Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ment, and housing—Beijing ranked as the 17th most expensive city for expats (above Lon-
don at 25 and New York at 33).
The official Beijing inflation rates are hard to judge. Overall they hover at around 3-5
percent, but food and housing are substantially more. For many expats, these figures don't
always seem to match what happens in their own experience. Back in around 2007, when
re-signing your lease you could expect that the landlord would increase the rent by perhaps
RMB200-300. In 2012-2013 it was more like RMB500-1,500.
You can choose to expose yourself to more or less of this inflation, depending on what
kind of lifestyle you want and where you shop. You can lead an amazingly shallow-pock-
eted life if you live outside the Fifth Ring Road (Shunyi excluded) and stick to the locally
produced goods, fake products, public transport, and local-style supermarkets. Try to main-
tain the lifestyle you had back home, and you'll find Beijing can be a very expensive city in
which to live. Anything imported, organic, or classified as “luxury” is going to cost about
as much as it cost back home, if not more. Unlike Hong Kong, Beijing is not the city to get
cheap electronics—particularly the genuine ones.
Many expats fall victim to the higher prices, and a lot of this has to do with the way they
shop. They get their groceries from Westernized supermarkets, which hike the prices up on
local goods as well as the imported ones; they dine at Western-run restaurants; and they buy
directly from Western-friendly shopping malls. As part of UBS's research, they also took a
basket of consumer goods typically used by European families and used these to measure
the actual spending power in each of the cities; i.e., the ability of foreigners to live like they
live at home, but on a local salary. Beijing came out clinging to the 63rd rung. If you're
going to be paid in your home country's currency or at least given a generous package, then
you may not be affected by this depressing situation. If not, you might want to seriously
reconsider the viability of moving to Beijing or at least be prepared to adapt and manage
your spending more like a local.
There is a range of lifestyles in Beijing, and how much money each of them requires each
month is extremely different. Some expat families of four, for example, suggest that you
need to have an annual income that's equivalent to US$200,000 to live a comprehensive
Western lifestyle in Beijing.
University students usually have the best access to cheaper living. Shared accommod-
ations can be as low as RMB500 per month in some extreme ascetic cases, university
food is subsidized, and shops in the vicinity of the university grounds usually cater to the
