The Real Cost of Living in China
I made a video about how much it cost me in a month to live in Shanghai, China on Youtube. And it got more than 20,000 views since I posted it. However, I feel like that was not the real cost of living in China. And in June 2021, I decided to move from Shanghai, China to Dali in Yunnan Province of China. It is more affordable to live here than in Shanghai, so I wrote this article to share with you what would the cost of living like for 2nd or 3rd tier cities in China.
If you like nature. Mountain, Water, Culture, Blue sky, and Sun, you will love Dali in Yunnan Province of China!
Dali also has the name of California in China — Dalifornia! Due to the similarity of temperature and amazing sunshine even during the winter.
Summer temperature is around 25 degrees Celsius and Winter temperature around 16 degrees Celsius and super warm with sunshine when you go outside.
So how much do I spend a month living here enjoying Dalifornia?
Same with my previous article about the cost of living in Shanghai, I am breaking down the cost of living into 6 different categories:
- Rent
- Utilities
- Transportation
- Groceries
- Eating Out
- Misc
[RENT]
The apartment I rented is on the 3rd floor of a new style Bai People building, it comes with 5-bedrooms, a huge kitchen and huge bathroom, a balcony, a shared courtyard, and a rooftop with an amazing view.
I have turned one room into my working studio, where I can film and edit my videos with my computer, one room as a dressing room, one storage room, and one guest bedroom. I’ve made a house tour video here if anyone is interested.
It is about 8km from the Dali Ancient Town and the place is surrounded by mountains and lots of greenery. Looking over to the Erhai Lake of Dali City. So it’s very quiet since it’s located in a village, but still convenient if I want to go have a drink in the Dali ancient town.
The rent for my 5-bedroom apartment (100 SQM )in Dali Yunnan is 28,000 yuan ($4,320) per year, which is about 2,333 yuan ($360) per month.
I have got myself a pretty big place for one person, but if you are not looking for a big place like this, you can get a single room in a hotel for as low as 500 RMB (US$80) per month! (Price range for one room is 500 RMB to 1300 RMB (US$200))
You’ll have your room with an ensuite bathroom. Like in a hotel. This is perfect for someone who’s staying in Dali for a shorter period like a week to 3 months. Or someone who doesn’t have a lot of belongings. For those who love cooking and baking or someone who has special dietary, a lack of a kitchen would be a little bit of a problem, but you might be able to use the shared kitchen in the hotel.
If you are looking for a more modern and comfortable setting, there are properties built by real estate developers in Dali as well.
The price for 1 bedroom and a living room is around 3000 RMB (US$470) per month. It comes with a modern interior and a modern kitchen and balcony.
For places with 2 or 3 bedrooms in a modern setting built by real estate developers, it will cost around 8000RMB ($1250) and more. The location for these properties is usually somewhere near the mountain and not too far away from the Dali ancient town, so you can enjoy the more quiet lifestyle without feeling too isolated.
You can also get a 3-story building with 4 or 5 bedrooms for 45,000 RMB (US$6,923) a year with your courtyard. I think this would be more suitable for families or if you have a group of friends to share the whole thing. I can’t imagine living in such a big place by myself…walking up and downs… just too much trouble. Cleaning would not be easy for this kind of 3 story building.
So similar to Shanghai, a lot of people come to Dali looking forward to finding an old, traditional Chinese building with their courtyard. And the reason why I didn’t choose to rent a beautiful traditional Chinese Yuanzi (院子) with its courtyard, is because I am not very good with plants and flowers. Maintaining the trees and flowers in the yard would be something out of my capability. And I Hate BUGS.
In Dali, landlords usually ask for 1-year rent in advance, some landlords even ask for 2 or 5 years rent in advance. So be ready for that.
[Utilities]
For the Utilities, it will be Electricity, Water, Gas, Wifi, and Phone Bill.
Electricity & Water
If you live in a single room in a hotel, water and electricity expense should be included in your room charge already.
If you are like me having an apartment. The electricity bill will come every month and the water bill comes every 2 months.
I have been here for 4 months now, but to be honest I haven’t paid a single dollar for my water and electricity. Because I am sharing the building with my landlord, who lives on the first floor. And they would pay for all the bills first. And we share the individual cost later. And they just haven’t asked me to pay yet.
so I don’t know exactly how much it cost for the electricity and water. But I doubt it’s going to be more expensive than Shanghai.
Most of the houses in Dali use solar power systems for the hot water. So taking a hot shower is free for us, but if there are cloudy days or rainy days in a roll we are very likely to just get warm water instead of hot water. Then I will use the electric water heater for hot water
Gas: In Dali Ancient City, there’s no access to the natural gas system, so we use tank gas instead. One tank of gas is 120RMB ($14) And it usually lasts for about 3 months before it’s empty. ( I cook about 4 times a week)
Wifi:
For the wifi, I got a new wifi plan with China Mobile for my new place in Dali, and it is 32 RMB (US$5)/month for 100mbp, and I paid for the whole year in advance which is RMB 384 (US$60) for 12 months. It’s really fast and I think part of the reason is that in the village fewer people are living there to share the total bandage than in the big city like Shanghai.
Phone Plan:
I have also changed my phone plan since my previous phone plan was packaged with my wifi plan for my apartment in Shanghai. My current phone plan is with China Telecom, 30 RMB (US$4.6) per month. And that gets me 5GB of data. If I ran out of data then it’s 5 RMB ($0.77) for every GB.
My phone bill for July was 35 yuan.
And for August is 48 yuan. I will say on average is about 40 yuan per month for the phone bill.
[Transportation]
Being a small city in the mountains, there is no subway system in Dali. They have a good bus system here that goes between villages and ancient town and downtown. And usually cost 2 RMB per trip.
I bought an electrical Scooter from a local bike shop for 1300 yuan ($185) which comes with a brand new battery and my landlord let me charge the scooter in the courtyard for free. Once it’s charged I should be able to go for 50KM with this scooter.
If it’s raining or if I am going somewhere further like more than 10 km away from my house, I will either get a DiDi or take a metro in Shanghai.
There’s also a local bus that goes from my village to the Dali Ancient Town, which is about 8km away, and it cost 2 RMB (US$0.3) per trip.
But if I want to go downtown (13 Km from Dali Ancient Town, 30min ride), which is where the big shopping mall, nice restaurants, and Walmart are located, I will have to take 2 buses to get there.
OR I can take a Didi (Uber in China)The cost for that would be around 50 RMB (US$7.8) one way from Ancient Town to Downtown, which takes about 30 mins.
I’ve seen some shared e-bike in Downtown Dali for 2RMB per hour near the hospital area.
In Dali Ancient City there are not so many. You can hardly see one.
One of my friends rented an e-bike monthly cost for 168 RMB per month. Super convenient.
To go from Dali to other surrounding cities in China, you could take a train from Dali Train Station, or from Dali Airport (Domestic), both train station and the airport is located downtown which is 30 mins from Dali Ancient Town.
The nearest big city to Dali is Kunming. Kunming has an international airport and a high-speed train station. It’s 5hrs from Dali to Kunming by car, and 2 hrs if you’re taking the train.
The most tourist-famous city near Dali is probably Lijiang, it is the home of Yulong Snow Mountain, and whoever wants to visit Shangri-la will need to go through Lijiang first.
It’s 2.5 hrs from Dali by car, and we were able to get a carpool for 80RMB on way.
[Groceries]
Fruits:
Yunnan is known for its rich variety of fruits and mushrooms. Mango and blueberry are 10 RMB per 1.5 KG (US$1/kg)
Vegetables:
I live in a village surrounded by cornfields, eggplants, and beans. Sometimes my landlord would give me veggies from their garden and that would be my dinner for the week!
From a recent trip to the local market, I got 1 broccoli, 2 carrots, 2 purple onions, 2 zucchini, 3 garlic, for 21 RMB (US$3.3).
Meat: Pork is much cheaper here than in Shanghai.
I paid 45 RMB (US$7) for 1.3 KG of pork ribs while in Shanghai my friend bought 300g of pork ribs for 53 RMB. Though her pork ribs were in fancy packaging delivered to her house.
Eggs: I paid 20 RMB for 30 eggs at the local market.
Milk:
It’s funny that there are paper packages for milk here, and most of the places sell preserved milk rather than fresh milk. The price for a box of milk 250ml X 12= 3L is 29 RMB (US$4.5)
One thing though, the imported goods such as cheese or Australian beef in Dali are not as common as living in Shanghai. The only way to get access to those imported goods is probably ordering online.
[Eating out/Drinks]
Eating out could be cheap here if you like the local food.
Chinese Food/Local Food:
One of my favorite rice noodle places in Dali Ancient Town sells rice noodles with Shredded chicken breast for 9 RMB. (US$1.38)
Coffee:
There are tons of nice artisan coffee shops in Dali Ancient City.
An Americano is usually 18 RMB, a latte is usually 28 RMB. Price-wise is the same with Shanghai…
I usually enjoy my coffee at home. I own a semi-auto coffee espresso machine. Coffee beans from Yunnan locally. The price for coffee beans from the local Yunnan farm which I purchased online is 59RMB(US$9.23)/kg
Drinks:
I recommend an amazing cocktail place called “Woods & Weeds 山林草木” and their specialty cocktails are priced from 50 RMB to 60 RMB (US$7.8-$9.4). In Shanghai, the bar with similar concept cocktails would be “Botanist” price range from 78 RMB to 118 RMB (US$12-$18.5) per cocktail.
Western Food:
30 RMB for brunch set (full breakfast with a coffee and a juice)
My favorite western restaurant in Dali would be “The Backyard” near the Ancient City, they have amazing chargrilled steak and ribs.
A Hamburger with fried and salad at The Backyard would be 68 RMB (US$10.6)
An Argentina Ribeye steak with fries and salad is 98 RMB. (US$15.3)
A Texas-style smoked ribeye with fries and salad is 108 RMB. (US$17)
(Note: In China, tipping is not mandatory.)
Compare to “Beef & Liberty” burger restaurant in Shanghai:
Hamburger with fries: 89–159 RMB (US$14–25)
Australia Wagyu Sirloin sharing portion: 599 RMB (US$94)
No idea how big the sirloin is…
[Misc]
Gym: 50 RMB/single visit (US$7.8) 1800 RMB/12month /year (US$281)
For me, it’s free to go to the gym since I work at a coffee shop that belongs to the same company.
[Summary]
In summary, my monthly expenses in 2021 living in Dali, Yunnan, China is as below:
Rent: 2333 yuan (5 bedroom apartment) Utilities: 152 yuan Transportation: 100 yuan Groceries: 500 yuan Eating Out and Takeaway: 1000 yuan Misc: 500 yuan Total Monthly Expense:
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