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Beijing tops China in cost-of-living
By Mark South (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-29 08:44 This does not explain, however, the apparent anomaly of Beijing being judged
more expensive than Shanghai for the second year running, something that seemed
to come as a shock to everyone, except Professor Zhang Jun from the Economics
Department of Fudan University.
"Actually I was not surprised by this
result at all," he said. "The cost of real estate in Beijing has been very high,
but the main reason for Beijing being ranked more expensive is because of its
social make-up.
"Shanghai has a lot of middle-income earners, where as
Beijing has a lot of high earners, a lot of people on low incomes and far fewer
people in the middle.
"As a result, prices tend towards the extremes;
while cheap things are very cheap, the high-end goods and services are very
expensive, certainly more expensive than in Shanghai."
With the survey
looking at things like the rental of a luxury two-bed apartment, a genuine music
CD, a cup of coffee, including service charge, and the price of an international
daily newspaper, it is perhaps unsurprising that Beijing outranked its east
coast rival, despite Shanghai's more affluent reputation.
Elsewhere in
the world, Seoul, South Korea, was the most expensive city in Asia, coming in
second overall, Singapore ranked 17th, Frankfurt, the highest ranked German
city, came in at 61st and New York held onto its position as the most expensive
US city in 10th.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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