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Q: In Fact, Do You Really Think Life is Cheaper in China?
Monthly salary V cost and quality of living.....compared to your country?
I just paid Y38 for a piddly little bowl of rubbish. Couldn't possibly pass muster at any legal restaurant in any accountable country in the world.
And recently paid Y500 for a night in a hotel that would be shut down for failing every govt minimum standard in a 'developed' country.
Or, are there perhaps other reasons for you to be here?
For me, yes.
For you....?
I come from Southeast Europe/Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I can say in my country apartment with furniture, A/C, heating is around 1200 RMB, electricity and water is 320 RMB per month.
Cooking at home is 40 RMB per day, meals with soup, vegetable, meat, dessert for 3 person family.
Eating outside is from 8 RMB for pie or hamburger or 20-40 RMB per person in restaurant.
Coffee 4 RMB, juice 8 RMB, mineral water 5 RMB.
Beer in PUB is 6 RMB or 8 RMB during live performance.
No air pollution.
Sallary is 2000 RMB for low level jobs in factory or some fast food joint.
English teacher 2400 RMB per month (elementary school), 3200 RMB hi-school, 4000 RMB university, usually 3-4 classes per day, plus payed vacation months.
4000 RMB if you work in good company some type of office job.
If you have few years of experience and get to some managerial position you can go up to 8000 RMB.
CEO and IT proffessionals can get to 20000 RMB.
So, you analyze yourself China is cheaper or not for people from my country.
dom87:
well its one of europes poor countries or lets say the people are poor, like the majority in china so the life is more or less equal.
royceH:
Hmm...it sounds about like the same as China. What's the quality of life like for the people? Do they tend to have interests, hobbies, etc.. Do many people speak English? Do they have an ESL market there?
viango:
Well, none of my friends have savings, mainly people go abroad for few years to make some money, USA, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Germany working in construction sites. People are mainly warmful and happy, but always have money enough for about 25 days in month. All people younger than 35 speak English fluently, some older also, this is because in communist time during Yugoslavia schools were teaching Russian and German language.
Hobbies everybody have, my friends mainly play basketball, paintball, skateboarding, fishing, hiking.
Some of people dont have job but somehow live normally for years, unemployment is more than 50% in young population. But because war in 90s everybody have some friends or family in Western Europe so they support them.
ESL market dont exist there, all teachers are Bosnian teachers. Even there is many teachers with degree unemployed.
Think one of the benefits of living in China, is you can live according to your lifestyle.
E.G. I'm a smoker & drinker, this would cost me a shit-load in Sydney. So, I am a big winner here. Same goes for catching cabs, buying DVDs / CDs,clothes etc.
I find that I can have a comfortable life, with a very nice apart. & still usually able to save money. Not possible back home.
Also, as an ESL teacher I have flexible work hours, not the 9am ~ 4pm drone I had in Aust.
Esentially, it depends on what you want. Which, I dont think we get the choice back home.
mike695ca:
here here! untill your comment i had completly forgotten about how expensive they were compared to your spare cash. it was an item you needed to budget for! although the drinking im not sure. a pint of say carlsburg is about the same as a pint back home
royceH:
As a beer drinker, I'm ok. Just ask me!
Beer in China is as cheap as buggery...unless you drink it in what's considered a bar, as I did in Qingdao. Mind you, stubbies were only 10/12 kuai where I drank and that's still pretty cheap. In the flogger places they were 25/30 kuai and, as such, there was no need to go there. Unless you were into the pick up chicks scene.
Where I live now there isn't anywhere to have a beer other than a restaurant and in these places beer typically costs between 6/10 kuai. Queerly, the preferred drop is the cheapest....that'll be the one with the alcohol content over 4.
In Sydney about 6 months ago I had to pay $6.50 for a schooner at the Coogee Bay Hotel. That's about 40 kuai. Try spending that times 7 to 10 every day and one soon appreciates drinking hot, flat piss in China. Mind you, the conversation in that pub was somewhat advanced from what passes as the social norm here.
ScotsAlan:
Yes. Smoking and drinking make a big difference. 6 RMB for a packet of ciggies here versus about 80 RMB in the UK. And I can sit outside a shop here and drink beer at 5 RMB a bottle.
MissA:
$6.50 for a schooner is actually quite cheap for this part of Sydney, Royce - just try house hunting anywhere within a 20 minute drive of the city and you'll be thankful for China's cheap if crappy housing!
diverdude1:
wow! 80rmb for cigarettes! that is 13.22usd! (yes, I think in usd) amazed people still smoke there ~
In a nutshell; I feel the cost of living is higher than in Canada. But most of that is in housing. I don't have a car or pay rent. So those costs don't effect me. If I want to live as comfortable as I do in Canada, it will cost me more than if I lived and worked in Canada. I agree with many of the posts here. Some things cost more than back home, some are less.
Is life cheaper here than in Canada? Sometimes it appears that way. Humans probably cost less to buy here than in Canada.
Depends where in China and where at home you live, but in general I don't find it much cheaper when you take living on a Chinese salary into account.
In America my net salary was about $2200/month so you say a bottle of water in a gas station is $1 = .045% of my salary
In China lets say you make 10k a bottle of water is 1rmb =.01% of your salary
Rent in America would be about $800 to $1,500 or 36%
China rent about 2000 RMB = 20%
