Many foreigners, especially those who have never been to China before, have no concept about Chinese currency CNY, and have no idea about the living cost of Guangzhou. We used to have a client who require us to help them to find a 3 bedroom’s house in downtown Guangzhou with price no more than CNY 500 !!! Crazy, hah? According the latest survey of ECA (Jun,2009), a world famous human resource service agency, Guangzhou Ranks 9th of Highest Cost of Living Cities in Asia, only next to Tokyo, Nagoya, Yokohama, Kobe, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Guangzhou is not the place of cheap living !!!

Here i give some more details to show you a vivid image of the cost living in Guangzhou.

Currency Exchange Rate: 1 USD=6.7 CNY (variable)

Food:
Mcdonalds big mac combo 21.5-22 CNY
Starbucks latte tall: 26-32 CNY

Lodge:
A 2 bds house in downtown Guangzhou averagely cost from 2000-3500 CNY a month.
In canton fair period, all the hotels will double or triple the price, but you can choose Family inn.

Clothes:
Averagely from 100 CNY to whatever price you want.

Transportation:
Bus: 2 CNY
Taxi: Start Price is 7 CNY for 2.1 Km, then 2.6 CNY for a Km
Taxi from Airport to Downtown cost about 150 CNY.

Salary
A new college graduate usually get 2000 CNY/month, but this is huge different with individuals. It’s also common to see college graduate get a 6000 CNY/month salary, especially in IT filed. An full time ESL teacher’s salary vary from 6000-100000 CNY/month. An escort interpreter’s  daily rate vary from 200 CNY to 400 CNY.