I agree with everyone else, for 1500 yuan you probably could find an apartment somewhere (though I'm not familiar with prices in the area you suggested) but it would be easier to find a reasonable share place for that price (or hopefully less). I think it might be a fairly old apartment or otherwise fairly small if you rented it yourself for 1500.

Excluding rent I've found that I can live on 250yuan/week if I really try, but that assumes that I pay attention to money, don't go out to buy 'expensive' food much, and I'm mostly vegetarian.

Recently I spend more than this, but probably less than 400 yuan most weeks. I know people who spend double what I do, but they don't pay so much attention.

If you really just eat vegetables and cook at home I think you could live quite cheaply, the problem might be unexpected expenses. Such as start up costs, e.g. if you decide to move into a flat that doesn't have a microwave or freezer or mattress, pots and pans or something else that you feel you need. Or if you suddenly need to go to the doctor or travel to another city for some reason.

Some sound advice:

Once you get here you'll find that people cook more than they tend to eat and you can fish some really filling meals from bins around the city. Leaves contain nutrients that'll keep you going, they don't taste like much but they literally grow on trees and can be plucked and eaten as a great road side snack.

As for accommodation there are some really good public toilets around town. Some will try and extort 5 jiao from you, some will be free. If you're clever and diligent there is no reason a toilet cubicle can't become a home. You'll have all the free water you could ever hope for which will cover your drinks, failing that there are some fairly large puddles in the street that would make a great bath.

Buses are an extortionate amount, it's best to travel everywhere by foot. I would even recommend arriving in the city by such means to save yourself the airfare.

There are some really great things to see around the city, some of require entrance fees. I would recommend going to a tourist shop and looking at the postcards that feature some of these sights, that way you can see the sights without actually buying a ticket or travelling expenses. This only works because some of the mugs that work in shops here let you look and try without buying. That's how I get my weekly shaves in the Philishave stall in the shopping centre - I suggest you do the same unless you fancy trying to burn off the excess stubble with a discarded lighter.

For that weekend buzz I suggest you find a newly renovated shop and start smelling some of the varnish they use on the floors. Failing that try hanging around a foreign bar and bumming a drink from some of the foreign Rockafellas that frequent them.

I live off fresh air. Sure, sometimes I get the odd hunger pain but that would be nothing compared to the pain that I get digging into my incredibly long pockets.

I bank every jiao I earn, and I find I can clear more here than I ever did back in old Tel Aviv.

@Nap

I collected cans for recycling, Not easy beating off the old ladies for the cans.

In the last year my grocery bill has gone up exponentially. I used to shop with my wife and pay as we went. Now I just give her the money. She seems to come home with the same produce, but it costs so much more when she goes on her own.

@Napolean. Actually there isn't much food to be collected. The leftovers end up in blue barrels for the pigs. Not many leaves around town now after tree cutting. Most toilets close by 11pm. Getting high off renovations does work though.

Kunming is not a cheap place anymore. The rent has gone up pretty fast. Food has skyrocketed. Teacher's salaries remain stagnate for the most part. Bus fares went up from 1 yuan to 2 yuan, that's 100% increase in one shot.

Only a minority of buses are 2 yuan. Right, Kunming is more expensive than it used to be, but on a teacher's salary you're not going to have to roam rubbish bins.

Every bus i have rode the past 3 weeks in the north has a fare of 2 yuan. Air conditioned or not.

@ tallamerican: Hmm - I almost never go north. Maybe the increases are somewhat area-specific.

Agreed with Tallamerican. It is only small very local buses that go with 1 yuan. Usually bumpy rides among neighborhoods. For example all buses I have used that go on Beijing Lu fragment between train station and Beichen at least part of their way are 2.