How about rent in Shangers? How much for a studio apartment or 2-bed joint?
[quote=“Xiaoma”][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?[/quote]
I live in Shanghai you plonker.
I leave it up to the imagination of the other readers as to what sort of a place “Windows” is, or what a “hellopizza” tastes like. Poverty junkies only.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]
I think NET teachers get more than that. They also get housing allowance. the ones I know seem to be on around [color=red]HK$50,000 with around HK$10,000 housing[/color]. Now that is doable.
… they seem to have a cushy gig from my perspective.
HG[/quote]
On the button!
In addition to your salary, also add:
relocation rebate (household goods + flights for the family),
yearly flights home (RSA) for the whole family,
stipend for ‘living expenses’,
free tuition for my kids,
retirement gratuity, etc.
Downside (for most foreigners teaching English in Taiwan):
HK NET gig for qualified, experienced teachers.
Yes OP, getting a NET placement CAN take a while, but from the above, you’ll be a doos not to wait!
Let me get this right milord.
- You live in Shanghai.
- You’ve never even heard of teachers making 10,000RMB a month, even though it’s common.
- I’m a “plonker”.
I’m guessing maybe you’ve just shown up and aren’t eligible for the 10-15k/month jobs, or else you’re some kind of expat. On the off chance you’ve been out there teaching for a couple of years, PM me. I know a school that’s looking for a teacher with 2-3 years of experience, conversational Chinese skills and is willing to stay a full year. It’s 13,000RMB a month for 22 class hours a week.
As for Hello Pizza, it’s not the best. It’s not bad, though either. It’s way better than Napoli’s in Taiwan, and about a third of the price. And if you’re after mid-range pizza, surely you aren’t going to say Taiwan’s Pizza Hut beats Shanghai’s Papa John’s? Papa John’s rocks.
For the poster who asked, rent in Shanghai is pretty much equivalent to someplace like Zhonghe or Banqiao, i.e. a pretty big chunk of one’s salary.
:roflmao:
[quote=“TaiwanSaffies”][quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]
I think NET teachers get more than that. They also get housing allowance. the ones I know seem to be on around [color=red]HK$50,000 with around HK$10,000 housing[/color]. Now that is doable.
… they seem to have a cushy gig from my perspective.
HG[/quote]
On the button!
In addition to your salary, also add:
relocation rebate (household goods + flights for the family),
yearly flights home (RSA) for the whole family,
stipend for ‘living expenses’,
free tuition for my kids,
retirement gratuity, etc.
Downside (for most foreigners teaching English in Taiwan):
HK NET gig for qualified, experienced teachers.
Yes OP, getting a NET placement CAN take a while, but from the above, you’ll be a doos not to wait![/quote]
That’s some sick cash! Are you sure? Cuz sign me up. That’s like 7-9kUSD monthly!! 
[quote=“Xiaoma”]Let me get this right milord.
- You live in Shanghai.
- You’ve never even heard of teachers making 10,000RMB a month, even though it’s common.
- I’m a “plonker”.
I’m guessing maybe you’ve just shown up and aren’t eligible for the 10-15k/month jobs, or else you’re some kind of expat. On the off chance you’ve been out there teaching for a couple of years, PM me. I know a school that’s looking for a teacher with 2-3 years of experience, conversational Chinese skills and is willing to stay a full year. It’s 13,000RMB a month for 22 class hours a week.
As for Hello Pizza, it’s not the best. It’s not bad, though either. It’s way better than Napoli’s in Taiwan, and about a third of the price. And if you’re after mid-range pizza, surely you aren’t going to say Taiwan’s Pizza Hut beats Shanghai’s Papa John’s? Papa John’s rocks.
For the poster who asked, rent in Shanghai is pretty much equivalent to someplace like Zhonghe or Banqiao, i.e. a pretty big chunk of one’s salary.[/quote]
Come on, I know of places near Peasants’ Square that go for Rmb2,500 a month but you’re not seriously suggesting them as a viable living option.
Living on Rmb10k a month as a foreigner is not going to be a pleasant experience for someone used to living in Taiwan. By representing that Shanghai is cheap you are not giving a fair impression to people considering moving there. Those that enjoy places like Windows (I’m going to a dive bar tonight and some of them are not too too bad, but you get what you pay for) and don’t mind living in a dump are usually the short-termers in a China buzz or are youngsters on a year out, or a doing the Asia thing, man. Indeed I would recommend Windows etc for those kinds of people who will not have to put up with expat malcontents like me. Chinese people survive on Rmb2-3k a month here if necessary and some expats are unhappy with US$100k and a huge flat. Horse for courses I suppose.
On the rent front, I’ve not seen anything approaching livable for less than Rmb5k and by Rmb10k you are getting into some quite nice accommodation. Location matters depending on where you work or socialise, given the Taxi Problem. The only thing to do is go there and check it out for a week or ten days before making a decision.
[quote=“TaiwanSaffies”][quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]
I think NET teachers get more than that. They also get housing allowance. the ones I know seem to be on around [color=red]HK$50,000 with around HK$10,000 housing[/color]. Now that is doable.
… they seem to have a cushy gig from my perspective.
HG[/quote]
On the button!
In addition to your salary, also add:
relocation rebate (household goods + flights for the family),
yearly flights home (RSA) for the whole family,
stipend for ‘living expenses’,
free tuition for my kids,
retirement gratuity, etc.
Downside (for most foreigners teaching English in Taiwan):
HK NET gig for qualified, experienced teachers.
Yes OP, getting a NET placement CAN take a while, but from the above, you’ll be a doos not to wait![/quote]
The NET scheme package is not as good as you think it is. It does not include any sort of tuition reimbursement for kids’ schooling. If a NET has to send kids to international school here, then the NET scheme is not a good deal at all. An acquaintance of mine who was an AT said that about 90% of all NETs are either just out of teaching school and doing a fun two years abroad, or have already retired with full pension from the system in their home countries. For teachers with kids and a need to become vested in a teacher pension system back home, the NET scheme just isn’t attractive. This is why the results of the scheme aren’t so great. Most of the older teachers are not career TESOL types, and the few young folks who have TESOL qualifications lack experience. Some of them even lack teaching qualifications. Most of the NETs I’ve known were qualified teachers, but not qualified second language teachers.
Also keep in mind that it is hit or miss for being placed in a decent school. Many NETs eperience complete hell in their schools and leave in spite of the seemingly attractive salary and allowance.
This is just freakin’ sad. Romping through Asia trying to compare pizza joints?
That’s almost as bad as those Chinese expat romping abroad comparing Chinese take out joints.
Shanghai can be as cheap or cheaper than Taiwan, if you are willing to go as cheap as a locals. Lord Lucan has a point, if you’re not use to going cheap cheap in Taiwan don’t bother going cheap cheap in Shanghai.
I saw some cheap instant noodles and cheap eggs in Shanghai as well…you get the picture.
Hard to say. Location, style (Western/local), and your noise tolerance all matter. You can get a livable one-bedroom for Rmb6k with good a/c and a proper bloody front-loading washing machine, central (15 mins’ walk) to, say, The Portman (centre of Puxi), and a reasonable level of decor and not outrageously noisy. But that is with avoiding expat estate agencies and viewing about 15 places. Any less than that and you are going to have either shite decor, staggering noise, few mod cons, or any combination thereof. If you really want to “go local” then you could go as low as Rmb4k.
This is just freakin’ sad. Romping through Asia trying to compare pizza joints?
That’s almost as bad as those Chinese expat romping abroad comparing Chinese take out joints.
Shanghai can be as cheap or cheaper than Taiwan, if you are willing to go as cheap as a locals. Lord Lucan has a point, if you’re not use to going cheap cheap in Taiwan don’t bother going cheap cheap in Shanghai.
I saw some cheap instant noodles and cheap eggs in Shanghai as well…you get the picture.[/quote]
I think you missed my point. My point is that for the same money (I make about 55k/month NT), one gets a much higher standard of living in Shanghai. I brought up pizza places because I figured that if I dared talk about the prices of good Chinese restaurants, everyone would start talking about “going local” (the average local makes far less than 4,000RMB/month, BTW).
In my experience, I was able to eat at nicer places, go out drinking more, and even buy souvenirs as a tourist for the same money I typically spend over the same period of time living in Taiwan. If Lucan thinks that 10,000RMB a month is painful in Shanghai, he’d likely find 65,000NT/month painful in Taibei. If he goes out to drink anywhere nicer than 7-11 with any frequency, he’d probably find 80K painful.