Job Discussion Forums

[basbas]

hey guys

wondering if other people feel the way I do...


I'm feeling like the cost of living in SH. is just grinding me to nothing...
it's just getting so expensive to live here especially apartments

for real

it just feels like salary to cost of living ratio is just getting to the point of being absurd...

I'm finishing up a contract so I'm shopping around for my next position and what i see out there (not offers just shopping prices on postings) seem so low...like for example you get all these schools offering 12000-13000 (BEFORE TAX) no housing no benefits...

i don't know about anybody else i feel like but for me at this point i feel like if I don't make something like the following:

13500 (AFTER TAX) with housing

or

15000-16000 (AFTER TAX) without housing

anything lower i just feel like I am just wasting my time here,

I don't know...what do others think..It just feels so expensive here these days...

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Recruiters, die-hard Sinophiles and school bosses will all tell you that China is cheap, a worker's paradise and that the problem is you personally for wasting so much money.

But that is complete rubbish.

I make well over what you make, and I find China as a whole unaffordable. Mind you, I have a family and expenses. But even before that, every year became more and more expensive while salaries became stagnant.

I have researched the cost of living in China a lot lately leading up to my departure of this place. Where I live is perhaps special as I am in a small city which should be cheap yet very expensive and comparative to the cost of living in Beijing or even Shanghai. Apart from housing, that is.

Look, most schools in China offer accommodation in one form or another. Shanghai and much of Beijing is an exception to this because the costs of housing are too high and schools are too cheap to fork over the money.

Unless you work for yourself as I do, you will never be able to truly make any serious money. And even then, you will miss things like clean air, camping, swimming at the lake, et al.

Some may flame me or make some personal snide comment directed at me personally, but those are just coming from people who are genuinely stuck here and have little real ability or desire to go back home or someplace else and make a decent life for themselves.

For me, wallowing in my apartment all day playing white monkey at work while making someone very very rich has grown old. I cannot take my daughter to the park without people interfering in our lives or go shopping without people taking photos of her or putting their dirty mitts all over my child, uninvited of course.

I feel I am wasting my time here and that is why after almost a decade in China I am leaving for good in less than a month's time.

[wangdaning]

Went to Shanghai once, didn't like it. I found the folks there to be stuck up (didn't get the chance to meet any non Chinese). My advice would be to try somewhere new (either in or out of China).

[mandu]

shenzhen is no that bad
I have been here for over 10 years
you could come here and try your luck

[mandu]

not that bad

[Denim-Maniac]

@basbas

Ive never worked in SH, or even visited there. Heck, I've never worked in any Chinese city ... and it's kinda for the reasons you mention. I'm not much of a city man, and pretty much anytime I look at the typical city gigs, the salaries just don't seem to justify it for me.

I work (worked) in one of the much-maligned low paid positions, and with many of my colleagues we have discussions about better paid jobs. Occasionally, a colleague does leave in lure of 'riches'. I know a couple who left for SH some times ago, and I met them when they came back to visit us this year. 'We work a lot harder, cost of living is much higher, so we only save a little more', was the response to how things are.

My poorly paid job is sneered at by many, and many applicants refuse the job because of the salary, but there is a reason I go back to the same place year after year. I am really drawn to one employer in the big cities, and although the salary is more than 3x my current employers salary, it just doesn't pan out for me. The hours would be double, and Id have to work evenings and weekends (Id want a premium for that), there isn't housing included, and I'd probably have to commute to work each day (based on a 5 day week and just one hours travelling to and fro - that's like working an extra day!). And can anyone direct me to a laowei bar in a city that has 600 ml beers for 8 RMB? Beer and Burger meal deals for 25 RMB?

City living isnt for me, and even though I keep getting drawn back to looking at ShenZhen ( I have many many Chinese friends there), I honestly can't see it makes much sense unless the package includes housing and pays around 20k per month ... and I don't see many jobs doing that TBH!

[JoeThePlumber]

So what city are you in?

[kungfuman]

[Javelin of Radiance]

[Denim-Maniac]

[basbas]

if you got a student loan to pay...it's pretty tough...

for me it breaks down to something like this...

3200 is loan payment
3500 for rent
3300 for general appropriations ( this includes transit pass, house hold bills, food and other little things, tp razor blades etc)

so for me at least, my quality of life and savings comes from everything after about 10000...it's harsh...

this why i feel like the break down for gigs in shanghai should be something like this: (no housing no benefits just as an example )

average: 14000-15000
good: 15000-17000
excellent: 17000-20000
outstanding: 20000-25000

the scale just seems shifted down by about 2000-3000 maybe more...

i guess i wish they offered housing or at least better housing stipend...

as the french say 'la vie est dure'

[MisterButtkins]

Ehh outside of certain cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen) it is still cheap. I live in a third-tier city, where salaries are only slightly lower (80%) of first-tier cities, and you can rent a very nice apartment here for 600 a month. No BS. Right now I'm in Beijing and I definitely notice the costs rising since when I came here 3 years ago. Just went to a cheap, hole in the wall restaurant. 17 yuan for yuxiang rousi, not bad. But then they charged me 15 for a qingdao beer. WTF? that's 3 where I live.

[dogUNLEASHED]

What's the monthly rent for a humble studio apartment that's not a total dump in Tianjin?

[fat_chris]

Please excuse the somewhat unrelated question - would Kunming, Yunnan be considered a Tier 2 city?

Warm regards,
fat_chris

[WYSIWYG]