Our emigration: life in Shanghai

Фото: Depositphotos

Yegor Pereverzev has been living in China for over 13 years. He went to study there, and now is the head of his own company in Shanghai. For Tinkoff Magazine Editions Pereverzev spoke about life in China.

In 2003, at Belgorod State University, where I studied, they decided to create a Chinese language department. I was sent to China to gain new experience and learn the language. I spent three years there, returned and defended my dissertation, but the creation of the department was postponed. I realized that no one needed my knowledge in my hometown, and I went back to China. I'm not going back.

Visa and residence permit

To live and work in China, you need to get a business visa or residence permit.

Business visas are given to entrepreneurs who do business with Chinese companies. To stay in the country for a long time, business visa holders periodically travel to Hong Kong or Macau to “reset the counter.”

If you want to live in China for years, you need to get a residence permit. It is issued to Chinese spouses, foreign students and employees. The residence permit is updated once a year. The best way to legalize is to open an export foreign company in the country. The license of such a company is valid 49 years. All this time, while the license is valid, you can extend the residence permit. This will have to be done every year.

Here you can not hope for citizenship. Chinese citizenship is issued to foreigners extremely rarely, for special merits. In the entire history of the country handed no more than ten passports.

I have been in China for 13 years: first I came on a student visa, and later I made a worker several times. For the last six years, I have opened a work visa for a legal representative of the company.

Salaries and prices

The median income in Shanghai is 9800 RMB per month. This is about $ 1400.

Prices in China depend on the locality. All cities are divided into several categories depending on economic and social factors. The cities of the first category are the most developed: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen. The second includes the capital of rich provinces: Hangzhou, Suzhou, Chongqing. By the third - regional cities, by the fourth - by regional centers and further downward. Prices for products in cities of different categories may differ by 20 — 30%.

In Shanghai, bread costs 7 yuan ($ 1), milk - 12 yuan per liter ($ 2), apples - 15 yuan per kg. Potatoes - 4, tangerines - 14, beef - 140, pork - 70, salmon - 160 yuan per kg.

A business lunch in a cheap cafe will cost from 30 yuan ($ 4). Sit in a good restaurant costs 200 yuan per person, in very good - 300 — 400 (about $ 43-60).

Personal archive

Accomodation

The easiest way to rent a house is through a real estate agency. They can be found in almost every street. You just need to choose the area where you want to live, and contact your nearest agency. You should not trust ads on the Internet: beautiful photos and low prices are not true.

In Shanghai, realtors can specifically set the price for 1000 yuan per month higher than the owner asks. If the foreign client doesn’t care or the apartment is rented by the company, the agency will earn the thousand. Begin to bargain - you throw off the price.

With the tenant is always a contract. The tenant makes a deposit in a month or two. If you leave the apartment ahead of time, then the deposit is not returned.

The apartment I rent is worth 14 million yuan ($ 2 million). I pay 12 000 yuan ($ 1715) per month, or 144 thousands per year. Payback rental without inflation - 117 years.

If you sell my apartment and put the money under 3% into a bank, then 14 million will bring more 400 thousand yuan annually. Renting an apartment in Shanghai is three times more profitable than buying it.

To take a mortgage, you need to pay 30% of the cost of housing and work in China on a work visa for at least three years, paying taxes. Mortgage is now taking unprofitable prices are at the peak. Ten years ago, the cost of housing in Moscow and Shanghai was about the same. Now, selling an apartment here, you can buy ten apartments in Moscow.

Utilities

Utilities in Shanghai are cheaper than in Moscow, but there is one feature. There is no central heating, and electricity is heavily consumed during the cold season - up to 1000 yuan ($ 144) per month. True, there is a night tariff: from 10 evenings to 6 in the morning the price is reduced by half.

Paying for utilities is simple. The banks have special terminals: you scan the code on the account and pay from the card.

In China, they began to use a system of remote control over energy and water. If you do not pay for electricity or water, they will turn off automatically.

Banks

Banks in China are stuck in the last century. All the time I live here, nothing changes. The offices serve for a long time, nothing is clear.

Foreigners in China are not allowed to use investment tools. You can only take a mortgage or put money on deposit.

A similar story with credit cards. The card for a foreigner is opened on draconian conditions: you must make a deposit 10 000 yuan ($ 1439), you can not spend it, interest is not charged. After making a deposit, a credit card is issued, but in fact you use it as a debit card: after all, your money is on the deposit. If you need to close the card, you must personally come to the bank, write a statement and wait for 30 days.

Communication and Internet

On the territory of China for calls, there is one federal tariff. For calls within China, 200 yuan ($ 29) per month is sufficient.

For home Internet we pay up to 800 yuan per year. But the Internet is peculiar because of censorship. Foreign sites will open more slowly, and many are blocked at all. For example, in China, Facebook, Twitter and Google are blocked.

In China, everyone uses “Alipay” - Alibaba payment system. In "Alipay" pay for goods on the Internet, pay for communal and transfer money to other people. The second most popular payment system is Wichat. Cash is already used a little, everyone pays through payment systems.

Transport

In Shanghai, a developed subway, and it is more convenient to travel around the city by public transport. Ticket price depends on the distance. Drive three stops worth 2 yuan. On average, 200 — 250 yuan ($ 34) — comes out per month. Chinese "Uber" is called "Didi".

Your car buy unprofitable. The Chinese government limits the number of cars. To buy a number for a car, you will have to participate in a special lottery, and if you win, pay 40 000 yuan ($ 5745) per number. For a “happy” number in which there are many sixes or eights, the Chinese pay hundreds of thousands of yuan. Other taxes and fees will still cost 10 000 RMB annually. Add to this the cost of petrol: 6,5 — 7 yuan ($ 0,94-1) per liter. In addition, the city has paid parking. There are many of them, but in the center there are problems with places.

One of the local attractions is the maglev train. 37 kilometers from the city to the airport "Pudong", it passes 6 — 7 minutes. I live close to the station and get to the airport in 20 minutes.

Bicycle rental is very well developed in China: you find a special parking on the street, you scan the code and get a password on the phone. On these bikes you can ride in your area.

Фото: Depositphotos

Ecology

In China, the level of air pollution exceeds the norm several times due to coal-fired power plants, industrial enterprises and a large number of cars. In Beijing, because of pollution, schools are sometimes closed. In Shanghai, the air is cleaner, but sometimes it happens that pollution rates are very high.

Many of my friends with children even left China due to poor ecology. If environmentally friendly in Shanghai was as bad as in Beijing, then I would also leave here. But in case of heavy pollution in my office and at home in every room air purifiers are installed.

Medicine

All medicine is paid. If an accident has occurred, and there is no insurance, then the doctors will not help. Even if the victim is a citizen of China.

Soon, almost no one uses it, it is cheaper and faster to come to the hospital myself.

If the case is not critical, then it is better to contact the state clinic. Curing cold is worth 150 yuan ($ 21). This price includes both medications and tests. Inflammation of the lungs without hospitalization will cost from 3 000 yuan ($ 429). Here everyone is anxious about their health: getting sick, you are failing not only the employer, but also the family, spending extra money.

If you want a special relationship, you can contact the VIP department of the hospital. A doctor's appointment here will cost from 280 yuan ($ 40), tests will rise in price by 30%, but the nurse spends out of turn.

International insurance is in use in China; they cost from 20 000 yuan ($ 2864) per year. You can contact her at a good international clinic, where reception will cost 2000 yuan without insurance.

Local insurance is cheaper, but only an employer can make it. It costs the employee from 1000 yuan per year ($ 144), the company pays the same amount. It can be served in certain public hospitals.

Education

It costs from 3000 to 5000 yuan (about $ 686) per month to send a child to kindergarten. Therefore, it is cheaper to hire a nanny for a child.

Schools, on the contrary, are free. Parents pay only for school uniform, about 500 yuan for three sets: winter, demi-season and summer. The form is issued every two years. Even parents pay for dinners, on 6 yuan per day.

Children of legally resident foreigners can study in a Chinese school. But in fact it only makes sense if you give the child away from the first grade. All instruction is in Chinese, and it is difficult to learn it in the volume necessary for school outside of China. You can send your child to an international school where education is in English, but it costs from 70 000 yuan ($ 10066) per year.

University education is paid - from 10 000 yuan per year. But there are a large number of government grants, many students study for free. Russian diploma in China is recognized.

Фото: Depositphotos

Pension

The state pension is small and not paid to everyone. Villagers do not receive it at all; former steel mill workers receive about 600 yuan ($ 86) per month. Therefore, in China, children and their success are considered as investments in their own old age.

Now there are many non-state pension savings programs that are very popular among the Chinese.

Foreigners can participate in the state pension savings program, but for this you need to pay tax at a higher rate. However, how this system works is not completely known yet: it was introduced only in 2010 year, and the minimum period of uninterrupted length of service for a pension is 15 years. Therefore, there are no people who are entitled to such payments.

Entertainment

Shanghai in the 30 of the last century was called the eastern Paris, and today the city has entertainment for every budget. As for the Chinese themselves, the main hobby for them for many centuries is tasty food. In Shanghai, there are more than ten Michelin restaurants, many restaurants with national cuisines. There are restaurants in the city that opened in the 19 century.

Фото: Depositphotos

Business

China's economy is growing. Of the five largest banks in the world, four are Chinese. it Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corporation, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China ltd. PRC has increased the cost of innovation in 1,3 times over the past 5 years. The country is developing electronic commerce and payment systems. The overall impression is optimistic. Of course, there are problems: inequality is increasing, prices are rising.

The Chinese government wants to make Shanghai a global financial center. The authorities opened an experimental zone of special economic development in the city, in which a soft regime was set up for business.

It's nice to do business here. Over the years, 5 in my company did not have a single check, although it is a foreign company.

Totals for yourself

1. Over 10 years, you have a different perception of China: you love, respect, hate it. And then everything passes and just start living here.
2. We will never understand the Chinese. Every year I discover them from the new side, and it seems that it will not end. My family and I are guests in China who are loved and appreciated.
3. The Chinese are kind and hardworking. Their country occupied 30% of world GDP at the beginning of the 19 century, but then went through terrible scrapes, was a semi-colony and rose from its knees without help. Over the 30 years, 650 million Chinese have risen above the poverty line. There is nothing of the kind in world history.

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