What is the average monthly cost for food?
You will likely eat out much more often while in China than you do in your home country. The food culture is one of the great things about living here. Even better, the costs of doing so are extremely low. Chinese food is extremely diverse, and eating out for lunch everyday, while enjoying banquet dinners with a group five nights a week can be done for less than 1500 RMB a month. Foreign foods (i.e. food items from the west) are considered exotic and will naturally cost more than local cuisine. Cooking at home a few nights a week can reduce these costs by half in no time.