Twn vs HK vs China - cost of living & potential for saving?

Discussion Greater Forumosa
#1

A question for those of you that have lived and worked in any or all of these countries…

  1. I lived in Taiwan, earned 55-60k/m, payed 10k/m for accomodation, saved about 20-25k/m. Taught kindy, elementary and adults (privates). Total hours/week about 23 (no weekends). GOOD JOB! DOWNSIDE: returning to Taiwan is not an option in the immediate future.

  2. I have a job offer in China - 42k/m, accomodation will be about 7k/m (paid by myself, not school), 25 hours/week + 15 ‘office hours’. Adults only, 5 days/week (days off not necessarily weekends). PERKS: no kiddies (crowd control), DOWNSIDE: weekend work :s , ‘office hours’ = sitting around twiddling my thumbs, schedule varies week-to-week, so difficult to pick up extra work.

  3. Job offer in HK - 44k/m, Mon-Fri job, 8.30-16.30, free accomodation, 25k towards air ticket from school. PERKS: no weekend, evening work (free to chill or pick up extra work in those times). DOWNSIDE: it’s a kindy gig.

China is pretty cheap, cheaper than Taiwan for most things. I was wondering about HK though - it can get quite pricey, innit? Where would I save the most cash I wonder.

Your opinions and advice please! Cheers!

PS. ALL MONETARY FIGURES IN TAIWAN DOLLARS

#2

Is that 44,000 HK$ a month or NT?

#3

It’d be 44000NT…

#4

What? You’d be living on a nanny’s salary. No way.

#5

44k TWD p.m. in HKG is hard living. According to Deloittes, the living costs are 25% higher in HKG vs. Taiwan. This is for disposable income not including rental. Rental (depending upon where you live) can be up to 3-4x Taiwan.

#6

Agreed. I wouldn’t even consider HK for that money. Sorry, I have no idea on the ESL market here, but I thought casual buxi like teachers pulled something more like HK$20,000, which I thought was peanuts given the costs.

Your money will go a lot further in China, but only because you have the option of living cheaply.

HG

#7

darn,

I thought you meant 45k HKD, but that would be crazy money for a kindy gig. As an foreigner, (which I assume you are), you’d be hard pressed to live on that money in NT. You’d really be going native so to speak… local cheap food (which I do from time to time as in 8 - 33 HKD meals, local transport (no taxi. only mtr, small bus, big bus, walking), local housing (studio w/ shared bathroom), etc. I wouldn’t do it certainly without free housing for that money.

#8

Thanks chaps. I think I can safely scratch the HK job from the list.

I heard PNET/NET teachers pick up something like 30,000HK$, which sounds more reasonable, but the placement process for getting one of these jobs can take months.

Some days you think these school owners are just plain taking the piss…

#9

[quote=“Baas Babelaas”]Thanks chaps. I think I can safely scratch the HK job from the list.

I heard PNET/NET teachers pick up something like 30,000HK$, which sounds more reasonable, but the placement process for getting one of these jobs can take months.

Some days you think these school owners are just plain taking the piss…[/quote]

I think NET teachers get more than that. They also get housing allowance. the ones I know seem to be on around HK$50,000 with around HK$10,000 housing. Now that is doable.

However, I have also heard that conditions for NET teachers are on a constant slide. I seem to meet a lot of pissed off NET teachers. Although I can’t really understand why, as they seem to have a cushy gig from my perspective.

HG

#10

China’s a big place. I’ve never heard of anyone in Shanghai getting paid Rmb10k a month but I suppose they’re out there. Even in the boonhicks you will have trouble because unless you are very odd you will want a bit of comfort and to purchase Western stuff and have like a roof and hot and cold running “water” and so on. You’ll save nowt in China. Never heard of anyone on less than about HK$50k doing so although I am sure there will be a deluge of posts telling you that My Mate Fred lived in China under a rock for two years earning tuppence h’apenny a month and saved enough to buy a spaceship. I too have heard those stories about Other People. Yet to meet one. Presumably because they can’t afford to step out from under the rock.

I would rate HK as much more expensive than Shanghai simply due to the housing. But a much nicer place to live (yes Shanghai is that bad!).

More shite from D&T. Hong Kong is well in excess of double the living costs of Taipei. This stupid survery comes around every so often, All right Toilet & Douche, I happen to know how much you pay your staff in those three places. And it ain’t 25% more. Hah.

Shanghai is expensive if you don’t Go Native because you have to either buy everything twice (nothing works) or get it from Hong Kong. The beer and Western food is HK prices, and the local food is generally poisonous unless you actually cook it at home. You will end up drinking imported beers because the locally made “Heineken” etc is awful. (The only place in the world where Budweiser scores for the very reason that it has no taste!).

So I would recommend Taiwan. There is absolutely no reason to go to China except for the money. It boggles my mind to see Shanghai chockka with jobless young foreigners just milling around. There must be good sex or drugs to be had, cause there ain’t no jobs for them that’s for sure. I assume they are there so they can go back and tell the folks at home that they know a lot about China or something. (It is always good fun when they introduce their “Shanghainese” girlfriend who is always from Anhui or Gansu or somewhere.)

There are apparently nice places in China where there is some quality of life to be had (he says, not knowing of any). But I don’t know about saving money.

#11

Geeze…must be really bad then

#12

You mean these guys are making 50k HKD about 7k USD per month!!! for teaching english! with a housing allowance that gets you a pretty nice studio in Sheung Wan? wtf.

#13

You mean these guys are making 50k HKD about 7k USD per month!!! for teaching english! with a housing allowance that gets you a pretty nice studio in Sheung Wan? wtf.[/quote]

Yep, but I think these are old contracts and there is some automatic increment thing happening that has lifted wages over the years. There is also, if I recall correctrly, some return ticket thrown in.

HG

#14

You mean these guys are making 50k HKD about 7k USD per month!!! for teaching english! with a housing allowance that gets you a pretty nice studio in Sheung Wan? wtf.[/quote]

Yep, but I think these are old contracts and there is some automatic increment thing happening that has lifted wages over the years. There is also, if I recall correctrly, some return ticket thrown in.

HG[/quote]

so… what’s the going rate? cuz 7k USD is damn good for a teacher.

#15

No idea. Sorry. But I will ask.

HG

#16

No idea. Sorry. But I will ask.

HG

#17

Say that again?

#18

I wouldn’t mind a gig like that, I bet they work pretty hard for that salary though.

I’m looking at something with about 20-25 contact hours, and few (or no) ‘office hours’, besides the necessary lesson planning.

Guess I had it easy in my old job - turn up, teach, go home, with an hour of lesson planning per week.

The job in China (Xiamen) aint all bad - 10,000RMB/m (42,000TWD).

Feel like it would be good to get out of teaching soonish though - salaries seem to be dropping, relative to the cost of living, in most countries. And I will NOT put myself through a year or two in Korea (where the cash seems to be) - too many horrors stories on other boards.

Pray, tell me, where can I get a job that lets me save $800+, and still have some free time to write, study, do a bit of editing, etc? (keeping in mind Taiwan is off the list for a couple years more)

I really laugh at a lot of the job offers I get from China - 4/5000RMB, with free (read: crappy) accomodation.

#19

There are some good schools in Xiamen. You will of course end up working for a Taiwanese boss!

#20

[quote=“Lord Lucan”]China’s a big place. I’ve never heard of anyone in Shanghai getting paid Rmb10k a month but I suppose they’re out there.

Shanghai is expensive if you don’t Go Native because you have to either buy everything twice (nothing works) or get it from Hong Kong. The beer and Western food is HK prices, and the local food is generally poisonous unless you actually cook it at home. You will end up drinking imported beers because the locally made “Heineken” etc is awful. (The only place in the world where Budweiser scores for the very reason that it has no taste!).
[/quote]

I have three friends in Shanghai making $20,000RMB a month. They’re working very hard and have a lot of experience teaching in China, but there are a lot of teachers there who earn around $15,000RMB a month. Yes, Shanghai is very expensive for China, but it’s certainly not as expensive as Taiwan is! Popular bars, such as Windows, have 10RMB mixed drinks, and beers at local restaurants are usually 3RMB for a 500ml bottle. That’s the equivalent of 12NT. Something like a Guinness would still be cheaper than Taiwan beer is in Taiwan. Food is also cheaper. You can eat at Papa John’s in Shanghai for the same price as Pizza Hut in Taiwan, or you could get a 10RMB pepperoni pizza from Hello Pizza. It’s only if you want to go to a five star places or something that you can spend more there than in Taiwan, and in that case Shanghai can be as expensive as you want to make it.

When’s the last time you were in Shanghai, Lord Lucan?