Independent cost-of-living research, analyzed city by city
The real cost of living, analyzed.
An aggregator gives you a city's cost as one number. It won't tell you whose income that number sits next to, or what the low price quietly costs you elsewhere. We build frameworks to close that gap. And once the numbers make sense, Guides takes over: which city fits you, and what the weeks around landing actually cost.
One of the cheapest cities we've measured to live in. Also the one where rent eats 49% of the local wage, the hardest to actually afford. A cheap city can still be the one you cannot afford.
Read the Harbin guide →
Start here · 3 steps
However you arrived, this is the path.
Should you move?
Compare real cost of living and take-home pay between two cities and see whether a move pays back, and how fast.
Open the calculator → Step 2 · CompareChina × abroad
Set Chinese cities side by side with their structural twins overseas. Same shape, different rules for who gets to stay.
Browse comparisons → Step 3 · StayWhat it takes to stay
How long you can stay, which permit fits your situation, and what changes if you work, study, or go self-employed. The 2026 process, step by step.
Read the residence guide →Try it now · salary equivalent
What does your pay buy in another city?
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Matched on all-in monthly living cost (rent plus food, transport and utilities) from our own city ledgers. Figures are pre-tax; this is a cost comparison, not a tax calculation.
Open the full salary-equivalent calculator →The roadmap
Where the research already lives, and where it's headed next.
19 city guides published and ready to read. Each is a full cost-of-living deep-dive with original analysis, not a data table. Click any solid dot to read. Have a city in mind that we haven't covered? Suggest it. We queue the next research based on reader demand.
Current votes: open candidates
Guides · Match
Personalized City Recommendation Engine
Answer a few questions about your budget, climate preference, and career goals. We weigh cost-of-living data against local wages, infrastructure, and lifestyle to shortlist cities where your salary actually works.
Find your city →Guides · Browse
Multi-Dimensional City Comparison Tool
Filter cities by cost, opportunity, culture, climate, and history. See which destinations overlap across your priorities. A research tool for remote workers, expats, and relocators who want evidence-backed shortlists.
Browse by category →The story behind the story
A cheap rent means nothing if you can't get the apartment, catch the train, or pay for lunch.
Every city guide leans on the same infrastructure to actually work day to day: how you rent, how you pay, how you move, how you get online. It runs underneath Cities, Compare, and Universities. It's the machinery underneath all three, documented once in the full systems index so every city guide can point back to it instead of re-explaining it each time.
Everything else
Not sure where to start?
The full index, our salary tool, and the frameworks research sit one click away. No account, no pop-up.
Before you go
Get the next city, when it's ready
One short email when a new guide goes live. The real numbers, and the life behind them. Written by someone who lives in China and does the math in yuan.
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How to read these numbers
From public data to the life behind it.
We trace every figure back to its cause. Data comes from public databases and official sources (Numbeo, Wise, government utility tariffs, transit authority fares) then traced back to its causes: a city's history, infrastructure, and economy. We do not republish price tables. The systems section documents the infrastructure that makes the numbers work in practice.
Every guide tells you whether I am writing from lived experience, repeated visits, or research alone. We say where each claim comes from. The frameworks (Five Kinds of Cheap and Hidden Recurring Costs) are analytical tools for reading public data on its own terms.
Our stance on AI: AI tools may occasionally assist with routine technical work like grammar refinement or data formatting. They do not generate insights. Every analysis, cost comparison, and narrative is written by a human author. More about the method →