I'm a mature student coming to Kunming to study Chinese at YNNU, trying to work out a budget. What's the cost of living like nowadays? What's the average price for an apartment / internet / utilities / food? Any help would be really appreciated!
FOOD
Yunnan food is spicy and salty (ostensibly from smoking too much - kills the taste buds). However, you can get buy on between CNY 10-20 per meal, comfortably.
If you shop at the wet (farmers') markets - you can save quite a lot on vegetables, fruit, and meats - depending on your consumption habits - CNY 100-200 a week for veggies and CNY 200+ for meat (beef, pork, poultry, fish & other sea/lake/river things - freshly slaughtered).
APARTMENTS
As in any city - depends on where you live. UNLIKE US cities - it's rare you'll live in some gang infested barrio as it's generally safe - but try to avoid bar districts (cuz they pee just everywhere). Rent can be as low as CNY 500 (rough number) if you bunk up with roommates (beware your valuables and privacy) up to the sky. Older sections of town inside the 2nd ring road - you can get nice 50+square meter apartments for around CNY1200-3k per month - depending on furnishings, location, age of the apartment, convenience, and how stinky the sewers are.
If you shower - water bills should be less than CNY 100 a month, including washing your meager kitchen and dining ware. Winters here last around 2 months - so you're electric bills will SOAR to maybe CNY 200-300 a month - depending on how inefficient your electric heater is. Telephone - landlines - unnecessary. Mobile phones - AFTER you get the SIM card - figure on about CNY 100 a month, unless you're a heavy data user (but if you're NOT addicted to your phone - free wifi abounds).
BROADBAND
Most people pay a year in advance for fiber or ADSL. You can get 10-20mbps for around CNY 800-1200 for the year - as they discount heavily if you prepay for a year. The BEST services are those closest to the telecom's switching center - but China Telecom's the clear dominator.
GAS
Many homes use gas for cooking. If you're in a newer development - (aka a high-rise) - the gas is somewhat cleaner than the older developments (lowrise droll concrete buildings). As long as all your appliances are functioning properly - gas bills should be below CNY 50-100 a month. Ours shot over CNY 1300 when our gas water heater started failing (from dirty gas - we were removing roughly a cup of some nasty looking multi-colored ash every month.
BUY AN ELECTRIC BLANKET FOR WINTER. It will save you from significant misery. A nominal ceramic or other economical electric heater will also work wonders (during cold winters in the bathroom).
Hm...think that about covers it - we live inexpensively - although the occasional urge for western bar & grill or more upscale occasionally strikes.
A typical meal sans beer - CNY 100 should sate you nicely - which is also roughly what you'd spend at McDonalds, KFC, Burger King - although that Belgian beer at O'Reilly's is steep at CNY 48 for a tall glass (but sweet, fruity, tasty - if you're into fruity beers).
If you want to go upscale - plan on roughly CNY 200+ per head and of course the multinational 5 star hotels have fairly uniform prices globally (similar to McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King).
WET MARKETS
Before you buy things - as a foreigner in these local hangouts - listen and watch carefully - best time to shop - early mornings or late afternoons - just before "cooking dinner" time.
CRIME
Aside from the drunks (both foreign and domestic) - pickpockets are rampant - especially at wet markets, bus stations, and the train station. Bike and e-bike theft is rampant. Most bike and e-bike locks can be defeated within seconds to minutes and the thieves are bold (daylight) and violently dangerous.
We have an excellent bus system - but no English and you'll need a bus pass (RFID enabled card that you can swipe).
Oh - YNNU et al have cafeterias - to those are great places to meet people, young, old, domestic, and expat. Most cafeterias also have Islamic (Halel?/Kosher?) food - you'll need the university's food card for that (another swipe card). This actually speeds things up and generally does away with petty theft from cashiers and servers.
Yunnan - despite the temperate weather - is half-in and half out of the sub-tropical belt - so this is a rather tropical place to live as far as culture (aka it's SLOW except for Kunming - which is like any developing city - traffic jams, people rushing everywhere, and an insane addiction to their mobile phones (bus drivers, taxi drivers, bicycle drivers, pedestrians (did I leave any groups out).
A base salary of CNY 3k a month for a single person is survivable - especially if your school/university pays or heavily subsidizes rent.
Dorms aren't like US university dorms - with rap, funk, and polka music blaring out of dorm rooms - but the people are nevertheless noisy. If you live in an apartment - you neighbors will be noisy and there's a REALLY good chance somewhere, someone is building yet another massive shopping center, full of high rise residences.
Check the sidewalks around where you choose to live - if they look greasy and blackened - don't live within 2+ blocks if possible - they have outside charcoal burning carcinogenic BBQ - taste great (don't forget to tell them to lay off the spice if you're a spice virgin) - but smokes worse than a diesel bus with blown cylinders...lumbering uphill.
If you're a light sleeper - try to live a few alleyways away from the main streets - traffic noise pollution (mostly from incessant horn honking) is atrocious.
Good luck with your visit to KM - don't forget to go hang at some of the English corners (like MoonDog - but try to avoid staying too late when the drunks get falling down drunk).
laotou, thanks for this extensive cost of living list. I'm also moving to KM at the end of July. I'm so excited!
The more recent newbies will have more accurate information on their actual costs - I can only give ballpark numbers as I live with an extensive family, so our numbers are significantly skewed higher.
When you hit the ground and can actually find your way to wenlinjie (or some other foreign expat landmark), drop me a line - we can meet for coffee/tea/BEER (tasteless obvious totally unsubtle promotion of BEER as an excuse to meet new and interesting people). If you're on the wagon or abstain - afternoon or morning (not TOO early) coffee tea is great. Not TOO early as many places simply aren't open TOO early.
@HFCAMPO et al - interested in meeting the newbies and welcoming them to km?
@ericJMa & et newbies - hopefully the newbie designation isn't offensive - isn't meant to be.
@laotou nah, not at all. actually It's nice to be a newbie again. We lived in Guangzhou five years already and it is time for a change. Thanks for the invite. I'd like to take you up on your offer after we get our house set up.
you will need at least 14k rmb to rent a decent apartment for half a year. 700 to 1800 for internet for 1 year. another 1000 to 1200 to buy kitchenware, cooker, pots n pans, ricecooker, and crockpot.
Excellent, thanks guys. Apologies for not seeing the other posts.
Few questions about apartments - 1. deposits are usually how many months?
2. Do you have to pay agency fees too?
3. Do you have to pay for the 6 months rental upfront?
4. What happens if you encounter some problems - dodgy landlord etc..?
5. Other than residence permit and Passport - do you need any other paperwork to get a rental?
6. Are there any scams to look out for when it comes to agencies? Are agents pretty predatory (i.e. jacking up the price) when it comes to foreigners?
Thanks for any help!
If you willing to live like Chinese people, you can easily live on 5,000 a month or even less. If you want fancy foreigner life, prepare to spend much more.
@laotou, you say, "A typical meal sans beer - CNY 100 should sate you nicely - which is also roughly what you'd spend at McDonalds, KFC, Burger King - although that Belgian beer at O'Reilly's is steep at CNY 48 for a tall glass (but sweet, fruity, tasty - if you're into fruity beers)."
100 kuai for meal without beer? Where you eating? You can eat a good meal for 20kuai or less.
