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Indigo1
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Posts: 4
Location: Scotland
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 Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:30 am Post subject: Teaching in Xian. |
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Hi,
I have been offered a position teaching in Xian with a salary of 6000RMB per month.
Can anyone tell me what the area is like and an idea of cost of living.
Is this salary enough to live comfortably and save?
Thanks. |
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Sugar & Spice
Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 73
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 10:33 am Post subject: |
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Why am I the only one on his website who wants to spend all of his/her money?
Save? It's Greek to me!! |
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happigur1
Joined: 25 Jul 2009
Posts: 228
Location: USA
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Sugar & Spice wrote: |
Why am I the only one on his website who wants to spend all of his/her money?
Save? It's Greek to me!! |
I spent all my salary AND my savings from back home last year. It was G-R-E-A-T 
But now it's time to focus on a future and try to save for emergencies and stuff for things that adults like to buy... like a place to live?  |
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happigur1
Joined: 25 Jul 2009
Posts: 228
Location: USA
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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To OP: Is housing provided? If yes, then you should do okay as long as you budget and don't intend to eat at a nice western meal every day and go to bars every weekend  |
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kukiv
Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Posts: 328
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:59 pm Post subject: |
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| and don't intend to eat at a nice western meal every day and go to bars every weekend |
Western style food is often cheaper than Chinese restaurant food if you cook it yourself - so many ingredients can be found in the market - just have to cook from scratch with locally produced ingredients rather than cook from a box or tin - no need for expensive imported products. Make sure your accommodation has decent cooking facilities that include utensils and microwave.
As for not going to bars every weekend - that must be a typo - that should have been read every night. If you can't afford to drink on the weekend, or indeed enjoy other normal luxuries - then what a pitiful, lonely existence the life of an FT must be!!!!!! Beers in many bars only cost 15RMB - drinking 5 of them shouldn't break any saving scheme  |
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Zero
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Posts: 1402
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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Why is everyone so eager to be exploited? I would not accept lower than 15,000, and housing should be included. I could not live on less. People who work for lower are ruining the market for serious teachers.
The key to livable wages is not a bunch of degrees and certificates or even experience. It is persistence, and showing them that you have the right stuff. |
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Sugar & Spice
Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 73
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:39 pm Post subject: |
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"But now it's time to focus on a future and try to save for emergencies and stuff for things that adults like to buy... like a place to live? "
Happy Girl - I hope to die before I get old. 40 and still kicking! Although, I must admit, I've slowed down a bit.
I guess you wouldn't want to marry me though. I have a pot to piss in and bed to lie on, but no where to call home.
I do have a happy home in my mind. It's all I need. Have a nice day!
In the end, I guess you could classify me a 40 year old backpacker. Real troopers. |
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happigur1
Joined: 25 Jul 2009
Posts: 228
Location: USA
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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| kukiv wrote: |
| Quote: |
| and don't intend to eat at a nice western meal every day and go to bars every weekend |
Western style food is often cheaper than Chinese restaurant food if you cook it yourself - so many ingredients can be found in the market - just have to cook from scratch with locally produced ingredients rather than cook from a box or tin - no need for expensive imported products. Make sure your accommodation has decent cooking facilities that include utensils and microwave.
As for not going to bars every weekend - that must be a typo - that should have been read every night. If you can't afford to drink on the weekend, or indeed enjoy other normal luxuries - then what a pitiful, lonely existence the life of an FT must be!!!!!! Beers in many bars only cost 15RMB - drinking 5 of them shouldn't break any saving scheme |
I first came to China when I was 22 years old. Granted, I know how to cook but don't take the time necessary to prepare everything from scratch. Sometimes it easier to go to Metro or go to the foreign store aisle, grab that 15 RMB bags of spaghetti noodles and 20 RMB spaghetti sauce, get some garlic, onion, mushroom and bam! Dinner!
Going to Chinese restaurant (a clean one) and getting a bowl of noodles and side dishes = ~15-20 RMB at the higher end. Plus, it's reallllly hard to cook from scratch for ONE person. Yes, I could cook for a week and put left over in the fridge but I don't use common sense 
As for drinking at a bar... again, young twenties. It meant bar hopping on the weekend and DRINKING something other than beer.
In any case, I've moved on. I am attempting to make a chicken pot pie tonight And I make much more than when I first got here so a weekend or two out of town doesn't break the bank too much. |
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Sugar & Spice
Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 73
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| Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:55 pm Post subject: |
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Can I come over for dinner? I'm starving!
My best dishes are honey mustard chicken and chicken & shrimp fried rice. They're easy.
All you need is a chicken breast, frozen shrimp, some vegetables and soy sauce/honey & mustard.
I have a wonderful class on cooking, but, the only problem is that I'm the only one interested in the topic in my university class! Adult training center classes enjoyed it though. |
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kukiv
Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Posts: 328
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:24 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I first came to China when I was 22 years old. Granted, I know how to cook but don't take the time necessary to prepare everything from scratch. Sometimes it easier to go to Metro or go to the foreign store aisle, grab that 15 RMB bags of spaghetti noodles and 20 RMB spaghetti sauce, get some garlic, onion, mushroom and bam! Dinner! |
Hand made noodles - found in the market are indeed one of the cheapest basic food items going - you can get a bag, that will last for several meals, for around 2RMB - and you can actually freeze them if you're super saving orientated. Noodles originated in China - and even though my favorite are found in Xinjiang - the same type of noodle can be found here in Sichuan - it makes a great substitute to expensive dried spaghetti pasta. Since small shops that sell noodles seem far more common than Metro (why do you shop here - usually cheaper western food in Carrefour or Auchan ) - you'd save time shopping for those - and indeed its even easier to find fresh beef tomatoes, garlic and an onion to make your sauce - which, extremely easy to make, will cost around 2 RMB - the only problem are the spices - stock up om these when you next hit metro, maybe a tin of tomato puree, or 7RMB bottle of ketchup would also help if you're dead set on imitating that out of the spaghetti sauce jar taste
Chinese food doesn't have to be just about eating yet more of those greasy restaurant dishes - but a whole adventure of trying out the incredible array of ingredients that are so cheap and easy to buy!!!!!! |
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Moon Over Parma
Joined: 20 May 2007
Posts: 819
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| Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:28 am Post subject: |
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6000 for Xi'an is a decent salary to live off of comfortably. You can enjoy your life and get around but you won't save a lot. You can save but it won't be great guns. Most universities in Xi'an offer criminally low starting salaries of about 4K. 5 is the minimum for a comfortable life there but no possibility of saving much. 6 starts that potential. yes, you can enjoy a western meal every day on 6K and maybe even save. I disagree with a previous poster on that fact. Also, clean shops for noodles will be 10RMb or less. 15 rmb noodles? Perhaps they only ate in tourist zones. I have a friend who lived in Xi'an for a year and he loved the place. He had a decent paying job. I visit Xi'an often and enjoy my time there tremendously. It's a great city. If the universities paid better I'd consider a permanent move there. 6K will see you well. I hope you aren't working many hours for it. I know that side work in Xi'an is laughably low paying and was told that some guy named "Steven" seemed to have a racket on supplying it.
This excludes renting your own place. If you are renting your own place then forget about it. |
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daCabbie
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
Posts: 244
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| Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:23 am Post subject: |
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There are more important questions than just how much money.
How many hours are you teaching?
Do you teach at the same location you work or live?
Is housing shared or private?
Is it at Kid Castle (where a teacher was recently stabbed)?
Is the school/teaching in the city is in the burbs?
Do they provide airfare reimbursement?
I can go on but I think you get the point. I work for less than average pay, but I make up for it more than average free time to make ends meet. Personally I wouldn't work in Xi'an for less than 9K for private school and 6K for a public institution. But I have a limited number of responsibilities back home and not a large drive to save a whole lot. |
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nickpellatt
Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 1522
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Sugar & Spice wrote: |
"But now it's time to focus on a future and try to save for emergencies and stuff for things that adults like to buy... like a place to live? "
Happy Girl - I hope to die before I get old. 40 and still kicking! Although, I must admit, I've slowed down a bit.
I guess you wouldn't want to marry me though. I have a pot to piss in and bed to lie on, but no where to call home.
I do have a happy home in my mind. It's all I need. Have a nice day!
In the end, I guess you could classify me a 40 year old backpacker. Real troopers. |
Sugar & Spice - I like your style! Im exactly the same!
OP - As mentioned by another poster...its all about the hours really. 6000 is loads for a great lifestyle for a year or so...less so if you are in it for a long term stay and have, or are aiming to have responsibilities. 6000 is roughly 200 rmb a day spending money. I cant see how anyone couldnt live pretty well, party hard, and have a lot of fun on that wage here. I just paid for a decent meal for 5 tonight and it cost me 100, if I was on your salary I would still have 100 left for 600ml beers that run out at 8rmb a bottle...and Im in a tourist town where one would assume prices are slightly higher!
If you are teaching 25 hours plus office hours etc its a pretty bad deal though. |
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El Chupacabra
Joined: 22 Jul 2009
Posts: 378
Location: Kwangchow
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| Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:28 am Post subject: Re: Teaching in Xian. |
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| Indigo1 wrote: |
Hi,
I have been offered a position teaching in Xian with a salary of 6000RMB per month.
Can anyone tell me what the area is like and an idea of cost of living.
Is this salary enough to live comfortably and save?
Thanks. |
I live in Xi'an, and earn 6K/month. Have been able to save 2k/month, and plan to leave with twenty large. Truth is, I could save twice that if I weren't wiring another 2k monthly to my wife and child in the Philippines.
Cost of living is low here, and 6k is actually on the high side for Xi'an salaries. Many FTs are coming in making between 3k and 5k and getting along just fine. |
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