Can I live with 1500 RMB per month (minus housing expense) in Beijing?

I am interning at a local business in Beijing this summer. Hopefully if plan goes right, I can get free housing. So is 1500 RMB per month enough for the rest of living expense (food, shopping, clubbing)?|||No way. If you want to do those things you will need much much more. Think about it... Lets say you go





Clubbing 4 times a month. I will go on the High end... Taxi to club. 22 RMB. Drinks at club. (4 drinks at 30 RMB each) That's 568 RMB a month. Over 1/3 of 1,500 RMB.





Food. If you just eat cheap Chinese food every day... ( food from hole in the wall places. Street Food... etc...) 30 days of eating... each meal will cost you maybe 10 RMB. 3 meals a day. that's 900 RMB. That's spending 30 RMB a day. Very Low. You may skip a meal here and there. But You wont want to eat just Chinese food. There will be times when you want some western Food. Those meals will cost you 50 RMB and up. Now you are at 1,468 RMB. Now you have 32 RMB to Shop. 32 RMB will not cut it. Even if my estimates were a bit high, you still won't have enough. There are Cell phone cards to buy. China Mobile cards are 50-100 RMB each. I use 2 of those a month. Then there is the METRO cards. Again 50-100 RMB a month. The Metro is cheaper than a taxi or bus. But when that metro shuts down at night you have to take a TAXI to get home.





I live in Guangzhou, China. I make around 12,000 RMB a month teaching English. I spend 6000 to 7000 RMB a month. That is including my Rent at 3300 RMB ( including utilities ) I live comfortably on 3000-4000 RMB every month. Save the rest. But I don't club. I do not buy clothes. I'm 6-3. Size 14 (52) shoes size. They don't make clothes for me. I eat Western Food one day a week. The Other days I eat Cheap Chinese food or semi nice Chinese restaurants. Also consider the amount of liquids you will be drinking. It's Hot in CHINA during the summer time. I drink about 3 bottles of water a day. Average bottle of water is 2 RMB. That's almost 200 RMB a month on water alone. Sure you can get a water cooler at your place. I do as well. But you can't carry that with you. There are so many little expenses that I can't list them to you now. So, do you think you can survive on 1,500 RMB a month? I would say shoot for 2,500 to 3,000 RMB. That would be a good comfort zone for you.





PS... As far as the clubbing goes... well, you have an advantage being female. FREE DRINKS??? Good luck with your trip to China. Hope this info helps.|||No. It is very low.





You would survive, but that's all.|||You could ''survive'' on 1500rmb per month but it would mean eating very low grade food, buying very cheap clothes and only going clubbing at free entry venues and not drinking or drinking very little when inside.


You may be asked to pay for the utilities you use in your accommodation which will mean more expense. As well as possible transport costs. These costs will leave you with very little money for ''luxuries''. Moreover do you know the standard of accommodation that they will give you?


1500 rmb is approx. $US 220 per month. It's a VERY low wage for Beijing as the city is one of the most expensive cities to live in China. The average wage in Beijing is about 2000RMB per month for the Chinese people living there.


Personally I wouldn't consider working in Beijing for less than 10,000 RMB per month.


It sounds like your prospective employers are trying to hire you as ''cheap labour'' and is being extremely mean. I would guess that they could easily afford to pay you much more.


There may be Chinese posters that answer your question saying that 1500RMB is a good wage when added to your free housing but please remember that their standards are far lower than those of non Chinese. They are used to poor living conditions, food etc.


If you wish to work in China for either experience or indeed a reasonable wage, my advice would be to look for other opportunities. There are many for you in China.


Good luck !|||It's very hard, I mean hard to live in China with only 1500 RMB at hand. Specially if you live in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai or even GuangZhou. But maybe you can barely live in small city like SuZhou or XiaAn. But I doubt it.


The rent is about 600 RMB and that's Chinese standard already. Food you can spend like 10 RMB per meal and if 3 meals a day, that's 10x3=30, 30x30 days =900 RMB. Your 1500 RMB is well spent only for housing and food.


Not to mention utility bills like electricity, water, phone and gas. This about about 200 RMB per month average. And if you are very lucky, the owner could pay these for you, but that's very very rare situation.





So, in my opinion, you can go with only about 2000 RMB per month, but if you still wanna so some shopping or clubbing, 3000 RMB is enough.