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Q: Is Vietnam a lot cheaper than China?
In terms of food, lodging, transport, entertainment etc.
12 years 14 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
It depends which city you're thinking of living in, and which city in China you live in now. I used to live in Hanoi, I can help you out with info there 
A lot of the bigger sums are quoted in USD, so that's what I'll use;
My rent, for one bedroom of a massive and very nice expat house, was 220US a month, if you wanted a flat by yourself, it would be half again.
I had an awesome little Honda Wave for 40 dollars a month.
A big beer (bottled) was anywhere between 1-2 dollars, a half pint of bia hoi (literally, fresh beer) by the side of the road was about 10c. Bia hoi wasn't all that nice, but then, it's 10c!
There's plenty of entertainment options, from very cheap to very expensive.
A big bowl of pho was about a dollar, a basic vietnamese restaurant would be maybe two dollars and a nice western style meal would be about 3-4 dollars. A real splurge French meal would be 8-10 dollars. Vietnamese thoroughly understand western food.
Taxi flagfall was slightly less than one dollar, and for the same you could get a motorbike taxi to pretty much everywhere.
Train and bus tickets are dead cheap, to get around the country. A decent guesthouse with hot water would set you back about ten dollars, less in some places.
I worked as a teacher in Vietnam, and do the same here. For me, the savings capacity is roughly similar, I think, maybe Vietnam slightly has the edge. My expenses were higher there, but I got paid more, too.
