In Response To: How can you expect to live with 7000RMB? - ESL discussion *Link* (Fayaz & Monica)
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?noframes;read=7926

Hi Fayaz and Monica

How far your salary of 7000RMB goes in Shanghai depends less on the city, than it does on yourselves!

It depends on what you mean by living well.

Although Shanghai is more expensive than many other cities in China, it's still not THAT expensive!

If you either regularly buy your own food to cook from the market or mostly eat in the smaller cheaper dumpling and noodle restaurants, use taxi's sparingly(by the way there's a good, relatively inexpensive metro system in Shanghai), and don't frequent the numerous beerbars, coffee bars and nightclubs often, you should be able to live nearly as cheaply in Shanghai as you could in any other city in China.

My girlfriend and I cook at home everyday, always use public transport and almost never visit the nightbars. Yes,I'm a regular skinflint! We spend on average between 1500-2000RMB a month.

This means, I'm able to on average, save at least 4000RMB every month from my 6000RMB salary. We're happy, but our lifestyle may not be for you!

There are two important points to consider regarding your salary. Firstly does your school/company provide free accomodation for you? Accomodation is CONSIDERABLY more expensive in Shanghai, than it is in most other Chinese cities. I personally think it might be difficult for you to find a decent place for less than 1500RMB a month.

Also, as I touched on before, Shanghai is quite westernized with an abundance of nightlife and if you are a couple who like that kind of scene, you'll find a lot of your salary being quickly eaten away.

That's the problem with cities like Shanghai. If you don't frequent the bars to often you can live as cheaply as anywhere else, but that's a BIG If!

Also consider that Shanghai has many touristy spots that you would probably like to check out while you're there, and most of these are expensive.

So it really depends on the kind of life you guys want to live in Shanghai. If I was you I would make sure my accommodation was free. To be honest without free acommodation provided, I think you will be struggling on 7k a month.

Whatever decision you make, I wish you all the best.
Tread carefully!