Budgeting/finances

[victoria.m]

Could anyone give me an indication of how much they budgeted/week (or month) while in Beijing or what they're thinking of using?? Thx

[Akima916]

I read in "Living abroad in China" byStuart & Barbara Strother:

"The cost for one year undergraduate study at Beidais a minimum of $6,000. Tuition is about $3,000. If you live on campus, your dorm room (If you can get one) will rent for about $1,200. You'll shell out another $1,200 for the cafeteria meals (if you cansurvive for a year eating Chinese school lunches). Realistically, you'l need a few thousand more for traveling and for the psychological benefits of having a Western meal once in a while, not to mention all the karaokes and discos your classmates will drag you too."

"In deciding on how much money you need to live we suggest no less than 3,000 元 a month (around $350) for a single person, which will get you a bare bones existance if you don't have to pay for housing."

Hope this helped!

[shanghaikai]

Without housing, I'd also recommend 3000 RMB/month for a fairly minimal but passable existence according to most Westerners. If you live on campus and eat all your meals at the campus cafeteria (anything from ~3-10 RMB/meal) or local street eateries, you can definitely survive on 1000 RMB/month (again, not including housing costs). That's how the locals do it, assuming they're lucky enough to have 1000 RMB/month in the first place.

6000 RMB/month should be decently comfortable unless you really like shopping (and not in the fake/cheap markets). This should allow you some reasonable travel (as long as you're not staying in anything super fancy, are willing to take trains, and etc.), plenty of nightlife (even less if you're a girl and can get other people to buy you drinks), good meals every so often, decent balance between metros and taxis, etc.