Living with wife and son in China

HI, Howardoliverlilly,

    It can be done, but if the monthly income is 10000/M, I guest the living condition will not be good.
    For a family of three members, the rent will be approximately 3000/m uptown and 5000/m downtown for an apartment,
    Without waste, another 3000/m could be enough for living expenditures such as food(Chinese food), electricity,  gas  and etc.
    Then you may have about 4000/m for other expenditures, including those to raise your  child.

   Hope that may help.

Where in China are you?

It depends very much where in China you are living. But 10'000 should gernerally be enough, if your son goes to a public school.

In  Xiamen, a two bedroom appartment in an acceptable location is starting at below 2000 RMB / Month, if you want something nice you should calulate 2500. Add about 500 if you want 3 bedrooms.
If you cook by yourself you can eat for 1500 RMB a month (local food). Double it when you eat outside (chinese). Water, gas, elecrticity should not cost more than 500 a month, depending on how you're using the air condition, I know people they use 500 RMB power just for aircon... but that's extreme.

Howard the important question here is schooling for the 7yr old


If you are homeschooling you will be fine.


If the plan is to send him to an International School I suspect that you will have a serious budget deficit.


Local style housing (depending on location) 3 - 8,000RMB/month.

Expat preferred compounds up to 90,000RMB/month (example Embassy House) with a large number in the 25- 45,000RMB range.

I am so grateful for the insights thus far. Please continue making your comments as they are most important to me.Remember, guys, you are the ones living there, currently - with the envied wealth of experience. By the way, continue to do your best, everyone, and enjoy your tenure!!

DO you know where in Beijing you will be working?

Sorry, not yet. Actually, I am presently job-hunting. However, I am trying to figure-out how much, approximately, I might need to earn in order to be able to take my family with me. If I can know that, then I would be able to, ultimately, decide on which contracts/offers to accept.If the offers are not practical for survival/saving, then I should contemplate and explore other options outside of China.