In my opinion China is cheaper because there's nothing to do or spend my money on.  Nothing of interest.  A bottle of water for 1 RMB I would assume is cheaper than Spain.  And getting a shitty bowl of noodles for 8 - 10 RMB must be cheaper than Spain.  Eating a quality restaurant is a good idea if you with a large group of people and expect each person to pay about 50 RMB which is nearly in line with what I would pay in a 'sit down' restaurant in America.  But yeah Western food is surely more expensive, fruit is expensive but still cheaper than home.  If you are Spanish, I'd expect you to be good at cooking, so brush up on your chef skills and eat safe at home.

"  If you want to eat chinese shit every day, " 

That quote just proves this isn't an honest question but flamebait.

Good day, sir.

It used to be much cheaper but is becoming less and less so. There are a number of contributory factors at work. Firstly, the currency exchange rate has made living in China look more expensive recently. Some nine or ten years ago when the yuan was still pegged to the US Dollar, things seemed so cheap because of the quantity you could buy compared to the equivalent amount of currency in your home countries. Inflation has also been rampant over the past few years. The other contributory factor is taxation on luxury goods. The equivalent goods are much cheaper in other countries (even HKSAR). The interesting positive that comes out of this is exploitative employers can no longer use the "China is cheap" excuse for paying unsatisfactory salaries.

I think short term, China is cheaper than my native country, France.
If you eat *healthy*, as in you buy raw products and cook everyday; life is much cheaper.
I don't smoke and I don't drink either but the rules are quite simple. If you buy anything made or grown in China, the prices are cheaper than in the west. If you buy imported products, prices will always be more expensive than local products even though there are plenty of ways to get stuff cheaper; keeping in mind that there's always a chance to get scammed and buy fakes (so check carefully what you buy).

Saying that there's nothing to do or of interest to buy in China makes me wonder why some people choose to come here in the first place. If you don't like the local food, there's always the choice to go back to your home country or import some stuff that you can't find here. Another option would be to learn to cook Chinese food properly, given you cook at all.

If you take into account taxes and pensions, I'm not sure China is cheaper on the long run.

One thing is for sure though; when you make a little effort learning about the culture and language, things get a lot better.

Taxi expenses and eating ... cheaper in Spain than in China? We must come from very different parts of Spain.

I think that it is much cheaper to cover your basic needs of accommodation, food and transportation in China than in more developed countries.

However, it is true if you want to buy anything above average (Chinese) quality standards, the prices can be higher than in western countries.

Most of the western brands increase the prices in China if they can, and we usually tend to depend more on the products that we know from our home country, therefore paying a higher price.

In Spain you can find menu for 8 or 9 euros that is about 70 yuans. If you go to eat sichuan cai, you order 3 dishes  with a bowl of rice and coke or beer is almost the same. I have heard that in Beijing a gongyu is about 4000 yuan, in madrid a decent apartment is around 500 euros. The crisis is hiting some countries really hard

I am still comparing the prices here with my home. 

many people from Czech, who are living along the boarders with Germany, they choose the option go to German Alda or similar markets to buy cheaper and better food and some cosmetics, washing powder and so on. The prices are that high in Czech now. thanks also to 15% VAT on foods and services, 21% on all other VAT. But, If I check prices of meat, or some vegetable , and we basicly are buying them in the Big wet market for the lowest possible price, the price are very similar to the prices in Czech . If there is a discount in Tesco for beef as last week , so I even can get 2kuai cheaper in named store. 

 Yes, Ok, not all is cheaper, I can not rent 2 rooms with kitchen in Prague for 1400Rmb as i have here in Shanghai now.I have to pay 500-600Usd at least outside the centre. Public transport in Prague cost is 20Czk (1USD) for 1hr or 5 stations/ 28Czk-1,5USD for 90 minutes ticket ( time ticket mean u can use and change between what ever metro/bus/train line you want within the period of time from the first time stamp) . 

If I will get good job where I can use my expriences and so on, working for about 1500-2000USD per month after taxes and insurance , which allow me for hospital free care, much cheaper medicine and hospitalization after accident for example, cost me 5Usd per day which include also food. All others is covered by Insurance company. 

In McDonald i will earn at least 1000usd per month after taxes. For 2 working people should be fine even with children, much more choices and better service. 

So, China is really getting more expensive, step by step. 

As per the average salary it's too expensive. Many times I wonder how would a teacher who gets 1500 per month live with so little. 

To be honest I used to compare with the UK almost all the time and see what was cheaper and what was about the same.

But you can't do that, you have to think about your salary and then decide what is cheap and what isn't. Let's say you live in the USA, are you going to be thinking what's cheaper or more expensive in another country, if you have a good salary you will buy nice things, if your salary is lower you will be more frugal or look for a better job.

When I came to China 3 years ago I was earning 5,500/month. Now it's about 3 times that because I wanted a better standard of living I needed more money. 

I often eat Western food, but here's the thing, I cook it by myself. I bought a BIG oven in Metro for about 500rmb, and I buy most of my food from the market as vegetables are pretty much the same anywhere. Then I cook them like back home. The only time I splurge is if I need an ingredient that can't be found in China then I go to the import store.

The way to live in China is the same way to live anywhere in the world, live within your means. I know foreigners who have been sent to China by their companies and they are making a fortune so they eat at the restaurant EVERY day, I can't afford to do that so I don't.

China has become more expensive over the years and it will continue to do so, this is because it is moving from a "developing" nation to a "developed" nation, we will see price hikes everywhere and if you read the news you will see that many factories have moved to other Asian countries where the cost of production is lower.

Now it's time to stop seeing China as a cheap country, some things here still are cheap but other things are going up.

Spain, maybe! Australia. No.

Hugh, I just say the truth, and chinese people are also very concerned about the quality of the chinese food, in fact is one of the most important problems. If you can eat really cheap in China, is because the quality is bad. I also have some chinese friends and I am scared when they talk to me about chinese food, they always say " dou shi du", everything is poisson. Just shit

You mentioned food and the quality of food in China and I find that interesting.
I'm not refuting the fact that farmers may or may not grow raw food using a multitude of chemicals and unhealthy stuff. I didn't really look into that to be honest. Are you referring to that in particular or are you talking about the average meal available anywhere in China?

I'm pretty sure of one thing:
It doesn't matter what country you live in, people will always tell you how concerned they are about eating/drinking healthy; or that they should be exercising more because they want to lose weight or should be working harder because they want more money.

In reality, I've witnessed many people that consider themselves as following a healthy lifestyle and diet but really aren't. A lot of people make little effort, never cook and just eat out. This can particularly be applied in China given how cheap eating out can be (depends what you standards are I guess). It's very easy to just buy cheap stuff and eat out everyday. Not only do street vendors have low to no hygiene standards, they probably also use cheap stuff, recycled oil, food that fell on the floor and was put back in, etc.

I'm not saying that you are wrong; just that everything is relative.
If you go out everyday and eat stuff from a restaurant or a street vendor, then yeah, I guess if you're not very selective and don't pay attention it's not going to be very healthy or safe. But when I think about it, if I eat out everyday back in my own country, I'm also gonna eat too much, not necessarily quality food and get fat.

To put it in perspective, the average meal in Beijing's street or in many restaurants might not be healthy because of the lack of hygiene or the "bad" quality of food. It's bad in the way that you might get sick.
The average meal in a British pub probably goes way over 1000 calories (try evening breakfast with a pint). There might be safety checks and people might care about the quality of food, it doesn't mean they eat healthier. For all I know you're more likely to die of a heart attack because you hate food that was too fatty than dying from food intoxication or poisoning in China because the quality of food isn't good.

Ultimately, if you spend most of your time buying raw products and cooking yourself, I think It can't be that bad. How many Chinese people live a long and healthy life? Can't all be just because of genetics and stretching between work hours. Raw food in China is a LOT cheaper than in France; it might not true depending what part of the world you come from.

Another thing you don't factor in too is how much money you earn here and how much money you earn back in your own country.

(Sadly) I earn more while living in Beijing than I ever did back in France. Everything is a lot cheaper here, and I have been able to save as much money during the past year than I did in my last 4 years in France.

For a teacher cost of living is high, unless you are prepared to take risks with food quality. For other expats, cost of living is not so high compared to salary.