3.4/5
523 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 an affordable and friendly city with strong safety and a wide variety of neighborhoods to suit different lifestyles. Foreigners can find it easy to adapt with translation apps and get around using the highly efficient metro system. There's no shortage of cheap and tasty food options, although you may have concerns about food quality at the ultra-low end. The city also has good opportunities for side income through English tutoring or teaching, making it viable for digital nomads. Internet in cafes is generally good, and many spots offer work-friendly environments.

However, it’s highly recommended to get a local bank account and set up WeChat Pay or AliPay, as international cards like Visa or MasterCard are not widely accepted. This can be a hassle initially, especially for short stays. Also, while most of the city is safe, be cautious in tourist-heavy areas due to potential scams. A major downside is the air pollution, particularly in winter, which can be a significant quality of life issue. Accessing global internet services can also be challenging due to the Great Firewall, and VPNs often perform poorly or are completely blocked, depending on the political environment.

If you can work around these issues, Beijing offers a rich, dynamic base with lots to explore.

AI-generated summary of reviews
57 years ago

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.

3 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.

7 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.

7 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.

8 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.

8 years ago

✅ Very safe

✅ Friendly people

✅ Very affordable

✅ Good internet in cafes

✅ Good public transportation

✅ Fast internet

✅ Warm now

✅ Warm in the spring

✅ Good air quality today

✅ Nomads.com members liked going here a lot

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Easy to do business

✅ Great hospitals

✅ Safe for women

❌ Air pollution

❌ Payment system difficult without local app

❌ Unreliable VPN access

❌ No freedom of speech

❌ No democracy

❌ Expensive

❌ Not much to do

❌ Gets cold in the winter

❌ Very sweaty and humid 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 (median)

0°
freezing

643°
cold

1152°
cool

2068°
mild

2577°
warm

3086°
warm

3391°
hot

3188°
hot

2577°
warm

1763°
cool

1050°
cold

439°
cold

Real (median)

032°
freezing

642°
very cold

1152°
cool

1966°
mild

2577°
warm

2984°
very warm

2882°
very warm

2576°
warm

1661°
cool

1049°
cold

439°
very cold

Humidity

nice
40%

nice
41%

nice
48%

nice
34%

nice
36%

nice
52%

sweaty
75%

nice
70%

nice
69%

nice
53%

nice
54%

nice
39%

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
23%

pockets
49%

pockets
50%

cloudy
52%

cloudy
63%

cloudy
68%

cloudy
65%

cloudy
53%

pockets
40%

pockets
20%

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
1 UVI

safe
2 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

seek shade
6 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

seek shade
6 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

safe
2 UVI

safe
1 UVI

Remote workers

1,611 people

1,760 people

1,892 people

2,100 people

2,435 people

2,400 people

1,900 people

1,860 people

2,040 people

1,860 people

2,288 people

1,920 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.

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

Current weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0)

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

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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84pts

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58pts

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168 Mbps

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🙂 Okay

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 42° 108° 33° 92° 🥵 AQI 34

✈️3h

$2,885 / mo

🌇 Also went here254 people

Tokyo

Japan

Turkey

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 36° 97° 30° 86° 🥵 AQI 29

✈️12h

$5,709 / mo

🌇 Also went here212 people

New York City, NY

United States

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 30° 86° 28° 82° AQI 60 😷

✈️15h

$8,631 / mo

🌇 Also went here218 people

Members who will be here soon

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. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital 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.

🎒 Nomad Score™	3.4/5 (Rank #158) 523 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍9 liked it 👎1 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
🤯 Overcrowding score	0% is nomad here
💵 Cost	🙂 Okay: $2,597 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 12 Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Okay
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥵 Hot: 28°C81°F (feels 32°C90°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	🥵 Sweaty: 84%
❄️ % of buildings with AC	😥 Medium: 60%
💨 Air quality (now)	🌱 Great: 21 US AQI
💨 Air quality (annual)	😷 Unhealthy for some: 100 US AQI
👌 Safety	Good
👩 Safe for women	Okay
🌈 Safe for LGBTQ+	Bad
🤮 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*	Great
🧳 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
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Asia
🚩 Country	China
🗓️ Average trip length	6 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	12 Mbps ⚠️ Internet in Beijing is fast averaging 96 Mbps but the Great Firewall slows down speeds to foreign websites by 8x to ~12 Mbps.
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌧 28°C 81°F + 🥵 Sweaty (84%) = feels 32°C 90°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👍 21 US AQI 🍃 OK
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👎☠️ 101 US AQI = 🚬 / day
🔌 Power	230V 50Hz
🧔 Best neighborhood to stay	Donghua City
🚀 Upcoming neighborhood	Dongcheng, Jianguomen
🚕 Best taxi app*	Didi
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 10 CNY in USD	USD 1.48
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	CNY 1,000 = USD 148
💸 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)	👨 81% 👱‍♀️ 19%
⛪️ 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	$2,597 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,944 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$4,064 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$1,161 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$1,263 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$3,400 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$915 / month
🏠 Median home price	$90,432
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$59 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$111 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$249 / month
🍛 Dinner	$5
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$3
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$4
👩‍🏫 International school	$28,338 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$4 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$2 / trip

Cost of Living in Beijing

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Members who have been here

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