Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

i'm in korea now, worked here six years, in four months coming to china. what percentage of your monthly school wage pay do you manage to save. job offers mention the low cost of living in china. but an aussie i know said she spent all the money she made in china 'trying to live'. maybe she meant 'living to party'. i'm hoping you'll say about half of your wage it's possible to save, which would be the same as here, in korea.
cheers

[Ferne]

captain, that REALLY depends on your salary, location...and lifestyle!

[Minhang Oz]

Captain Kirk, China's a bit the same as sex. You'll never find out what it's like by asking other people. You've got to try it, and then everyone's experience will be different.
So give China a go; I'm sure there will still be plenty of jobs in Korea if you don't like it.

[travesty21]

I will give you an answer. I went out oh probably twice a week.Yeah, I am not like some people. And ate out at least once a day and was able to save about 5/6 to 4/6 of my salary. It is easy and cheap as long as you don't go to the hotels to eat and drink, you don't spend money on Chinese women, and you just watch your money alittle. Then again I saw people piss away all there money in each month and by the end they were just waiting for that next paycheck.

[Cobra]

In Henan you can live like a King for 500 rmb per month. The rest you can bank.

[NumberOneSon]

I easily save 1/2 - 2/3 of what I make each month and I don't
really work hard at it. For example, I've bought a DVD player
and computer recently and regularly buy western food at stores
and in restaurants (of course, I fix a lot of my own meals, too,
especially breakfast, but it probably costs more than buying it
since I use real cheese in my omelets).

With rent and most utilities paid, I usually spend around 1500
rmb a month just goofing around. I find that the longer I'm
here, the less I spend once I have the "essentials", (like 2 or
3 hundred DVD's, and a dozen or so Chinese language books,
a regular supply of real cheese and coffee, etc.).

But, I am probably a bit extravagant. With very little effort,
I could get by on 1000 rmb or less a month. It's just that I
figure, "why not?".

After a year, I still have over half what I've earned saved
(and I have lived in fairly large cities in the North East with
a few million or more people each).

[gerard]

I managed to save a nice round number---0...Well actually I had the airfare bonus etc at the end of term which really are savings...Really I am surprised at somebody moving to China from S Korea wanting to know what they can save. If it's important---stay there and see China on the Korean holidays on package deals...Oh and live like a king on 500 RMB . Come on!!! I spent more-a lot more than that on cigarettes for God;s sake...OK you dont smoke but do you want to have any sort of an interesting time at all???

[Hamish]

[gerard]

Not to start a fight with you gentlemen on this but.....500 RMB is 60 US dollars. If we start a new thread called "60$ a Month a Fortune in China." how many would agree with you??? Yes I know it is possible to live on that...I did during SARS (but only because of SARS) ...I also know location means a lot. Free meals on campus all week can also keep costs down. 500 (for me) would be "saving up for that big trip" lifestyle . I would not be very happy though... I only mention this because Kirk is not here yet and may get a misleading picture. I did not save on 3500 because once a month I wanted to go to Shanghai or Suzhou or wherever and see the sights,shop and have some fun...If I gave that up I suppose I could have saved...although there was a lot even in my small town to spend on...Photography good meals massage music dating etc etc etc...

[goldstar]

I've been living here in Henan for two years, and while its not hard to live on 500 a month, "like a king" seems a stretch. No doubt, 500 will get you plenty of local beer, goat meat, and xiaobing, but more familiar comforts come at a higher price. 300 a week gives me plenty to buy cheese, coffee, groceries, and go out for a good dinner and to the bar on Fridays. Cut out dinner and the bar, then I could get by on about 100-150 a week.

[captain kirk]

i'm curious is all. and yes i'm asking a lot of virginish questions about sex when the experience is different for everyone. if i'm at the bungee jump i'm asking a lot of nervous questions, and some of you are saying 'shut up and jump'. totally. and yes, it's totally possible to go back to korea after a year or six months in china. i've got this hunch i'll be over there for awhile. worked in taiwan, worked in korea. moving around china every six months, well, that kicks. thanks everyone for reaching the keys. i was reading an outdated lonely planet edition on china last night and it discussed the phenomena of 'overpricing foreigners', how it's encouraged by the goverment and a lot of chinese don't think twice about it considering it more of a 'patriotic duty'. for example a tourist broke his leg and went to the police out near tibet in china. they charged him 20,000rmb to set it when it would have cost 100rmb at the hostpital. the guy had to have money wired over from home, he couldn't 'run away' with a broken leg. well, if the lonely planet is going on about this, i'd like to ask you. that's why i started this thread. i had this notion that i'd 'get some chinese to buy my groceries for me', which is absurd. or 'maybe there's a grocery store that'll give you a break'.
gerard, i don't want to live like a friggin' monk, either. the only time i ever did that was my first year in korea. the other five years i went here there and everywhere, to a major center at least once a month to 'see the lights, shop, and go out'. asking about this topic is being on a sort of survival mode; going into 'alien territory' and 'checking out for threats'. natural, right. if i lived out in the boonies in china i'd be looking into getting a motorcycle, that's for sure. it's funny, when a newbie arrives they're all excited from the expectation and motion but then stopped it's like 'huh, what?'. you guys hear my expectation and are settled, so it's funny, or flailing-looking. sure
do you get this 'overpricing foreigners' happening to you?
cheers

[Klamm]

500 Rmb like a king? The pauper. Ha! No way. Absolutely not. Ask any Chinese person: that ain't king living therey on 500 Rmb! Ya, everybody do a random survey amoung Chinese peasants working the fields and ask them if THEY think 500 Rmb a month is 'king-living'.

Living moderately, you can do on 1000 Rmb. Comfortable is done on 1500 Rmb. Very comfortable or "king-like" begins at 2000+ Rmb. It depends what you mean by living like a king. But I can tell you one thing: You certainly ain't living like a king on 500 Rmb!!! Not by anyone's standard. 15 Rmb a day? What? Pure bogus. A meal costs anywhere from 3 ('3' buying you a bowl of soup and noodles) to 10 Rmb and should you dare to want to leave the dirty rat infested holes that serve meals at those prices (and yes plenty are good eats...just very dirty) and say have a hamburger, it'll cost you 15 Rmb+ just for the sandwich. So if you want to eat, drink, and live something beyond two simple meals a day, living on 500 Rmb will be impossible. Work it out.

Someone is being ridiculous. Why? No one knows. Macho guy thing? Look how little I can live on? Or look how much I money I can make? Sounds something along those lines. Klamm is Klammping down. Working for a Klammp-down!!!

K.

[Hamish]

[mr pink]

I absolutely agree...living off of 500 rmb a month is not realistic.

I consider myself a moderate spender which means I go out about five times a week for meals on the road, twice a week for real sit down dinners, go on vacation twice a year, and I manage to save about 50% of my salary.

Capt. K, if you have a girlfriend, that's going to throw your savings plan way out of wack. Everyone will tell you that the average chinese girl doesn't have a clue about the value of money (or at least care to appreciate the equation work+time=money) and the young ones that were raised as a single child and were showered with attention are the worst. For ex, my gf decided to tally up all the gifts I'd gotten her and she decided that I was stingy. Her relatives think I'm stingy. I bought her a cell phone yesterday...I didn't get a thank you...not a thing. BTW going out to bars, dinner, and vacations are just par for course...they're expected and not considered "gifts."

Sorry to go on a tangent...it feels good sometimes.

But back to the thread, you could probably live off of 1,200 rmb a month and feel rather comfortable...but it might take time to learn the ropes and adjust. My first few months were expensive because I HAD to have things like KFC and McD's and stuff from Carre 4. It was the only thing that I recognized as food.

I think it is possible to live off of 1,000 rmb but things go wrong...you lose you cell phone, you have to make a visa run, your housekeeper ruins your clothes...she was provided by the company

In my opinion, and I'm no expert, places like Henan, Hunan, are dirt cheap but they don't offer much of a clean, healthy, modern life. I just spent a month in a nameless city in Hunan...the power often went out in the middle of day so there was no ac, there was no traditional culture, it was smelly and dirty, the locals were such bores, etc

your choice

mr pink

[NumberOneSon]