Appartments in China

How much is an appartment in China? I recently recieved this as a keyword and I thought it was an interesting queestion that deserves special attention here. Appartments in China obviously vary from city to city and since I have never lived in the bigger cities like Shanghai or Beijing I cannot be quoted as being accurate at all. First of all if you go and teach English in China in many cases your appartment will be provided for you free or subsidized. But let's take Qingdao for an example because I have lived there and that it is a medium sized city in China. I found the appartments there very expensive especially in the city (the south side) 3-4000RMB a month for a fully furnished appartment. I don't remember if this included utiities or not. In any event, this could be your salary so you don't want to be paying for this. Of course many teachers find roommates and share expensive appartments but you can if you take the time to look find cheap housing. One good start in Qingdao would be the Red Star magazine, www.myredstar.com.

A good place to live in Qingdao would be the development area, (kai fa qu) as rent is very cheap there. I am sure Beijing and the larger cities will be much more expensive while the smaller more rural areas will be very cheap as little as 100RMB per month.