One of the most popular posts that we wrote last year was the one on how much it costs to live in Beijing in 2010. Well it’s 2011 and it seems like it’s about time that we did an update. Most things haven’t changed all that much, but some things have gotten a bit more expensive. Nothing has gone down in price, that’s for sure.
We have cut our budget down a bit and are working on paying off some student loans and a couple other things, so we definitely live on less than many expats in Beijing, but we’re not the frugalest of the frugal either. The following is based on the cost of living for two people without kids, but there is some info about school and other expenses for children at the end of the post.
I’ll start with the summary and then write about the details below.
Monthly Budget Summary (2 adults no kids):
Housing: $650/¥4200
Food: $230/¥1500
Transportation: $45/¥300
Household Costs: $45/¥300
Health Insurance: $365/¥2400
Spending Money: $275/¥1800
Travel: $380/¥2500
Stateside Expenses: $380/¥2500
Total: $2365/¥15,500 per month
Housing/Rent
The Beijing housing market is kind of screwed up. Even though there are new residential complexes going up all the time all over the city rent keeps going up. I wrote more about why that is in this post. If you have a huge rent budget it will be no problem for you to find a nice apartment, but if you’re in the middle like us it can be a challenge to find something nice enough to live in that is also not too expensive.
We’ve been fortunate enough to have a landlord that likes having us and hasn’t raised the rent much in the last couple years. We are paying about 20% more now than when we moved into our current apartment 3 years ago. We live in a 2 bedroom place just outside 4th Ring road in WangJing. It has a small kitchen and one bathroom. The shower drains right onto the floor, but that’s not all that uncommon in Beijing.
If we were looking for a new apartment now I would expect to pay at least ¥5000 per month for an equivalent apartment. If you are looking for something inside 4th ring road it will probably cost at least ¥500 more per month, and inside 3rd ring probably ¥1000 more per month. Rent in the university district near WuDaoKou is ridiculous. Most of our friends there pay more than us for smaller, crappier apartments.
If you’re coming to China to study or teach your school may provide an apartment for you. It probably won’t be very nice, but honestly if you’re not here working rent is going to be your biggest expense so it might be worth it to grit your teeth and deal with it.
Food
For most westerners eating out can actually be cheaper than making meals that you’re used to at home, so even for people on a tight budget eating out will probably be about half of your total food costs.
We budget about ¥1500 a month for food. We don’t really go out drinking and we try to keep our meals at restaurants at about ¥50 per person on average. Most of our favorite Western restaurants have raised their prices in the last year, so it might be better to estimate ¥60-70 for western food, but Chinese food is still usually between ¥20-30 per person. We shop mostly at the wet market near our house for produce and get most of the rest at Jenny Lou’s. We could probably cut our grocery bill a little bit, but the Jenny’s near Lido is very convenient for us.
Transportation
The biggest factor in determining transportation costs is how close you live to your work place or school and what type of transportation you plan on using.
In the summer time our transportation bill is almost nothing. I ride my scooter most of the time, and Kara takes public transportation and walks a lot. Occasionally we will take a cabs. Each month we budget about ¥200 for transportation, but for most people I would recommend budgeting between ¥300 and ¥400.
Purchasing a car in Beijing has become much more problematic in the last year. In order to get a car you will need to win the license plate lottery (about 1 in 5 chance), then you can purchase a car for about 2-3 times the cost of what you would pay in America. You’ll also need to pass the written driver’s license test, since China doesn’t recognize foreign licenses.
The other option is to hire a driver with a car to drive you around. A driver typically costs ¥5000 a month. We could never afford a driver (nor would we ever really need one) and I don’t know how most people find their drivers.
Household Costs
Most foreigners in China hire a domestic helper to assist with cleaning, shopping and sometimes childcare. We have a helper that comes twice a week and we pay her about ¥40 per day that she comes. In addition we obviously need toilet paper, laundry detergent, cat litter, etc. That’s another ¥150 a month or so.
Health Insurance
I currently get my health insurance from William Russel through the church that work at (but that will be changing in September), and Kara’s insurance is through Integra. Kara’s insurance is $1500 every 6 months (including maternity coverage) and when I switch to Integra this fall it will be about $900 every six months for me. We’re both in our twenties (late twenties for me) and healthy. Our international health insurance covers us everywhere in the world except the United States because health care is too expensive there for our insurance companies to cover.
Spending Money
We budget an additional ¥15 per day for personal spending money. We’re on a pretty tight budget and most people will want to budget more than that. I’d suggest something like ¥30-¥50 per day.
Travel
We don’t do a whole lot of traveling, and one of our most expensive budget items is our yearly trip home trips home to the states. Typically a round trip ticket during the summer or at Christmas time will cost about $1500 per person. We also end up spending much more per week while we’re in the States, so a two week trip usually comes in at about $4500 per trip for the two of us.
We also defray some of our costs by engaging in travel hacking. We use Chris Guillebeau’s Frequent Flyer Mile Master eBook and I’m also a member of the Travel Hacking Cartel. I’ll be putting together a series of posts in the next couple weeks with more complete info about travel hacking.
Stateside Expenses
We have a storage unit for our stuff in the States which costs us $50 a month, we also sponsor two kids through Compassion International, and we have a Skype phone number which costs us about $10 a month. We also have minimum student loan payments of $250 per month. So for us that’s about $380 per month.
School/Daycare
We don’t have kids, and when I was living in China during highschool I was homeschooled. Homeschooling is at least $500-700 per kid per year, plus one parent teaching them full-time. There are some online school options that I think would be between $3000 and $5000 per year per kid, but I could be low on that estimate.
Kara worked as a private tutor for three kids for a couple years for ¥15,000 ($2,300) a month, and that’s about what I would expect to pay if you hired a private teacher.
International schools are pretty expensive, most of the good ones are over $20,000 (that’s USD) per year. If you’re looking for an international school, check out the Beijing City International School (BICS). BCIS has just decided to become one of the Middle Kingdom blog sponsors, they have a great campus that would rival any school in the states, and are located in downtown Beijing.
And also some families choose to put their kids in local school when they are young in order to help them learn Chinese. A local school will cost about ¥6000 per month.
So that’s it. Obviously not everyone will have the same budget that we do, but this is a good start for getting an idea of what life in Beijing might cost you. Feel free to write questions in the comments section or if you already live here chime in and give us your two cents.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, your health insurance is a lot. Mine is covered by my school, but we use Azimuth Risk for Daniel’s, and just paid $364 for an entire year of worldwide coverage. This is with a $5000 deductible, but as healthy as he is, we only need a catastrophic policy. He also has no problem going to Peking Union Hospital’s VIP foreigner wing for basic stuff. He went last year for allergies and paid less than 300 RMB.
Thanks for the shout out to the smaller, crappier apartments. They are still a bit less expensive than Wangjing. When looking for a place to live, I would pretty much always consider closeness to the subway network as the priority factor. Even if you don’t take taxis that much, it’s amazing how much individual fares add up. Having a bicycle or electric bike in Beijing is one of the greatest money savers.
Matt, thank you so much for elucidating on the Cost of Living in Beijing. I often wondered how much it would cost to live there ever since I visited in 2008. The 2011 update is very helpful; I even designed a spreadsheet with the latest FX rate. The comments on health insurance sure astounds me, since you pay in six months what I pay per month ($800/month for Kaiser). Of course, yes, you are quite a bit younger than me (I am 61), but many people in my gym think I am 20 years younger. If anyone reading this doesn’t mind, can anyone tell me how most expats prepare their U.S. tax returns: do they do it by hand, or buy Turbotax, or hire someone in China, or hire someone in the U.S.?
Thanks, everyone for an insightful blog.
Ric,
The first year we did our taxes we filed for an extension and had a tax preparer in the states help us. After that we printed off the forms and mailed them in. I’m not sure what more other expats do.
Matt, thank you for that insight. Perhaps other readers may share their insights as well.
Thanks
Matt,
Has the latest inflation affected your expense numbers in your email above?
Ric
The prices haven’t immediately gone up, but over the last year we’ve noticed food prices go up. Not to the point that we’ve had to significantly adjust our budget.
You mentioned that you have a driver’s licence for Beijing. Do you need one if you buy a small electric scooter? Is Line 14 up near you now? I take Line 5, a disaster almost as bad as Line 1. Tiantongyuan and Huilonggong are places you dont want to live. I enjoy your posts.
No need to get a license for electric scooters or for motorized scooters that are less than 50cc. Line 15 is near our place. I’ve seen footage of the craziness that is Line 5 in the morning. You have my sympathy.
How challenging is it to get a driver’s license in Beijing. Is there a written test? If so, I imagine it is in Chinese characters (what? they don’t print everything in 5 different languages like here in the San Francisco Bay Area? LOL)
Is there a driving test as well, like in the U.S.? The way our Department of Motor Vehicles moves (long long lines with super slow DMV employees; what do they care?)
Thanks
I’m being given an option to move to Chengdu. Could you please help me get a similar cost of living data for Chengdu ? if not too much of a hassle, replying on my email would be great
)
Divya,
Unfortunately, I don’t really have much info for Chengdu. I’m sure it’s a bit less expensive than Beijing, but I’m not sure by how much. I would point to towards the website Chengdu Living to look for info about that.
Could someone give me an insight on taxes?
In the States, I get my returns and pay someone to calculate the income taxes. This year we’re going to do them, but I never claimed any income taxes while overseas. How does that work in China? Are we supposed to get some sort of document? I know nothing about this. I plan on being there in April for at least a year if everything goes well. Is there something I should bring from the States? Am I supposed to collect any receipts? I’m supposed to be sharing the rent with a Chinese friend, so he may keep the housing receipts.
Thank you.
After our first year in China we had a tax preparer help us do our taxes in the States, since then we’ve done our own (using the first ones as a sort of guide).
Your Chinese employer should provide you with a document of what you earned and what you paid in taxes in China. If you’re not on a work visa then you/your employer probably aren’t paying taxes in China and you won’t get a document. I’m not an expert, and a lot of it can be confusing, but the US Embassy China website taxes page has some more info.
Hi Matt,
I plan on going to China next year. I am going to ship a couple of Mopeds from the U.S that I built. They are 49cc. I read that you said one doesn’t need a license for a motorized scooter under 50cc. Do you need insurance or a license plate??
Thanks for your time.
A.
I’m not an expert on this, and it can be complicated if you’re importing the bikes, so be prepared for that. To the best of my understanding you don’t technically need a license plate to drive a sub-49cc scooter in Beijing, HOWEVER when I had a similar bike I couldn’t fill up at the gas stations without a plate. I’m not sure on the process of getting a license plate though. I got mine through the guy I bought my bike from, but I’m not sure that it was a legit plate. In the end that bike got stolen, so my other advice is: make sure you have a good lock. Bringing some locks/chains from the states is not a bad idea, so thieves have a lot of experience with the common chains/locks that they sell here.
what is the monthly cost of living near beihang university in beijing for 4 persons?
Momo,
I don’t know the specific real estate market near Beihang, and since each person has a different standard of living it’s hard to estimate the cost for 4 people. Are you talking about a 4 person family or 4 single people sharing an apartment? A mid-range 4 bedroom place in Beijing will probably be in the ¥10-15,000 range.
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