Live in China

Lifestyle

China may be a global economic powerhouse with gleaming new megacities, but its culture is still rooted primarily in family, although traditional family structures are beginning to change. Many parents still live with their children and provide free childcare for their grandchildren so their children can work and support the household. But that extended family way of life is beginning to change for a number of reasons. The increasing wage gap between the rich and poor is forcing many to wait longer to get married. Women also are now entering the workforce at higher rates than ever to help support their families. Even more importantly, economic pressures have had an impact on many young Chinese who are putting off marriage or having children until they have acquired enough money to ensure their financial security.

Economic progress during the last twenty years has increased the living standard for many Chinese who now have a wide range of consumer products to choose from. China’s increasingly open society and exposure to the world outside its borders is creating a more cosmopolitan lifestyle in the cities with emphasis on arts and culture, although censorship is still common.

Even with China’s economic progress, the London-based Legatum Institute ranked China just eightieth out of 142 countries researched for Average Life Satisfaction and fifty-fifth in Legatum’s Prosperity Index (2012), which considers economy, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, education, health, safety and security, personal freedom and social capital sub-categories. China’s Average Life Satisfaction rank may be indicative of the economic disparity between better-educated workers in the major cities and the majority of China’s people who live in rural areas.

Rich or poor, the Chinese continue to live their lives believing in the simplicity of all things, a precept of Taoism, which believes that thoughts and feelings conform to each season as you become one with nature, acting in harmony with everything on earth and valuing human relationships.

That feeling of harmony extends to the food of China, a rich cuisine that has developed in sophistication for thousands of years. Dining is one of the most valued daily activities in China and truly exemplifies harmony and order. By convention, the Chinese table is round. The round table permits seating by hierarchy. When being seated for a dinner, elders and senior and important guests are the first to be seated. After them are the children, who enjoy special attention and sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the elderly. Established rules of etiquette include the matching of various dishes and utensils and the sequence of serving the dishes. There are eight major regional cuisines in China. Cantonese, Hunan and Szechuan are world-renowned.

Cost of Living

Like anywhere in the world you may move, your cost of living in China will depend upon the type of lifestyle you want to have. Even in the least expensive countries your cost of living may be similar to what you left in the U.S. if you want to maintain a similar lifestyle.

Satisfaction with living standards in China is generally high. The country ranked thirty-sixth globally out of 142 countries on the Satisfaction with Standard of Living measure and twenty-ninth on Access to Food and Shelter, as reported by the Legatum Institute (2012).

Below is Euromonitor International’s 2011 comparison of costs for selected food items sold in the U.S. and China (Based on U.S. dollars at the 2011 exchange rate).

City living in China is pricey. Five of China’s cities made Mercer’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey’s (2012) fifty most expensive cities to live. Hong Kong was ranked ninth, Shanghai sixteenth, Beijing seventeenth, Shenzhen thirtieth and Guangzhou thirty-first.

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