The rent represents the largest part of the budget for a person living in the city center of Shanghai unlike other small cities in China.

Examples:
Monthly rent for 85 m2 (900 Sqft) furnished accommodation in expensive area: 15,021 yuan.
Monthly rent for 85 m2 (900 Sqft) furnished accommodation in normal area: 8,477 yuan.

For instance, housing in New York is 105% more expensive than in Shanghai. Moreover, basic monthly utilities such as water, heating, gas, electricity and internet cost for 2 persons in 85 m2 flat around 400-500 yuan per month in Shanghai, where as in London it can cost around 250 yuan per month.

The cost of living in Shanghai when it comes to technology is fairly reasonable. In fact, a new card sim costs around 100 yuan and around 150 yuan per month for unlimited internet, unlimited messages and around 600 free minutes.

In fact, using public means of transport does not generate very large expenses whatever the budget of the expat.

For short distances, taking the bus is a good option because a one way ticket costs only 2 yuan. The subway is also convenient because it is fast, there is no need to wait a long time and it is also cheap since one way ticket costs only 3 yuan whereas in Stockholm, it costs around 30 yuan. The taxi is slightly more expensive but it is very affordable compared to many western countries. For example, you can spend 35 yuan for a trip of 20 minutes. In France, taxis are much more expensive as it can cost around 230 yuan for the same travel time.

Also, many other people choose to cycle or ride scooters, because it’s economical and really practical for short distances in Shanghai. However, driving in Shanghai can be expensive because petrol is not cheap.

Imported, Western-style brands and goods often be quite expensive than local made clothes, which are very affordable. Electronics items, however, are often cheaper than in most Western countries.

Shanghai has many local supermarkets but also foreign ones, for example Carrefour, the French hypermarket chain. If you eat in a Chinese style, your weekly groceries will be very cheap (around 300 yuan per person). On the other hand, if you need to purchase a lot of imported Western foods, it is obvious that your shopping is going to be considerably more expensive than back home.

For those expats who miss their countries and who want some occidental foods time to time, Shanghai offers a big choice of occidental restaurants with different prices for a medium budget (between 60 yuan and 200 yuan if it is a luxury restaurant for one person).

Eating out in local restaurants is generally affordable, although some establishments are cheaper than others. The thrifty will spend around 45 yuan per day if he eats outside at lunch and dinner. We can notice that there is a big difference between France’s prices. In fact, one meal in a normal local restaurant cost between 110 yuan and 170 yuan in France.

According to statistics, the number of foreigners working in Shanghai is 215,000, accounting for 23.7% of the country's total, ranking first in the country. 58 foreign experts have won the "Friendship Award" of the Chinese government. Since the full implementation of the new work permit system for foreigners in China in April 2017, more than 250,000 foreign work permits have been issued by the end of October 2020, including 50,000 foreign high-end talents (category A), accounting for about 18%. The number and quality of foreign talents introduced by Shanghai ranks first in the country. A total of 744 foreign talents have received the "Confirmation Letter of Foreign High-end Talents". As for the breakthrough in foreign talents, Shanghai has issued a series of leading policy measures, mainly including:

1. Establish a mutual recognition mechanism for foreign high-end talents and a single window for foreigners' work and residence permits in the Yangtze River Delta Integration Demonstration Zone.

2. The Lingang New Area will be delegated the authority to approve the work permit for foreigners, and shall be given the management and autonomy to introduce foreign talents, and continuously increase the introduction and services of foreign talents.

3.Support foreign talents to come to Shanghai to innovate and entrepreneurship. For foreign talents who invest or innovate and start businesses in Shanghai, the restrictions on age, education background and work experience can be appropriately relaxed.

4.Improvement of Online Approval for Foreigners' Work Permit in China (Version 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0) during the epidemic period - Support foreign talents and employers to resume work and production.

5.Taken the lead in delegating the power of examination and approval of work permits for foreigners to work in China to municipal districts.

6.Create the "single window" for work and residence permits application for foreigners.

7.Support Pudong New Area to explore the innovation of foreign talent management system.

Beijing has launched various entry-exit facilitation policies in order to attract more foreign talents, outstanding foreign youth and overseas Chinese to start their own businesses, invest and study in Beijing, including measures such as part-time innovation and entrepreneurship for foreign high-level talents working in domestic scientific research institutions.

Beijing has continously provided policy support for the majority of foreign-related enterprises to introduce foreign technology & management talents and attract foreigners to China for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Since 2016, Beijing has issued more than 20,000 visa and residence permits for foreign entrepreneurs, investors and technical managers, and has accepted more than 1,000 permanent residents application in China.

As innovation city, Shenzhen is becoming more attractive and cohesive for foreign talents. More statistics show that Shenzhen's workplace globalization index is the third in China, only after Beijing and Shanghai. What's more, Shenzhen has surpassed Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, becoming the only city in the top three of "overseas returnees attraction index". Shenzhen has been rated as the most livable city in China with a good environment and one of the global innovation centers of hardware and software.

Hangzhou has been selected as "the most attractive Chinese city in the eyes of foreign talents" for 10 consecutive years. In recent years, Hangzhou has focused on the construction of a beautiful China Pioneer Area, solidly promoted the strategy of strengthening the city with talents and innovation driven strategy, and recruiting talents from all over the world. Since 2012, Hangzhou has vigorously implemented the "115" plan to introduce foreign intelligence. It has established a total of 1,891 projects and introduced more than 5,000 high-end experts, employed more than 60,000 foreign experts of various types, and provided financial support of more than 100 million yuan. It has established 5 national, 8 provincial and 37 municipal demonstration bases for introducing foreign intellectual achievements. 11 foreign experts with outstanding contributions won the "Friendship Award", 62 foreign experts won the "West Lake Friendship Award" of Zhejiang provincial government, and 61 foreign experts were awarded as "Qianjiang friendship ambassador" of Hangzhou government.

Guangzhou has won this award for the sixth time since 2011. Starting from 2017, Guangzhou has been exploring and increasing the implementation of foreign intelligence projects, promote the gathering of high-end foreign talents, implement the national work permit system for foreigners, develop national talent introduction projects. There are 2 foreign experts were selected into the seventh batch of foreign experts projects of " Thousand Talents program ", 3 foreign experts were selected as the leading talents of "Pearl River talent plan", and 13 National Overseas Talent projects were approved; 12 experts were selected as overseas experts' short-term work funding plan in Guangdong of "Pearl River talent plan”, and 6 provincial-level overseas talent projects were approved, and 15 were selected into Guangzhou high-end foreign expert projects.

The "Guangzhou green card system for talents" implemented in Guangzhou with a total of 3300 cards issued has solved the worries of high-end foreign talents working in Guangzhou；Fully implement the measures on the work permit system for foreigners in China. And it has accepted 14,410 applications for work permit from 7,299 employers, involving 147 countries, providing green channel services for nearly 1,000 foreign high-end talents (category A).

In recent years, the number of foreign talents in Hefei has increased steadily, and the proportion of high-level talents remains high. Hefei has been on the list for three consecutive years since it became the biggest winner last year. Hefei international talent city, National Offshore innovation and entrepreneurship base for overseas talents have been established, Hefei has become one of the most attractive Chinese cities in the eyes of foreign talents.

According to the plan of introducing foreign talents intelligence proposed by Hefei in 2018, Hefei will gather 200 foreign high-end talents in five years, introduce 500 foreign intelligence projects, and bring in 20000 person times of foreign talents in five years.

In 2019, the number of foreign personnel in Hefei has reached 65,000 person times, a year-on-year increase of 12.68%. The number of foreigners staying and staying for a long time has reached 4,923 person times.

In this selection, the evaluation of Nanjing by foreign talents is "a model of social public civilized city".

According to the introduction of Nanjing Science and Technology Bureau, Nanjing has made great efforts to build a "famous innovation City" with global influence since 2017. Nanjing actively creates an open and inclusive environment for foreign, show to foreign the diverse urban culture, code of conduct and values. According to statistics, there were 43,000 returned students (including foreign green cards and foreign personnel) in Nanjing for innovation and entrepreneurship, and more than 20,000 permanent residents (staying for more than half a year) by the end of 2019.

Compared with Shanghai and Guangzhou, Chengdu has the third largest number of consulates in China. Today, there are 1800 foreigners working in Chengdu, and 9 foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to Chengdu's economic and social development have been awarded the title of "JinSha Friendship Award". As a national central city, Chengdu is striving to build a "Western Center for foreign exchanges" which is gradually becoming a world-class talent gathering, career development and value realization place.

Chengdu will further optimize the talent management mechanism for foreign countries; Aiming at the shortage of high-quality talents, will further strengthen the introduction of foreign talents; Focus on improving quality and efficiency, and further enhance the international quality of local talents.

In recent years, Qingdao has deeply implemented the innovation driven development strategy, seize the opportunity of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, launch the offensive of science and technology leading city construction, continuously enhance the supporting and leading role of scientific and technological innovation, take the lead in introducing "new policies" of foreign talents, top talents and leading talents, implement the work permit system for foreigners, and build a national talent introduction demonstration base, offshore innovation and entrepreneurship base for overseas talents, and It is a multi-level and wide range of scientific and technological innovation platforms such as the high-speed train technology innovation center.

Qingdao has successively been approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology to facilitate the foreign exchange facilitation pilot program. It has multiple advantages such as decentralization of R visa approval power for high-end foreign talents. The processing time limit of foreigners' work permit in China has been shortened from 20 working days to 5 working days, which is the fastest in China.

At present, there are 5,056 foreign talents working in Qingdao with valid work permits, accounting for 52% of the province. Among them, 14 people have won the Friendship Award, 45 have won the Qilu Friendship Award of the Shandong provincial government, 3 have won the international science and technology Cooperation Award, and 20 have been appointed as the special experts of Qingdao government.

Suzhou has won the favor of the majority of foreign talents by virtue of its profound cultural heritage, solid economic foundation, excellent investment environment, livable living environment, and gradually in line with the international standards of the executive entrepreneurship environment.

According to statistics, the number of foreigners working is 12,000 in Suzhou, accounting for 50% of Jiangsu Province. Among them, there are 4,725 high-end foreign talents, 5 foreign academician workstations, 285 provincial and municipal foreign expert studios, accounting for 63% of Jiangsu Province. The number and quality of foreign talents introduced are the first in Jiangsu Province.

With the continuous improvement of business and living environment in Chinese cities, more and more foreign experts and talents come to work and start their own businesses in China. In recent years, the implementation of the work permit system for foreigners in China and the visa system for foreign talents have greatly promoted, it has greatly promoted the continuous improvement of government affairs, policies, work and living environment in various cities, so as to attract more high-level overseas talents to come to China for innovation and entrepreneurship, and let more foreign talents "come, stay, use well and flow easily". Among the factors that attract foreign talents to China, the strength of scientific and technological innovation, especially the level of basic scientific research, is becoming more and more important.

iReloChina will continue to provide more efficient relocation services for foreign talents in all those cities in China.