Can i have a comfortable life in Shanghai for 3000$.

Hello EveryOne,

Please, i have an offer from a company to relocate to shanghai for a base salary of 3000$ per month after tax and the company will be providing a room in a shared apartment (my neighbors will be foreigners, every person have their own room)  or single studio apartment (30 minutes away from the office).
So i would like to ask how comfortable can i be with this provided package.

thank you all in advance, looking forward to hear your comments.

Best, Oussama.

ps: i will be moving alone.

Generally speaking you can not save much or nothing at all if you eat out everyday for example.
What's about health insurance, flight tickets back home,  visa & work permit , don't bother if they will send you on business visa!

For your info:
Small studio downtown is about 2000usd/month if you add utilities and transportation it may hit 3000usd.
Assuming they will fully cover the accommodation cost , health insurance , flight tickets  then you might enjoy a comfy stay and save some!

This is a good salary while providing room which costs about 1000$ every month.


will not cost you too much for food and other misc cost.

but also not so much, it's abut salary of 6-8  yeas electronic engineer will good skills.

anyway, i thinks it's a very good chance if satisfy with the salary.



rike

In China, $3000 is about 18,300 RMB.

Sure you can live on that.  Most expat teachers do and do so quite well.

It is equivalent to a Engineer or Manager salary in China.

may i ask why would you say 3000$ is 1830 rmb, cause when am converting it i find something around 1980 rmb, unless am missing something.
thank you.

Your calculation is in error.  The exchange rate is around 6.3 RMB = $1.  Thus $3000 = 18,300 RMB. If it wasn't all those people going to make products in China because it is "cheaper" would be in for a big surprise. Don't ya think?

But don't my word for it.  Google RMB to USD currency converter.  See for yourself.

For foreign currency exchange rate, please refer to Bank of China official homepage:
if you check the "cash buying rate" column it shows 100USD = 653.08RMB

homepage:

boc.cn/sourcedb/whpj/enindex.html

Basically, your after tax salary without other benefits it equals what a skilled English speaking LOCAL junior manager/engineer makes per month.
For your info: Locals would have health insurance, retirement, housing funds  and taxes paid by their employers.

*Other factor to consider are the working load and switching employer/visa regulation:

working in a big city like shanghai involves a lot of unpaid over-time  and staying late to deal with customers in other time zone; mainly EUrope/US, conference calls and so on. Thats something a local employee would NOT accept in the long run but real expats do it for a fat paycheck!
and if you consider the recent visa regulation it become very difficult  to change job while in China. It means if you dont like the working condition/contract, more likely you will have to go back and start a new visa /job application.

If I were you I'd make sure to have a comprehensive health insurance, transportation allowance and at lease one round-trip ticket back home in addition to "the accommodation".

Good luck!