Cost of Living – The Nanfang

China Has the Most Expensive Cities in the World for Expats

Charles Liu — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 01:59:08 +0000

China may seem cheap when you consider the cost of a bowl of Lanzhou noodles, but compared to other countries it’s downright expensive. A new study says whatever your salary is, you’ll be using much of it towards the high cost of living in China’s major cities.

According to a cost of living survey conducted by ECA International, Shanghai is the most expensive city to live in Asia as an expatriate. Beijing was close behind at number two, while Guangzhou and Shenzhen ranked sixth and seventh respectively. All four cities moved up the ranks from last year’s survey in which Shanghai placed third, Beijing fourth, Guangzhou 13th, and Shenzhen 22nd.

The biggest jump however belongs to Macau which climbed all the way from 34th to 13th.

In all, Chinese cities accounted for 11 out of the 20 most expensive Asian cities for expatriates. Chinese cities account for the majority of expensive expat cities throughout the world.

These surveys sometimes don’t tell the entire story, though. While the criteria for this one is unclear, the surveys often take a western lifestyle as a basis and calculate how much it would cost to maintain a similar lifestyle abroad. No doubt a 2,500 square-foot home with backyard, 2 cars, and more would be a lot more expensive in Shanghai than it would be in Dubuque, Iowa.

The post China Has the Most Expensive Cities in the World for Expats appeared first on The Nanfang.

They Now Have The Chance, But Few Chinese Couples Want More Than One Kid

Charles Liu — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 03:34:47 +0000

For 36 years, China’s family planning policy limited Chinese couples to having just one child. But with the announcement that the policy is to be abolished, Chinese couples are, for the first time, faced with an interesting choice: should they have a second child?

According to data released by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning last week, only 10 percent of eligible couples are actually interested in giving their kid a brother or sister.

According to the data, 55,851 of qualified Beijing couples applied to have a second child as of October this year, accounting for just one-tenth of the estimated 550,000 eligible couples. In the country as a whole, 1.45 million couples applied to have a second baby by May of this year, accounting for just 13 percent of all eligible couples, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

At the end of 2013 China introduced a policy allowing couples to have a second child if one of the parents is an only child. A previous version required both parents to be the only children in their families.

However, China’s new, much more expansive, two child policy has not led to a surge in interest for second children. A recent CCTV poll found that 30 percent of parents said they are not willing to have a second child because they don’t have enough money.

Credit Suisse economist, Dong Tao, estimates that the cost of raising a child until adulthood in China is 499,200 yuan, or around 27,700 yuan a year, which doesn’t account for education expenses. “The high cost of raising a child is probably China’s new birth control,” said Dong.

Announced October 29, the end of the one child policy has yet to be ratified by the National People’s Congress, and remains law until such time.

According to Wang Peian, an official with the National Health and Family Planning Commission, China’s government estimates that with 90 million couples eligible to have two children, births will increase over the next few years, eventually peaking at over 20 million newborns a year.

The post They Now Have The Chance, But Few Chinese Couples Want More Than One Kid appeared first on The Nanfang.

Laowai’s cost of living in Shenzhen, Guangzhou exceeds New York

Jane Zhang — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:00:15 +0000

The cost of living in Shenzhen and Guangzhou has exceeded that of New York for the first time, according to Southern Metropolis Daily

It was reported June 12 that according to the world’s biggest human resource managerial consultation company Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the cost of living in the cities exceeded that of New York in March this year. The research method involved comparing payment levels for companies and governmental institutions whose staff work overseas.

The survey covers more than 200 indexes including housing, traffic, food, clothes, household appliances and entertainment. The report ranks New York 33th, the highest in the U.S. Five cities in China are above New York on the list, including Hong Kong which is number 9, Shanghai in 16, Beijing in 17, Shenzhen in 30 and Guangzhou in 31.

The reason for the soaring prices is the appreciation of the RMB and the increasingly volatile housing market, according to the report.

The post Laowai’s cost of living in Shenzhen, Guangzhou exceeds New York appeared first on The Nanfang.