or an apartment that you have already bought would be very difficult.

"You may find a parking space in a friend's residential quarter, but the neighbors will eventually want you to leave," said Wang Hongxing.

"And if you rent a parking space for your RV in a public parking lot, which is illegal in the US but allowed in China, it will only be a matter of time before the police come to check on you; not to mention the inconvenience caused by loading water."

Deals worth about 120 million yuan were signed during the three days of the RV show held in Fangshan district in late March. The figure was not even one-tenth of that from the last RV show in August 2010. But Wang Hongxing said the RV industry in China is still in its early years, compared with those in Europe and the United States.

(China Daily 05/26/2011)