Good salary for living like an expatriate in Beijing?
- Joined: Dec 8th, 2011
- Posts: 1
Hi all,
I've seen posts like this before, but I was hoping to get more recent and hopefully more useful and detailed responses. I have a 60K/year ($USD) offer from a university plus a housing allowance, although I still know not the amount of the housing subsidy.
How I'd like to live:
--I'm single and would prefer a decent 1BR apartment in the Beijing city centre. Slightly outside the city centre is okay too, so long as public transportation is readily accessible or daily taxi cab fares during the workweek into the city centre are not prohibitively expensive.
--I would like to go out to nice bars and clubs once or twice a week. The ritzy "expat" bars are not of major interest, as I would prefer to blend into the local culture as much as I can, make Chinese friends, and date Chinese women. I don't speak Chinese, so the ability to communicate in English at these establishments would be of supreme importance to me. I need not be surrounded by 100% expats and feel like I'm home away from home.
--I do not want to pack my breakfast or lunch and I'd like to have dinner outside of home on most nights of the workweek. I don't mind local Chinese food, so long as it is healthy and tasty.
--At home, I like to keep fresh and good quality food. I'm not an organize freak, but I don't like over-processed foods such as canned goods that contain a lifetime of sodium or products that contain high fructose corn syrup.
--I am from a big city, so I don't need to own a car if it is too inconvenient. With that said, I do not want to feel like I cannot afford a cab whenever I need to get somewhere quickly.
Ideally, I'd like to save at least $30K clean.
maxwu
Re: Good salary for living like an expatriate in Beijing?
So 30,000USD for 12 months, 2500USD=15,000 kuai per month, it's enough to live in Beijing really not that you can afford to buy luxury items, but like what you've described, 200kuai per night, 20 nights out per week, let's say 6000kuai/month for dinner,1000kuai for lunch, so half of your 15k is going to be food related cost, the other half for other things, should be alright, but if you think you are worth more, why not ask for it? (I suggest you find out housing expense quickly and decide what kind of apt you want to live in, take a look in our classifieds might give you a rough idea of how much housing would cost you (it's a bit overpriced and some photos aren't 'realistic', but still better than nothing at all)
Max Wu - Web Editorial Assistant at the Beijinger
Nidaye
Re: Good salary for living like an expatriate in Beijing?
You are forgetting that he will be paying taxes on his salary, so his net pay will be a bit less. Of course, having a housing allowance is a big help.
Nidaye
Re: Good salary for living like an expatriate in Beijing?
Good plan except for the fact that you won't find much "local culture" at any bars here, unless you are interested in meeting whores and/or gold diggers. You will have better luck at your university library.
mjtaylor
Re: Good salary for living like an expatriate in Beijing?
Post tax, you are looking at $49,157 from that $60,000. Assuming you want to save $30k this leaves you with about 10,000 RMB a month to play with. Eating well like an expat, kiss off 3000~4000 for that. Depends on what that housing allowance is and what you are going for... a 1BR studio with all the comforts you'd probably expect is gonna run you around 5000 a month. Yea, probably not gonna cut it, if you are into budgeting at all, I'd say go with trying to save $25,000 instead of the $30,000 and you'll probably be better off and closer to the level you are going after. Also, do keep in mind that your post-tax 31w isn't really even Beijing middle-class level, closer to being upper working class than anything else.