Chinese cities move up in rankings of most expensive cities
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E-mail CNTV, March 31, 2014
Chinese cities are moving up in the rankings of the world's most expensive cities. That's according to the annual "Worldwide Cost of Living" survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Most notably, there are now five Chinese cities securely perched among the world's 50 most expensive cities.
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Chinese cities move up in rankings of most expensive cities. |
To find out which they are, joining in the studio is my colleague Wu Haojun.
Q1: It does seem like everything is more expensive now in China from groceries to utilities. But which are the cities way ahead of the curve here?
Wu: Well. First of all, if people do live in one of these most expensive cities, they probably already know that themselves, just check your wallet for hints. Now, according to this cost of living survey by the EIU, the Hong Kong special administrative region is the most expensive place to live in China. It came in at number 13 in the global ranking. And it's followed by, on the Chinese mainland, the eastern metropolis of Shanghai, which has a global ranking of 21 this year, moving up 9 spots from last year. I'm not sure if this will be a source of pride or anguish for people in Shanghai,but it's the first time ever that the Chinese city has surpassed New York in the ranking. Besides Hong Kong and Shanghai, three other Chinese cities made it into the top 50: the capital Beijing, the southern metropolis of Shenzhen and northern port city of Dalian. Analysts attributed this across-the-board rise in the cost of living to higher wages, rising inflation and the appreciation of the yuan. Now in terms of the validity of the survey, it gathered detailed information on the cost of more than 160 items from food, toiletries and clothing to domestic help, transport and utility bills. Seems a pretty solid tally here.
Q2: When it comes to the cost of living, how people feel is probably more important than numbers. Can you help give us a sense of just what its like living in some of these most expensive cities in the world?
Wu: Well, we have just the right stuff here to show our audience what's it like to live in some of these cities. Our reporter Shi Wenjing, Zhu Dan and Liling Tan filed first-hand reports about the cost of living in Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York respectively. Now without further ado, let's start with Shanghai and New York. Now what you saw may not be the most scientific comparison, but it does give us a sense of what's it like to live in Shanghai and New York. However, in terms of priciness, they're nothing compared to what you will see next, Hong Kong.
Here you go, over 2,000 US dollars per month for a 2 bedroom apartment. I guess I won't be moving to Hong Kong any time soon.
