maggie0608 wrote:

one of the highest costs of living in the world? lol ,if you ever lived in other cities like Toyko or NYC, you won't say so

I know everything is cheap here, i dont get why people think it is expensive. unless they go to starbucks everyday and only buy western things then it cant be dear to live here.

edinburgh and london are way more expensive than bj

Beijing is ranked 20th for 2011, and was 16th last year. I don't know why everyone thinks Beijing is so cheap unless you eat street food everyday, only wear fake clothes and live in Tongzhou...

Ultra-cheap:

Utilities, cigs, beer/chinese liquor, street foods, public transport, haircuts, soda, tea, herbs

Moderately priced:

Chinese market food, taxis, restaurants, knock-off clothes, yunnan coffee

Moderately expensive:

Imported foods, fruit, cafes, rent, electronics

Very expensive:

Decent bars, real-estate, brand-name goods, cars

dan4 wrote:

Beijing is ranked 20th for 2011, and was 16th last year. I don't know why everyone thinks Beijing is so cheap unless you eat street food everyday, only wear fake clothes and live in Tongzhou...

I guess you got your figures from this link: http://www.citymayors.com/features/cost_survey.html

It says the index of cost of living is based on US$, and if the US$ weakens against the local currency, the city goes high in rank....

So for my opinion, the survey doesn't make sense, just because the RMB has a stronger value against the US$ doesn't mean it should be considered high in cost of living index.....

Look at the facts, the average salary for an office staff in beijing is around 4000 to 5000 RMB, and yet they are living very well, some of them even have a car....... show me a descent city where someone can live with 600 to 700 US$ a month.... in some countries such as Canada people get that much amount on welfare..........

Quote:

2. The OP is talking about expats in Beijing, not about the locals.

Sorry to disagree with you, but if the issue here is about expats living in Beijing, then why did you bring up the cost of living index, that Beijing ranks No 20 globally......

The index of cost of living is based on total population and not just expats.......

BTW, I know many expats who find living in beijing is a lot cheaper than Hong Kong....... and many find Hong Kong a lot cheaper than UK....... so it all depends how much money someone is making.......

Quote:

2. Cost of living has nothing to do with population.

Very strange, never heard of this before.........
Cost of living is based on the spending of the population, if there is no population, there will be no cost of living........

Expatriates in Beijing represent a very minor percentage of the total population, so you can't base yourself on the spending of expatriates only......

If there's no population the cost of living will be exactly *infinity*.

And that's just for air.

Be happy you live on Earth.

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