Cost of Living in China

[putonghua73]

As Skylee points out, difficult to state because the necessities i.e. rent, bills, food, fluctuate a lot depending on where in China you wish to study / live. Since rent will be your biggest expenditure, check out the accommodation thread to get an idea of prices.

I, like SiMaKe, am studying / studied in Kunming, SW China. You can probably find a shared room in Kunming from 500-700 yuan per month (although I'd be looking for 1000 yuan per month for my circumstances). Transport here is very cheap e.g. 1 yuan per trip (except on A buses - which are 2 yuan per trip, and other special buses). As intimated, there is a lot of difference between a Western lifestyle i.e. Western style food and drinks (coffee, milkshakes, Mochas, etc) and Chinese style. 

I'd agree with SiMaKe in as much that if I drink / eat Western, it is marginally cheaper than back home [London] - but not much, and expensive by Chinese standards; if I eat Chinese (the more people, the cheaper due to quantity of food served), it's approx 2/3 cheaper. Some items like Coke are 3/4 cheaper - but I really should cut down / stop drinking that stuff.

Then you have other things to consider like mobile phone usage, net usage bills, etc. You may need to buy books - my BOYA (准高级I) cost 54 yuan (approx £5.40 - which is more than 1/2 the cost in London). 

It may be more helpful to post your total amount of money (in RMB terms) that you'll have to support yourself whilst you are studying in China. Also, whether or not expenses such as accommodation are included in your scholarship, or if it's just payment of tuition fees.

Depending on your circumstances, I'd be inclined to maybe wait longer and save more, if you'll feel you'll "just survive" here. 

Cheers!

[Brian US]

Typical day for me:

Breakfast- 4 eggs and a slice of toast (2.50)

Lunch-Cafeteria (5.00)

sometimes a drink (3.00)

Dinner-Cafeteria (5.00)

Total-Maybe around 15 kuai a day, which is up from 8 kuai a day last semester. After losing 10 kilos I figured I should up my food budget. I'm a small guy.

On weekend nights:

Street vendor food (5.00)

Beer (3.00-9.00)

Baijiu (7.00)

The only drink you will see me with at the bar is the flask of baijiu I've smuggled in.

[gougou]

as roddy's post from a year ago compared to today's suggests) feeling the effects of large numbers of people "moving into the middle class"

Yay, roddy moved up to middle class!

Or what else are you implying by comparing jianbing's to English breakfasts?

[SiMaKe]

Yay, roddy moved up to middle class!

Actually, you're pretty close. What was going through my mind was how glad I was to see CF finally paying some nice dividends to such a deserving lad. :clap

[esz]

Hey!

Thanks to everybody who tried to help, I really appreciate it

It may be more helpful to post your total amount of money (in RMB terms) that you'll have to support yourself whilst you are studying in China. Also, whether or not expenses such as accommodation are included in your scholarship, or if it's just payment of tuition fees.

Depending on your circumstances, I'd be inclined to maybe wait longer and save more, if you'll feel you'll "just survive" here.

Actually waiting longer is not an option, because it's already confirmed that I've got the scholarship - which doesn't pay for the travel costs, so most of my savings will go for buying the airline ticket (ca. 200.000 HUF, at the moment that's ~6130 kuai).

I didn't mention how much money I am going to get, 'cause I don't have a clue about that either... Well, you can't say I'm overflown with information, I guess. But I think it will be around 1500 kuai a month and I won't have to pay for accomodation.

And actually I don't intend to "just survive" in China, I was just asking this way because if I know how much money I need to survive, then I can estimate how much money I will have left to spend for "extras". Yeah, I know, weird logic of mine ^^"""

Total-Maybe around 15 kuai a day, which is up from 8 kuai a day last semester. After losing 10 kilos I figured I should up my food budget. I'm a small guy.

Pretty neat. I'd like to lose some weight, anyway

[roddy]

Yay, roddy moved up to middle class!

I shall make a point of posting a day of more proletarian consumption as soon as I have one. Assuming I can go a full day without a 28Y latte, of course.

And rest assured, any dividends paid out go right into shares in BP and arms manufacturing.

[attarian]

Typical day for me:

Breakfast: Nothing (i dont eat breakfast)

Subway: (3.00)

Lunch: Cafeteria (10.00/12.00)

Drink (free)

Cookies(free)

Subway: (3.00)

Dinner:Food street (2.00)

Around 18 Yuans a day (in shanghai)

[Dashu]

What about medical costs?

For people staying in China for a short while this might be irrelevant, but when you stay over a long period, you might need to include things like medical expenses, that you would normally get at home but have to do in China.

I'm pointing this because we often focus on frequent costs (food, transportation, booze, rent) but forget about the one we consider as exceptional but take an important part in your budget (even if they occur only once or twice a year).

When I was in Beijing, I had to go to the international clinic for an emergency and pay for several thousands kuai.

On the other hand, I recovered from a flu with some herbal stuff bought from a local drugstore and I remember it was quite cheap.

As Putonghua73 suggested, it might be useful to post total amount and duration of living.

This might be another topic though.

[skylee]

Dinner:Food street (2.00)

What is it? It is not unusual for me to have instant noodles (about HKD3) as dinner. But I wonder what you can have as dinner for RMB2 on Food street in Shanghai. And where do you get those free drinks and cookies?

[attarian]

As i was use to eat a lot for the lunch meal ( most of the time we go to restaurant), i had also taken the habit to eat few at night. So it was basically two small sandwiches or something made with eggs. Nothing serious.

All the free coffee / tea / soda / cookies / ice cream / ... comes from my company.

[liya]

agreed. will the allowance be enough for that?