Job Discussion Forums

[kendall]

Hello Everyone,

I will soon be moving to Dalian to teach english, and I am curious about the Chinese cost of living. I recently had my pay level raised from 2500 to 2700 yuan per month (whippee!). Housing of course is paid for, but there really are no other financial perks. I can not even take classes at the University without a cost. I know the conversion rates and all, but I am wondering if this is going to be enough money to eat, drink, and travel with. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

K

[Owen]

I taught in the Dalian Development Zone last year. Cost of living there was high for China. If you are in the city itself it will be better but still mid-range for China. Not Shanghai costs, but we figure that the DZ cost us almost twice as much as living in Shenyang does. Most expats would not save much to travel on at that pay scale. If you live like the locals, then you can do all right of course. Also travel out of Dalian tends to be expensive in time and money because of where it is. You have to take the train or bus north to get off the penninsula before you can head back south to the majority of China.

[Ferne]

Kendall--I lived in Dalian for a while and was making more than that but ALSO I am a compulsive shopper for souvenirs, so I was often putting money into the wrong things...so it really depends on you! Food-wise, you can save a LOT if you eat at a little cookery. I lived close to Bai Yun Shan Dong, and there was a great little kitchen hidden away in a corner...I could have a great meal (clean, fresh, tasty) there for no more than 3 Yuen. You need to find those places but they are there. It is hard though when you can't read the language--so I was limited to places where you could actually see the food and just point at it. You can easily spend over 30 Yuen for a Mc Donald's meal. If you are at a Uni, can you eat in the cantine for free, if they offer that to staff? Even if not, cantine food isn't expensive, and depending on where you are, it can be pretty decent.
Depending on how long you will be staying, you might not even need to buy any clothes. Toiletries, all those goodies you need to feel clean and fresh, that also depends on you...e.g. can you live without mouthwash (and unless you don't care if it's effective or not you won't find one anyway ), can you live without (good) chocolate? Just little things like that. You will definitely cut down on what you will consider "necessary" for living, but that's cool and normal. You just need to find out when you get there, everyone has their own little needs and adjusts to their own new standard of living...and if it's not enough, bargain if applicable or find a second job, maybe at a private school on the weekends.

[Joe C.]

2,700 kuai is quite meager. Will it last the month? I think it would depend on your life style.

Maybe finding part-time work is a good idea.

[Roger]

2700 is just 500 higher than absolute minimum - how could you accept that? How many hours do you put in working for them? It muist not be more than 16!

But to address your question:
You will want to spend some funds on food that's different from canteen fare (which typically is free or heavily-subsidised). At McDonal;d's, expect to spend 16 yuan per meal (I think in some places the set meals go for 18 kuai). At PIZZA HUT, it is double and more that! If you can swallow and stomach the food available from roadside eateries, well, it will set you back a few yuan a time, but not all are as clean as someone posted here! The dishes get merely rinsed in the same water that other dishes have already been rinsed in.

A can of Coke costs 1.80 to 2.20 yuan. Beer is not expensive. Instant noodles come in different sizes and flavours for anywhere from 1.50 to 6 yuan.

Bus fares have gone up from a few mao a few years ago to several yuan now. In most cases, this represented a n increase of ten times! Don't know where they are heading for... the sky perhaps? Taxis are comparatively cheap at 4 to 7 kuai per flag fall, and 1.8 to 2.6 kuai per extra km.
My first training centre boss in Shenzhen paid me 2500 RMB only - many years ago! For the first 6 weeks, I had no kitchen. VIrtually all my income went for food and drinks. Today, I reckon I would need double that salary to survive...But don't despair... Dalian is cheaper than Shenzhen is!

[Minhang Oz]

We're a couple with a child bringing in around 12000 a month. We budget on 3000 of that and usually make it. We eat out whenever we feel like it- a good quality meal for the 3 of us is 30-40. Buses 1or 2 yuan, subway 3 or 4, bottle of beer 1 yuan up to whatever Heineken costs. Food in the markets here [Shanghai] is the same as Guilin, most meat 6 yuan/500 g,vegetables cheap. as is seasonal fruit. Myths about this city being expensive are just that. We cook pizzas at home, don't like Maccas, catch taxis rarely, buy whatever we want/need, pay kindergarten fees, save heaps, Your salary is way down the pay scale though- hope your school pays utilities or you could be very poor. Avoid Western or copycat products-usually you pay western prices. Live like a middle class Chinese [and they're well fed, well dressed etc.] and your money should be enough. But don't fly, or phone home a lot.

[hubei_canuk]

Western hubei and generally all interior places: Samples
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(Jin = a pound)
Beer: 1.5 a 630 ml. pint, 3.4 percent
Tomatoes .8 - 1.8 jiao/jin depending on season.
Oranges .8 to 1.8/jin seasonal.
peanuts in shell 2.5 /jin always
...
Entire roast duck thoroughly cooked 14 - 18 yuan
BBQ chicken given a thorough grease roasting 15 min 16 Yuan
Same chicken made as hot pot with additional cooking plus other ingredients. 16 yuan .. same price. Give them any other vegetables that you buy elsewhere and they cook it up for you with the chicken.
....
ketchup 2 to 3 yuan a bottle.
Honey 8 to 16 yuan a jar.
Jam 2.3 to 6 yuan a jar.
Noodles 1 yuan a packet.
rice .8 to 1.2 jin. ? (i usually only eat noodles)...
...
Fried noodles with delicious sauces, spices 2 yuan.
add egg 2.5
add meat 3 yuan.
meat plus egg 3 yuan or 3.5
...
A standard Hubei dish:
Dry noodles 1 to 1.5. (delicious .. has sesame sauce)
Add meat sauce 2.5.
----
mushrooms 2.5 to 3/jin
Potatoes .5 /jin
turnips .6/jin
onions .8/jin
eggplant 1.2/jin
cooking oil 3.1/ jin
coffee 54 yuan for 200 gms (large jar)
can condensed sweet milk 7 yuan
10 yuan for coffee packets (3 in 1,or 2 in 1) 11 to 14 packets (often plus a free mug or some other goodies)
peanut butter 7 yuan a jar.
All kinds of greens, all vegetables usually between .5 and 2 yuan per jin.
....
sausage.. get a pack for cooking about 10 to 16 yuan.
...
cheese... you must be dreaming or in Wuhan.
Butter..... ditto
..
small packages of cookies (munchy good) 1.3 yuan
..
eggs 2.4 to 3.1 seasonal /jin .. about 8 eggs
Beef with about 15% fat 4 to 5 yuan /jin
Fish ( i don't like fish bones so don't eat fish but..) 2-5 yuan will get you a lot of fish.
Fried dumplings (delicious) 8 for 1 yuan
Steet Baked bread , various varieties all .5 yuan one kind is baked actually.. is in rectangles, other kind is baked inside drum and you spread a delicious sour-hot sauce on it.
Coke in store and all 500/600 cc drinks 2.5 to 3 yuan
coke 1.25l 4.5 yuan
All kinds of ice cream bars .5 to 2 yuan, usually buy the 1 yuan is great varieties. Never buy the import 6 yuan. local brands just as good.
..
Local Rice wine 2 to 3 yuan a jin.
..
Baked goods...lots and lots of 1/ 1.5/ and 2 yaun treats in bakeries as well as special cookies 5 yuan/jin, thin sliced bread loaf 3.8, other bread loafs 4 to 6 yuan. endless varieties of baked goods but not like Western, most ready to eat because has some other ingredient to give taste so b/c they don't use the butter for taste except cooking butter.

------------------------
I never go to Macdonalds, why on earth would i when i can buy an entire duck or chicken or 4-5 pounds of beefl for less than a Big Mac meal?.
...
All the street food i buy is fried or baked to death and touched only by chopsticks or toothpick sticks . All the dishes are disposable.
...
Street food rocks! there are endless varieties in all the regions. Muslim beef noodles are the most delicious.. find them in Henan.
...
As well outside many schools , many small eats , noodles, drinks, fried patties of various kinds all .5 Yuan. Love cold red-bean drink/porridge in summer.
...
Chocolate Bars.. CHUM is a good brand .5 for the small 1 yuan for the big, some of the varieties are really tasty others so-so.

[Owen]

Good detailed listing Canuk. Prices in Dalian are a generally a little higher, but if you are careful and search out the Chinese markets, not Carrefor etc, you can get close to those prices. Clothes tend to be expensive in Dalian. It prides itself as a fashion center.

As for the street food debate that always goes on between foreigners, I figure that 200 C boiling oil or the open flame will kill any nasties that are on the food as long as I watch them to make sure they give it a good going over.

[gerard]

hello---Most has been covered here but I just wonder at what point do you say it's not enough??? Also scary is the alarming lack of perks you mention. Internet phone and other utils might knock off a few hundred.

Yes you can eat for 4 RMB but I think you are going to want to go out for something nicer and suddenly it is 40Y. You can find a local wine (grape I mean) for 8 Y but you will want a nicer bottle costing 40 sometimes if not all the time. IMO 50Y a day is about a bare minimum-do the math-that won't leave a lot for travel. With extra work I am getting about 4500 or so and I don't feel rich. In fact if my holiday wasn't derailed by sars I would be struggling waiting for payday.

[Seth]

The money is the trade off for a more secure and steady job. Work for a private institute and you'll get paid more but will have to put up with rotten children and jealous native co-workers, as well as a higher rip-off factor. Unis are much more pleasant places to be. I get paid more than twice the average uni wage, but I'd rather be at a uni.

[Minhang Oz]

Gerard
Sorry to be the one to shatter your illusions BUT that "natural grape wine" at 8 yuan a bottle, often Changyu / Imperial Dragon brand, but many others also, is really just some red syrup with a bit of spirit thrown in. Thinking about it, does it taste anything like grapes? It's OK though, and has to be better for you than baijiu! On the real wine front, China's come a long way since I first tried it. One brand, Imperial Court, tastes fine and is in the low 30's.
ps I'm Australian- we like red wine. [this is my CV]

[hubei_canuk]

[Roger]

So, Hubei-Canuk, the Germans came to China around 1800??? That's news to me!
Germany was landlord over Shandong from 1898 to 1914 - a full century after you want us to think they were here!

And as for your comments on French wine, that was a lot of knowledge drowned out in plain water!

[Minhang Oz]

Hubei Canuk
I'm not sure why you quoted my entire post: I suppose its a complimemt. Where we differ in our definitions is that I believe that something called grape wine needs some grapes in it. As for "wine growers"...people grow grapes, then wine is made from the grapes. Its a bit like calling a wheat farmer a " bread grower".

This whole topic needs its own thread. Can someone please do the honors?

[arioch36]

I wince every time a Chinese person offers me wine. Their wine is as bad as their bread. Hmm, I guess the French are good at two things.