Cost of living for a year in Guangzhou

[LanLiBei]

Next september i'll be moving to Guangzhou on a student visa for my year abroad. I'm more than a little worried about the lack of information provided by my university. What i've gathered from googling is that the student visa does not allow me to work so want to make sure I am not going to run out of money. I have enough saved for flights and innoculations but am spending the next year saving up money to live on. anyidea of how much i'll need?

Also, apologies if i'm posting in the wrong place, let me know and i'll move it

[abcdefg]

Since nobody from Guangzhou has responded, maybe I can give you some "starter help" on how to tackle the question. If you break it into smaller component parts, you may be able to get some meaningful figures.

Do an itemization of what you think you will spend money on while there. Indicate what needs to be included in your budgeting. For example, are food and lodging included in your tuition or will you need to pay for those separately. Make some categories, such as these (can modify as desired.)

-- Tuition and fees.

-- Books and study materials. (Will this include a new computer?)

-- Communication. (Will this need to include a new iPhone? Or will it just be monthly mobile charges?)

-- Entertainment (Will this include lots of bar nights? Fancy restaurants?)

-- Weekend trips (Will this include high stakes gambling at Sands Casino in Macao?)

-- Transportation (Will you need to buy a bike? Or will you mainly take the bus or do you prefer taxis?)

-- Clothing (Will you want all the latest fashions and high end accessories?)

-- Health care (Do you anticipate any major one time or ongoing health care expenses?)

...and so on.

Then make some educated guesses or rough estimates on the monthly amount for each category based on your research thus far. People can then give opinions on whether your guesses are high or low, allowing you to fine-tune your financial forecasting. They can suggest other factors to be considered.

This isn't a real answer to your question, but might still help you get the ball rolling.

[xuefang]

I've been meaning to answer this question, but it's always hard to estimate how much money someone else might be needing per month. It depends so much on many different things.

Which university will you attend? How much is the tuition fee? You could expect to pay something like 200-500RMB for books per semester. Also students need a compulsory insurance which is 300RMB per semester.

Do you live in a dorm? How much is the rent per month/semester? Does it include internet, electricity, water? Water isn't that expensive, electricity is a bit more expensive and by having your AC on all the time of course costs you more money.If your room rent is 1600RMB per month, calculate some 200-300RMB per month extra on top of that for other fees. But it's hard to say how much those will be.

Where will you want to eat? At the campus canteens you can get a meal for 2-8RMB, depends if you prefer vegetables or meat. Do you want to eat Western breakfast or Chinese one? Do you want to often eat Western food?

For daily food you could consider something like this:

2 buns for breakfast 2RMB, lunch at the canteen 5RMB, dinner at a cheap Chinese restaurant 10RMB, night snack from the street 5RMB, total 22RMB.

OR

Croissant and juice for breakfast 9RMB, lunch at middle priced Chinese restaurant 20 RMB, dinner at Western restaurant 30RMB, late night Big Mac after a night out 26RMB, total 85RMB.

Daily expenses depends a lot on what you like to eat. You can get by very little money if you want to, but it's also easy to spend a lot.

I personally find it a bit stressful to live with 50RMB per day. Even though I don't use that amount every day, sometimes I need more. But if I have 100RMB per day, then I feel much more relaxed.

[WestTexas]

I probably spend about 25 yuan a day on food right now, and I eat pretty healthy, but that's breakfast and lunch in the school canteen, and I cook dinner at home. In a big city like Guangzhou, I think anything less than 50 yuan/day would be hard unless you are regularly cooking at home, and even then, you'd need to be eating lots of eggs, tofu, and veggies and not so much meat.

Consider too that some expats often spend 300 in one day and think nothing of it. If you hang out with these people, you'll probably end up spending more as well.

I'm a member of another forum for English teachers in China, and some of the people on there think it's impossible to survive on 5000 yuan a month, even with a free apartment. One guy seriously said '200 per day just isn't going to cut it.' That's just crazy to me, but different people have very different spending habits.

[abcdefg]

deleted by poster -- this didn't add anything to the discussion.

[xuefang]

Consider too that some expats often spend 300 in one day and think nothing of it. If you hang out with these people, you'll probably end up spending more as well.

This really makes a huge difference. Some friends prefer expensive Western places, others cheap Chinese places. So pay attention to who you spend time with That's the reason I usually hang out with other students, not with other expats. Their lifestyle here is just way too expensive for me.

When I had 2000RMB per month to use after rent and fees, I felt I had to count carefully what I was buying. If I would have that 5000RMB I wouldn't have any worries in the world!

Also tofu and potatoes dishes in a middle range Chinese restaurant can cost 25-30RMB total. When you cook them yourself at home it's like 8RMB. That's a lunch or dinner for two people and the dishes even include some pork.

But for someoneone living in a dorm, which often is a cheap option, it might be hard to cook your own food. The common kitchens at dorms, if there are any, usually aren't that suitable for cooking. And one part of the study experience in China usually includes making lots of new friends and often that means having dinners out together.

[Takeshi]

I didn't reply at first because I don't know about dorms/housing/tuition/etc expenses. I just know food and misc.

It really depends on how frugal you want to be. For the first couple of months when I was in Guangzhou I barely spent money on anything and ate for like 15RMB a day all at the canteen, and for the most part I was happy. I wouldn't recommend limiting yourself to 15RMB per day because then you'll be miserable, not because surviving on only 15RMB is miserable but because if you are out of money you are screwed and there is nothing you can fall back on. It is very easy to survive 15RMB on a normal day if nothing strange happens, but it's very easy for things to happen and you need to spend more money. Say you get sick for example: paying for the hospital fees and medicine fees is comparatively very expensive if food on a normal day is only 15RMB.

But after a while I sorta realized I had all this money just lying around and I became more spendy, often eating out at expensive places, going to karaoke, going to HK, buying tons of unnecessary stuff etc, and I was surprised at how all my money had just disappeared in the blink of an eye.

All in all, I think 50RMB per day is a good balance for personal expenses. Don't expect to use anywhere near 50RMB every day on food, but keep around that much and all the extra should go to misc expenses. But also be careful not to underbudget your first month. You'll have to spend quite a lot of money on many things in your first month; I came with 1000RMB...... very stupid idea. I think you should have about 3000RMB or more if you want to feel safe for sure. On a normal month it's okay to budget around 500~1000 for personal expenses after rent etc. (Just for humour: in my last month in China I actually used about 5000RMB or so)

And yes, as people have noted if you hang out with local people as opposed to expats you will notice you will be spending less money, though if you are there to study Chinese it will probably be hard to make real Chinese friends, especially at first.

[LanLiBei]

thanks for the info, will have to geton to my university about dorms/rent costs... they're not really giving us any information