Job Discussion Forums

Fike2308 · Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 52 Location: CHINA

You can buy a decent meal for 10 RMB....just depends on what you're willing to eat.

As others have said you can get some fried rice or jiao zi or a big bowl of noodles for around 5 RMB and that's usually sufficient for me unless I'm really hungry.

Of course, I couldn't (and don't) just eat jiao zi and noodles 3 times a day everyday to save money.

Somedays I do throw down some larger notes to get a 'better' meal or something western.

For me, it's just a matter of balancing out your food budget/eating habits.

Try to eat cheap once or twice a day and then for your other meal(s) you can splurge a little but even then how much do you really spend?
20 - 30 RMB? That's not too bad if you only spend this amount on a meal once a day.

Also, eating out with friends is a good way to save since Chinese dishes are served in large portions.

Sometimes I just go out with a friend and get some rice (free), a plate of jiao zi (8 rmb for 30), a plate of cabbage (7 RMB) and then something 'expensive' like a tie ban niu rou meat dish (24 RMB).

That's 39 RMB total and you divide that in half and it's about 20 RMB which is about $3.00 USD.

Moon Over Parma · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 819

beck's · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 426

I live in a cheap city in the boonies. I can still get a metal bowl of noodles for 3 kuai and a vegetable stir fry with rice on a chipped and dirty plate for about 5. I can eat this grub while sitting on filthy plastic stool hunched over a greasy wooden table. I can wash it all down with beer at 3.5 kuai a bottle for the "premium stuff" or a pepsi in a scuffed bottle for 1.

I shop at the local markets. I eat the so called "healthy" vegetables which are so drenched in pesticides that, in sober moments, I fear for my gastrointestinal system. I cook it all up on a two burner propane hotplate.

The city I live in is considered "beautiful" by the Chinese. It is on the tourist trail. Poorly designed and constructed cement buildings with garage door fronts, which were built last year, look twenty years old. Anthing of any historical interest has been ripped down.

I am leaving when my classes are over ncxt week. It's been a great trip but it was just that, a trip. There is no way I could even contemplate living the life I do now for another year.

I have many stories to tell and so it has been well worth it for me. I have no complaints. The job in a public uni was a dead cinch. Easiest one I've ever had. Great students. Lovely kids. Really.

I am a dyed in the wool westerner though. The west has produced everything from the steam engine to the search engine. On any level, from human rights to quality of life, the west is best. China really can't cut it for me in the long term. I admire those of you who can hack it here in the long term and I see why you need more money. You need the money to insulate yourselves from the "street." I appreciate this. I just had a far different agenda.

vikuk · Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 1842

Anda · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 2199 Location: Jiangsu Province

The markets here are cheap if you know how to cook. For instance a whole goose will cost you about 55 RMB. Cook a goose up, bone it and pack the meat into jars and stick in the fridge, it's enough meat for a week. Greens and vegetables are cheap that are in season. Most of the fish here is cheap. Grass carp is one of the better buys. Chicken is a lot more expensive then geese. I only buy live stuff that gets killed and cleaned for me at the markets as I don't trust anything that is already killed and cleaned. I don�t speak Chinese but I have no trouble buying at the markets.

Sprouts are cheap food. Buy some beans and sprout them and then cook them a little. I have rolled oats for breakfast with soy peptide powder.

You need to spend about 35 RMB a day to eat good healthy food.

Your noodles are full of cheap oils which are no good for you. White rice is the same as sugar to your body. A little white rice with meals is okay but pigging out on white rice is bad.

Market costs are not that different outside of the expensive big cities.

Where to live? I have lived for a couple of months in Nanjing but it's too big for my likings. I lived for two years in Funing a small city north of Yancheng and wanted to stay for a third but the head Chinese English teacher at the teachers college where I worked was a user. The other teahing staff were good but poor management as they tried to do me twice on airfares and travel allowance. Funing is just a small industrail city so you either mix with the locals and enjoy life or go stir crazy. I was the only Westener in Funing.

A'Moo · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:18 pm Post subject:

Whenever this subject matter arises (cheap laces to live et al), it always seems to come to food stalls, and for good reason. It can make those toiling for 3000-5000y a month feel as though they have some form of purchasing power...
Unfortunately, I'm 6'3", have size 13 feet, and am a vegetarian who prefers western food. So clothes/food etc. are just as expensive for me here as back home (quite possibly more)...

vikuk · Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 1842

Moon Over Parma · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 819

Goose-in-a-jar. I think that's a franchise in the making.

Anda · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 2199 Location: Jiangsu Province

Boned goose slow cooked, double boiler style, in own juices with ginger.

tingdedong · Joined: 10 Feb 2008 Posts: 14

vikuk · Joined: 23 May 2007 Posts: 1842

Well if the subject is cheap - and food,health and 5RMB noodles have been brought into the discussion. Well on health grounds - quality of hygiene, standards of checking official regulations and quality of foodstuffs (residues of pesticides, herbicides, hormone implants, dangerous preservatives, color and taste additives + all those nasty toxins like heavy metals that either float around in the waterways or are blown around in the air) then I have a feeling that China is barrel scarping in the healthy eating stakes. On the 5RMB dish front, you may get what you pay for and indeed a little bit more!!!!!

This is not the place for the nervous gourmet!!!!

A partial way of dodging some of the worst of the cheap street restaurants is to cook your own food (a la Anda's goose) - but even then you still wonder what you're buying - but at least here you can choose between cheap low quality and more "reliable" expensive brands - an example being cooking oil (oil used by cheaper restaurants maybe recycled filtered second hand oil that is processed by those guys who come out each night to collect those barrel loads of waste food - yes they can extract oil from that rank smelly garbage).
It also helps with your economy, gives you something to do ( an Ft's worst problem in China can be boredom), and its a great sanity defender when you just don't want more Chinese food (baked beans on toast or ham and eggs can sometimes be amazing medicine when it all gets too much).

So when negotiating a job - make sure that your version of cheap China at least contains a kitchen and some utensils - a micro is also more than handy. An employer that offers you less is just being far too cheap Idea

SnoopBot · Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 740 Location: USA

You can R/O Beijing off this list for "Cheap Cities."

Costs are very high and expected to get worse after the Olympics and the price-controls are removed.

Salaries are on the same par with other more remote areas that have lower living cost.

To enjoy Beijing fully at 100%, you must earn at least 8000 RMB a month or have some external home-country pay (retirement).

The other method would be to work extra hours and to create a reputable private client list. However, many contracts are now at the +18 hour a week level and some have clauses to limit private work.