Beijing rises from 104th to 26th most expensive city

[jbradfor]

Every year Business Week ranks the world's most expensive cities to live in. I have no idea what methodology they use, what lifestyle the assume, etc. but it's a ranking.

This year Beijing increased from 104th to 26th (http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/06/0615_most_expensive_cities/27.htm), and Shanghai from 111th to 28th.

This puts it ahead of all but 2 USA cities, for example, and ahead of Hong Kong (#29) and London (not listed).

It seems to be a common theme of how cheap it is (can be) to live in China, e.g. http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/21284-foreing-engineer-in-guangdong .

For people living there, any thoughts? Does it feel more expensive?

[wushijiao]

How are they calculating these things? Throwing darts at a map?

[imron]

Studies like this are usually based on an expat lifestyle and are used by firms to help calculate what kind of salary + benefits they will need to provide for employees that they send to work overseas.

So, it will probably be factoring in western style modern accommodation, prices of western goods, and the price of living a western lifestyle etc. Given that, I'm not surprised that Beijing ranks so highly.

[roddy]

These surveys are usually 'How much will it cost your CFO to move to Beijing, with no change in lifestyle'. International school fees, expat villa, eating out in the way a top earner would do in London or New York, cooking at home only with imported food stuffs, car and maybe driver. I actually thought Beijing usually ranked higher.

I also suspect they're usually compiled by people not footing any bills, so I doubt they do much bargain hunting.

[gougou]

Yeah, can't remember the last time I had a "quick lunch" for 120 kuai. Or a can of coke for 5. Honestly, outside of a restaurant, that is really hard to do, considering that in a supermarket you get 2 liters for the same price.

[Guest realmayo]

Why no London? If London's dropped off the list, and Beijing has rocketed up, maybe it is based on dollars -- which are stronger versus the pound, weaker versus the RMB, on last year.

[Xiwang]

Good news for people trying to negotiate a better expat package. Otherwise, not that relevant to the rest of us.

[skylee]

BJ and Shanghai are more expensive than HK? Well if it is true then I suppose I should be glad. And I wonder why I have to pay so much for my small apartment.

And London is not listed ... nor is Dubai ... it is sooo strange.

[wushijiao]

These surveys are usually 'How much will it cost your CFO to move to Beijing, with no change in lifestyle'. International school fees, expat villa, eating out in the way a top earner would do in London or New York, cooking at home only with imported food stuffs, car and maybe driver. I actually thought Beijing usually ranked high

No doubt that's probably correct. It's amazing that business people, who supposedly should be in the business of saving their company money, could live in a place that, in theory, could be 1/4 as cheap as where they are from, but instead blow through cash like drunken sailors. (Just to give one example, one of my friends worked for a hedge fund and lived right next to the escalator on the midlevels in Central, HK and paid 35,000 per month for rent. She could have just as easily lived just ten minutes away for roughly 10-15,000, but it didn't matter because it was all paid for under the housing allowance anyway. It just seemed a bit absurd to me. Maybe the mentality of rationalizing absurd spending levels in relatively cheap cities is somewhat related to the financial crisis). Although I would concede that finding good international schools is probably difficult and expensive in many places.

BJ and Shanghai are more expensive than HK? Well if it is true then I suppose I should be glad. And I wonder why I have to pay so much for my small apartment.

Hehe...Hong Kong is proably three or four times as expensive as those cties, no matter how you look at it, especially in terms of rent.

[greenarcher]

Our tour guide in BJ told us the going rates for owning/renting condominium units in BJ, specially those within the city and it's not cheap at all. Maybe not as expensive as HK but I was surprised at the rates. Even getting a plate number for your car was ridiculously expensive as a means of reducing private vehicles.

[xiexieniii]

Beijing isn't that expensive, but things here are not as cheap as I thought they would be. For non brand-name items, average prices seem to be $15 for a bag, $10 for a pair of sandals, $6 for a blouse. I find the same items at only slightly higher prices at my local Chinatown in New York...fine if you're in New York, but I thought things would be much cheaper here in the land where those all those bags, shirts, and sandals in NYC actually come from.

[yaoluck]

This is totally based on an expats lifestyle.

This is no way a true reflection of a normal income man;s lifestyle. If you live in Beijing, you don't go to italian restaurant every other day, nor do u patron starbucks. A foreign student probably buy the 3 kuai roast bun like any other chinese for lunch.

So what's with the high living/price index? Because it's meant for expats.

If we look at true math, Singapore ranks top three in terms of purchaing power, judging from income per capita with price index. But yet it also *ironically* are consistently ranked high in the expensive city list. Why, because, like someone else mentioned, all this list are calculated based on the expectation that you live like you do in London/New York in this city.

Of course, one killer in these Asian megacities is real estate price, its horrendously high. By buying an apartment, you are selling yourself to the devil. Literally. You work 30 years to pay of the loan, and another 10 years to help fund your kids' first downpayment when he turns 30.

[zerolife]

i agree with the others. Unless prices went up 8x after my BJ visit last year, I would say the study is BS.

$10 for movie? yes if you go to one of the top international movie theater like the one at 3rd ring. Where I used to go, it's only 20 kuai

$17 bucks for a quick lunch. To me, quick lunch means a simple lunch at one of the smaller Chinese restaurants or even the university cafeteria. I pay less than $5 for that