2.67/5
446 reviews
Photo by Tom Winckels via Unsplash

Cost of Living in Beijing

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good

work

wechat

food

cheap

friends

easy

cash

account

icbc

incredible

welcoming

modern

friendly

safe

loads

air

beware

cafes

Beijing is a massive city with a small-town feel, offering a wide variety of neighborhoods suited to different lifestyles. The food is excellent and affordable, and rent is reasonably priced. The public transportation, especially the metro, is efficient and far better than many Western cities. The city is also very safe, even at night. Locals tend to be friendly and welcoming toward foreigners, especially after some time adjusting to the culture.

One of the biggest challenges is payment—MasterCard and VISA are rarely accepted, and most ATMs do not work with foreign cards. Using WeChat Pay or AliPay requires opening a local bank account, but once set up, mobile payments are widely accepted. Another issue is internet access; the Great Firewall makes many foreign websites inaccessible, and VPNs are inconsistent and sometimes blocked entirely. The air pollution, especially in winter, can be quite severe and is worth considering if health is a concern.

For digital nomads, Beijing has plenty of cafes and coworking spaces with reliable internet. There are also opportunities to earn money through English tutoring, which can provide good side income with minimal hours. Overall, if you can work around the payment and internet restrictions, Beijing has a lot to offer.

AI-generated summary of reviews

I lived in Beijing for almost 3 years from 2014-2017. It's an incredible city with a lot to offer. It's an imposing place and not the most welcoming, but that's because it takes time to adjust. In a nutshell: beautiful parks, very modern infrastructure , friendly people, good transportation (the subway is FAR superior to London or NYC, for example), amazing food, relatively cheap, extremely safe, loads to do, incredible history. The one major con is the air pollution—it can get really bad, so beware. Throughout my time in Beijing, I was constantly discovering new places and meeting interesting people. When I was there, there were plenty of foreigners and people were mostly very welcoming towards us. It's a special place. There are also loads of cafes and bars where you can work from, with good internet. A must-visit is the Friends Cafe—it's modelled after Central Perk from the sitcom Friends. They have good internet, delicious coffee and snacks, and Friends is playing on the TV 24/7! Disclaimer: Not sure if it's still in operation now.

2 years ago

Definitely an underrated place for nomads - Huge city with a small town feel. Lots of different neighborhoods to appeal to different types of people: some commercial, some hipstery, some historical, some modern. Food and rent is cheap (and the food is damn good). People are very friendly as compared to other big Asian cities. You can also get easy work as a tutor and make good extra cash. I survived for five months tutoring and doing other English related work for max 12 hrs a week (leaving me lots of time to work on other projects). You could also easily get a full time teaching gig but that defeats the whole nomad idea i guess. My favorite area is Gulou, or the Drum Tower. Old, local style with ancient buildings and some great cafes.

6 years ago

The GFW is a *huge* bother in daily work. VPN is not a perfect mitigation as it is throttled and frequently completely blocked (Have tried shadowsocks, outline, lantern, openvpn and expressvpn to about equal success). The VPN availability seems to fluctuate with the political climate (for example if there is a party conference or such).

The air quality is so-so. Worst in winter time. The streets seem very safe and their is little crime (Except maybe in tourist areas, beware the scammers). It is super easy to get by with a little English and a translation app. Metro system is super easy to use. Food is fairly cheap, and it can come as cheap as you want... but sometimes of questionable quality.

6 years ago

If you get an account from a local bank, then you can connect it to your WeChat or AliPay and stop bringing cash with you. You can pay EVERYWHERE with these 2 apps.

6 years ago

You can't pay ANYWHERE with MasterCard or VISA. You can usually pay with cash though. Problem is most ATMs don't accept MasterCard or VISA. Easiest is to go to any ICBC Bank office with your passport, open an account (for $0.50), deposit some money ($50) and install WeChat. Then connect WeChat Pay to your ICBC account. This will let you use WeChat Pay which works with a QR code and is accepted anywhere! WeChat is pronounced Wei-Xin (whey-shin). Ask the ICBC staff to help you set up WePay if you need! Good luck.

6 years ago

✅ Very safe

✅ Affordable

✅ Friendly people

✅ Good public transportation

✅ Great food

✅ Good coworking cafes

✅ Fast internet

✅ Warm in the spring

✅ Good air quality today

✅ Nomads.com members liked going here

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Easy to do business

✅ Great hospitals

✅ Safe for women

❌ Air pollution

❌ Payment issues with foreign cards

❌ VPN access unreliable

❌ No freedom of speech

❌ No democracy

❌ Not much to do

❌ Cold now

❌ Gets cold in the winter

❌ Very dry air now

❌ Not many Nomads.com members right now

❌ Feels crowded

❌ Difficult to make friends

❌ Quality of education is low

❌ Roads can be dangerous

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Not family friendly

❌ Hostile towards LGBTQ+

❌ People smoking tobacco a lot

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels

0°
freezing

43 6°
cold

52 11°
cool

68 20°
mild

77 25°
warm

81 27°
warm

84 29°
warm

81 27°
warm

77 25°
warm

63 17°
cool

50 10°
cold

39 4°
cold

Real

32 0°
freezing

42 6°
very cold

52 11°
cool

66 19°
mild

77 25°
warm

84 29°
very warm

82 28°
very warm

76 25°
warm

61 16°
cool

49 10°
cold

39 4°
very cold

Humidity

too dry
14%

too dry
17%

too dry
27%

too dry
15%

too dry
16%

too dry
27%

nice
43%

nice
37%

nice
39%

too dry
25%

too dry
27%

too dry
13%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

Rain

dry
1mm

dry
5mm

dry
9mm

dry
3mm

dry
14mm

rainy
52mm

rainy
164mm

rainy
109mm

rainy
58mm

dry
38mm

dry
18mm

dry
2mm

Cloud

clear
9%

pockets
14%

pockets
32%

pockets
31%

pockets
32%

pockets
43%

cloudy
59%

pockets
45%

cloudy
53%

pockets
24%

pockets
15%

clear
8%

Air quality

bad
146 US AQI

bad
141 US AQI

bad
153 US AQI

bad
106 US AQI

okay
96 US AQI

bad
114 US AQI

bad
109 US AQI

okay
83 US AQI

okay
92 US AQI

okay
97 US AQI

bad
135 US AQI

Sun

safe
2 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

safe
2 UVI

Remote workers

511 people

586 people

583 people

662 people

700 people

633 people

613 people

578 people

646 people

620 people

720 people

600 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Not all nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on Beijing's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

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Help pick the best photos for Beijing and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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🌇 Also went here191 people

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Not all nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	2.67/5 (Rank #265) 446 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍7 liked it 👎1 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $2,428 / mo
📡 Internet	🚀 Super fast: 87Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Okay
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥶 Too cold: 9°C48°F (feels 8°C46°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	🌵 Too dry: 13%
💨 Air quality (now)	🌱 Good: 55 US AQI
💨 Air quality (annual)	😷 Unhealthy for some: 100 US AQI
👌 Safety	Great
🤮 Food safety*	Good
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Great
🤝 Lack of racism*	Bad
🎓 Education level*	Mediocre
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Good
💰 Income level*	Very low: $677 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
😤 People density	🤨 Busy: 12k ppl/km² (1 per 9x9m)
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Bad
✈️ Airline scores*	Good
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
🏥 Hospitals	Great
😄 Happiness*	Okay
🍸 Nightlife	Bad
📶 Free WiFi in city	Bad
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Good
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Bad
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Bad
👩 Female friendly	Okay
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Bad
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Asia
🚩 Country	China
🗓️ Average trip length	7 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	87 Mbps ⚠️ Internet in Beijing is fast averaging 696 Mbps but the Great Firewall slows down speeds to foreign websites by 8x to ~87 Mbps.
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌤 9°C 48°F + 🌵 Too dry (13%) = feels 8°C 46°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👍 55 US AQI 🍃 OK
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👎☠️ 101 US AQI = 🚬 / day
🔌 Power	230V 50Hz
🧔 Best neighborhood to stay	Sun Palace
🚀 Upcoming neighborhood	Taixiang
🚕 Best taxi app*	Didi
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 10 CNY in USD	USD 1.38
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	CNY 1,000 = USD 138
💸 Tipping	No
💳 Cashless	💵 No, cash only (esp. for foreigners because WeChat is very hard to set up)
💻 Best coworking space	AND lab
💻 Best alt. coworking space	theNode
☕️ Best coffee place	Café Zarah
☕️ Best alt. coffee place	Trends Lounge
🏪 Best 24/7 coffee place	The Bridge Café
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
♻️ Return rate	👍11% of visitors return
📸 Visitors per year	4,156,700 visitors
📸 Tourists now	79,663 tourists
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	22,000,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$8,126 / year
😤 Population density	🤨 busy: 9x9m (81m²) per person
👫 Gender ratio (population)	👨 54% 👱‍♀️ 46%
👫 Gender ratio (young adults)	👨 56% 👱‍♀️ 44%
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 82% 👱‍♀️ 18%
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
🏠 Apartment listings	Sublet
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Spring
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Air China
🏥 Best hospital	Beijing United Family Hospital

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$2,428 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,805 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$3,774 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$1,078 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$1,217 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$3,158 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$850 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$57 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$104 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$231 / month
🍛 Dinner	$4
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$2
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$4
👩‍🏫 International school	$26,317 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$4 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$2 / trip