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At 3 yuan a beer, it's a tough life

By Ravi S. Narasimhan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-19 07:50

I know now that there are two kinds of foreigners living in China. Most of us who are employed in the media, academia, marketing, NGOs and the like, who - mostly - think we are paid reasonably enough to get by comfortably. Let's say the Silent Majority.

The second group comprises an exclusive club, and if you belong there you are periodically surveyed by companies - which used to be described as HR but are now "solution providers" - on cost of living.

You wouldn't expect members of the latter group to be fen-pinchers but they apparently are. Maybe this group has bean counters from the top accounting firms (sorry, they're also now called solution providers), but their collective response to a survey on cost of living for expats in Beijing and Shanghai is, yes, it is higher than in Hong Kong.

The survey released last week did not cover the cost of accommodation, school fees or car purchases - which it said were usually compensated for separately in expatriate packages.

So now that it is established that these people have plum postings, live in plush housing paid for by their companies (I'd bet utilities are included), are driven around in posh company cars and their kids go to international schools at parent company's expense - what could they possibly be quibbling about to think that living in Beijing is more dear than Hong Kong?

The survey explains that a basket of 125 goods and services commonly purchased by expats determines the ranking.

Since my email to the international firm which conducted the survey apparently got mislaid, I can only hazard a guess as to what goodies that basket contains:

Every brand of breakfast cereal.

A score of cheese varieties.

A dozen kinds of vintage champagne.

Vast quantities of foie gras and caviar.

An assorted lot of shaving creams, shower gels, moisturizers, deodorants and perfumes.

Yes, all are more expensive in Beijing than in Hong Kong, but for others, it is the other way round. A massage, a pedicure, a haircut and fine dining typically cost less in the Chinese capital.

Since I don't indulge in most of the above, let me offer some empirical evidence in my defense - and I can speak with some scientific authority since I have been a dual resident of Hong Kong and Beijing for nearly seven years. I have also taken into account the surging inflation on the mainland (now discernibly declining) and the rising yuan (now stalling).

A taxi ride home from Hong Kong airport to the Kowloon peninsula (Hong Kong island would cost more) would set me back about 320 yuan. A combo airport express-taxi trip would still cost about 125 yuan.

In Beijing, for roughly the same distance, I pay the princely sum of 75 yuan (toll fee included).

A bottle of beer at a hole-in-the-wall eatery near our Hong Kong edition's office is 25 yuan. Barely 30 paces from our Beijing office, it costs 3 yuan - and you can drink al fresco in the summer, cops permitting.

Even "exotic" Indian food (which I think should be in this basket - how could you have a list of 125 desirable goods and services which does not include one of the most wonderful cuisines in the world) costs about half in Beijing.

Yes, there are exceptions, like the little store behind Yaxiu shopping center which sells okra for the price of shark's fin; and the spices cost more.

But it is clear that there are two worlds out here inhabited by foreigners.

I believe I speak for a majority of the Silent Majority that I wish our bosses take note of the exorbitant cost of living on the mainland when it comes to pay rises. And pray we are not posted to Hong Kong.

Or I want to be headhunted for that exclusive club in Beijing. Never mind the cost of living.

E-mail: ravi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/19/2008 page8)