Shanghai cost of living

I just read a fo­rum post where sev­eral ex­pats in Shanghai were say­ing that 10,000 RMB per month is not enough for an ex­pat to live here com­fort­ably. That 10K RMB pay is on top of what’s typ­i­cally in­cluded in an ex­pat pack­age (rent and flights home paid for, some­times more).

So I did a bit of cal­cu­la­tion of my own to see what my monthly cost of liv­ing is like. Here’s a breakdown.

Necessities

Rent + util­i­ties: 0
Mobile phone ser­vice: 100 RMB/​month
Groceries: 70 RMB/​week
Dinner: 20 RMB/​day av­er­age
Beverages: 4 RMB/​day av­er­age
Haircut: 40 RMB/​mo (Upper-​​body mas­sage in­cluded!)
Subtotal: 1123 RMB per month

That’s right, typ­i­cal cell phone bill in China would be about $15 USD. Fuck USA providers and their $49.99 per month plus fees! So any­way, if I stay home all the time and just surf the web, my ex­pense in Shanghai would be a lit­tle over 1000 RMB per month. Unfortunately I have hob­bies, a few friends, and a woman.

Dinner with friend af­ter work

Metro to down­town: 5 RMB
Dinner: 120 RMB
Metro and taxi back home: 32 RMB
Number of times per week: 2
Subtotal: 1391 RMB per month

I live in the sub­urb, so go­ing to down­town for a meal and com­ing home ba­si­cally take up an en­tire evening. Twice per week is about all I can take. But it is nice to have real food at a de­cent restau­rant once in a while in­stead of the same crap I al­ways eat (like McDonald’s, KFC).

Weekend stroll

Bus and metro to down­town: 9 RMB
Meal or other ac­tiv­ity: 120 RMB
Metro and taxi home: 32 RMB
Number of times per week­end: 1
Subtotal: 713 RMB per month

I have time on week­ends so I’m will­ing to take the bus part­way to down­town. But on my way home at night, I like to take the taxi and count the num­ber of bar­ber­shops I pass by that use pink lights.

Bar or club

Taxi to down­town: 40 RMB
Drinks: 150 RMB
Yangrouchuan x2: 4 RMB
Taxi home: 70 RMB
Number of times per week: 1
Subtotal: 1170 RMB per month

If you don’t drink a lot, or if you go to a re­ally cheap dive, and you be­lieve girls should buy you drinks and not the other way around, 150 RMB is enough. Just make sure you have enough cash for the taxi be­cause the fare goes up late at night (and there’s no bus and metro af­ter 10:30ish).

Other stuff

King Drink pills: 30 RMB/​mo
Clothing or other: 250 RMB/​mo
Disc Kart tick­ets: 350 RMB/​2mo
Subtotal: 455 RMB per month

King Drink is this brand of anti-​​hangover pills that re­ally work. Its name in Chinese is Hai Wang some­thing. After tak­ing it I’d still get a lit­tle dizzy the next day, but no headache. I’m told it also pro­tects your liver.

Websites

Hosting fees: 70.50 USD (480.68 RMB) per half-​​year
Domain names: 119.98 USD (819.24 RMB) per year
Subtotal: 148 RMB per month

My only re­main­ing bills from the US (that I can re­mem­ber) are for my web­sites. I can’t be­lieve I have 14 do­main names. I’m not even a web de­signer. Stupid hobby.

Anyway, add up them subto­tals and my monthly ex­pense comes out to be 5000 RMB ex­actly. (Hah! Weird huh?) I sup­pose some peo­ple wouldn’t con­sider my lifestyle com­fort­able, but I think it’s all right. It’s def­i­nitely not lux­u­rous, but I’m fairly com­fort­able. Maybe I’ve adapted and be­come Chinese? Gasps!