Job Discussion Forums

[trika]

haha, yes it seems like a meager amount, but Wuhan is a very cheap/affordable city. Perhaps when I gain the necessary experience I will be able to earn more and hence be even more comfortable!

-Trika

[Sonnibarger]

8000 in Wuhan is more than enough... even if you like clubs/bars/westrn food. rent here is cheap.. daily living cost is next to nothing... you wanna live cheap... find a good woman(clubs become less important), cook for yourself or eat on the street/small chinese digs... go for beer at local bbq/house parties with friends instead of westrn pubs... you can live the good life on 3000rmb a month... a year ago i was spending 8000+.. now im down to 3500 a month..

[bearcanada]

Come on, people. We're getting a few useful facts here, combined with a whole flurry of nonsense.

My first apartment in Shanghai was less than 20 minutes from downtown, in Rui Hong Xin Cheng, a lovely place all glass and marble, and spotlessly clean all the time. It was marvellous, and I paid 3,000 RMB for a lovely, fully-furnished flat (except for bedding and kitchen stuff). 5,000 paid for all of my living expenses.

And yes, I can go to one of the bars on the Wai Tan and spend 100 RMB for a drink or a beer. Those are places for foreigners who don't know any better, and for locals who want to show how much money they have. I avoid them. Even at Pizza Hut or Papa John's, a beer is only 13 RMB, and in the shops it's only 3 or 4 RMB.

In any city you can blow money like water if you want to do that.

But the point was about a liveable income, and in most cities if you have your living quarters provided by the school, 10,000 is a lot of money. You can live well, and travel all over China.

I now live in Zhongshan Park and I pay 15,000 a month for rent, but I have a very large apartment in an expensive place. But that's choice; not compulsion.

And the incomes are much higher in the large centers as well. I travel a lot and live well and I still save more than 10,000 a month. China can give you whatever you're looking for.

.

[eddy-cool]

And then there are those laowais that volunteer in China or accept positions that pay, and I fool you not: Two thousand yuan a month.

I have met such people more often than most of you combined.

[kev7161]

I earn a bit more than 10,000 but really, not a LOT more than that. I manage to convert and send home 7 to 8,000 of that every month (unless traveling) and live off the rest. I do go out to nice "western" style restaurants about 2-3X a month and I spend about 500 rmb or so on western style foods that are so expensive. Other things I do to entertain myself are:

Watch DVDs
Go to a movie OCCASIONALLY (rarely really) if there is something good in English at the far away cineplex.
Get a 90 min. massage about once a week
Hang out with Chinese friends or enjoy a rainy weekend at home alone
Now that the weather is nicer, I will go out for walks more often until it gets too hot to do so.

My left over money also goes for medicine and nutritional supplements, "normal" food, an occasional book from Amazon or the foreign language bookstore, buying gifts for friends with a new baby or a birthday or whatever, going to Shanghai for the weekend, etc. By the end of the month, I'm lucky if I have 500 rmb left in the bank on payday, but I rarely if ever have to scrounge. I agree with posters that prices do seem to go up here and there but I'm still paying 5 rmb for DVDs and still paying 55 yuan for that 90 minute massage and still paying 15 rmb for a haircut (with an extra 5 as a "tip") and 10 rmb for a taxi that takes me about the same distance every time. Imported foods are ridiculous but a lot of normal, daily things seem to be roughly the same. Train tickets, I forgot to mention, seem about the same as well and I shell out an extra 10rmb to get the 1st class D train.

Of course the school pays for my apartment and utilities (including internet and local calls) and I can eat up to 3 meals a day there if I were to spend an entire day there (not likely!) so there's money of my own I would be spending at home in the USA. Let's not forget the cost of a car back home as well (car payments, fuel, insurance, maintenance). I've posted many, MANY things about my disagreements with China but I can't list lack of money and my lifestyle as one of them. I think I'm better off here than there in this regard.