The International Schools Review Forum

Can anyone tell me how far would 17K RMB a month would go in Beijing. The salary is net and housing would be provided.
We are a family of 3. I have a 5 year old, who would attend the school where I would be working.
Is it possible to live on this amount of money? Could we save any? We have no bills, loans, credit cards debt to take care of at home.
Thank you very much for your responses.

A family of three on 17K in Beijing??? Thats peanuts, seriously you would starve on that, and you wouldnt save anything. Thats ESL money for a single person at best. You shouldnt think of anything less then 20K RMB and the elite schools pay 40K. Any serious school should be in the 30K range.

Sorry, my bad, the salary would be 22K RMB a month. I looked at the wrong row on the salary schedule. According to you Psyguy it would still be very little. I might need to reconsider than.

Hi. I'm in Beijing and 22k net wouldn't be that bad. If you were single, you could save half of that. With two dependents it will depend on lifestyle. Can your partner/spouse teach English? If so, you could add some savings money through that.

Where is the housing provided?

Thank you wrldtrvlr. The school is in Shunyi district and the apartment is in walking distance. My wife is planning to do some work.

Shunyi is mostly nice and very expat friendly. The subway runs out there now so getting into the city is cheap.

Is it one of the British schools?

$22K would be doable, but I don't see a lot of savings potential. Your not really looking at "doing well" until your bringing in $30K. Dont get me wrong there are ESL teachers getting buy on less, but in the low 20's your looking at staying in/home a lot. How well you live is going to depend on if your wife can bring in extra income and your lifestyle choices (kids can be expensive I understand).