I would say the big 3 (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou) are all expensive to live in. People come to these cities for work and of course its where most of the money is at. Housing companies, stores, restaurants all take advantage of this to make an extra dollar.

True, China is indeed getting more expensive, but so does Europe...

Try not to live downtown and you can find appropriate prices. I live 20 minutes outside downtown of Shanghai, and got a newly build 60sqm apartment, newly decorated, unused and just 5 minutes away from metro, for 3000 rmb.
well, Berlin is a migration city, depends where you live it might be a bit cheaper, but think about food, drinks, transportation etc...
and if you are outside of eastern germany (which is still much cheaper than the western part) you will have problem finding anything decend for below 5-6000 rmb. i just had a friend trying to find a flat in vienna, austria. all they found was a 40sqm 'apartment' for 6500rmb, no joke...

expensive is really relative

Beijing has a class thing that works to your advantage if you lower your standards. If you wanna live like a Chinese person, you can live easily off 5,000  month in a place like Beijing. Find a place for 2,200 rent and brown bag lunch and have no fun. 

If you want to live like a westerner, the rent and entertainment is the same. 

This must be a joke...

The problem is we feel like we are entitled to live in the 'good places' the 'best' places in a city.

If you compare like for like, and I'll take London for example, I've been to a bar [I didn't pay] where the price is 20 GBP for a can of cola, that's 200 RMB. A botte of beer was around 65 pounds, 650 RMB, sounds ridiculous but it blows China's 'high end bars' away.

Plus, if you want to live in a 'good' place in Beijing with no commute[bare in mind it's a HUGE city], then you need to compare like for like. My brother pays 2,200 to live close to the 'city of London' in a slightly old apartment building, for ONE bedroom in a shared three bedroom flat, the monthly rent is 6,600 plus bills for a shoddy apartment. His electricity is nearly 500 a month [5000 RMB] and internet, telephone, TV, gas, water, insurance etc. adds another 500 on top, so he needs to spend 10,000 a month before rent on essentials. His travel card costs him 2,000 rmb a month.

If a Beijing person was told it's 22,000 RMB a month for one bedroom in a three share flat in a fairly shit part of town but with an ok location, most would refuse.

For a NEW building in the same place, on your own, say 60-70M in London you'd be looking at more than 50 or 60 000 RMB a month.

No way China is CLOSE to how western European cities are.

Is that 3000 in terms of RMB or dollars? Because if that is RMB which would be around 500 dollars and I've seen places that are good in Beijing. The newer apartments rent relatively around that figure and the lower end one's cost about 400 usd. As far as being expensive that is because most of the stuff is imported to china. The good stuff anyways. Most people want the good stuff so it will be a little costly since those good stuff are imported. If you want to get chinese brand stuff like clothes, food, drink etc., it's gonna be cheaper than if you got imported goods because they need that extra bit to make the import worthwhile for those companies.

I'd have to agree with boqievents.

In London my 2 bed flat rents for £900 pcm ( approx 9000 rmb)  and even that is pretty cheap for London standards.

Just today I found a nice 2 bed in  Guangzhou ( Hydroban- I know I've spelt it wrong) for 3500 rmb (£350 approx). Wouldn't even get a double room in London for that price! I have no idea how far that is from the city centre though....

I hear Minsk is pretty cheap

Yes just look at the updated list.....Beijing and Shanghai were added to the top 25 most expensive places to live. Depending on which city you are asking about just check the list and see if it falls below or above Beijing..