Spending Power of Dollar and Yuan
By stlplace on Mar 11, 2007 in China
There are lots of discussions about living cost in Shanghai, such as this one from Wang Jianshuo. I am not going to do a comprehensive study here, but I want to share my findings after spending one week in Shanghai.
I rent a one bedroom apartment near Zhongshan park, it cost me CNY 2,300. Because I stay for short term, they charge me a little higher. I think for a one year lease it will be 2,000 Yuan a month. A comparable apartment in St. Louis will cost about $500. So 2000 Yuan vs. 500 dollars. We can say one dollar is really worth 4 Yuan, not the offical rate of 7.75?
Let me talk about food as we can not live without that. Last Friday I ordered two dishes at a Chinese restaurant for lunch (inside Cloud 9), and I paid CNY 75. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say one dish costs 40 Yuan. I know in St. Louis one Chinese dish will cost about $10. Again we can get the 1:4 ratio.
One can argue there are many cheaper restaurants, yet offering good food. Such as the picture I showed above. Dining out is quite affordable for all kinds of people here in Shanghai. I think for the dishes I paid 75 Yuan, I could pay 35 Yuan in that restaurant and get the similar things. The difference is, I have to bear the smoke from people smoking cigaretts. I found it’s quite common and annoying that people smoke even in the 75 Yuan level places…






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