Spending money beijing

markwho

Heading to beijing for two weeks in october.
I'm budgeting €50 a day for food and general spending money. Just wondering is this enough. What is the average cost of things like beer/smokes and to eat out. Looking to do it a bit cheap, but still fairly comfortable.

Trampas

You can spend as much or as little as you want.

You can easily live off €50 a day for food and etc.

I presume you have accom sorted

killbillvol2

€50 a day is a lot of money in Beijing. Public transport costs almost nothing. Food and drink are very cheap in ordinary places (you can go gourmet if you like and probably still stay well under €50). Your main costs will be whatever sights you visit and your trip to the Great Wall.

markwho

Yeah, accommodation and flights all sorted. Just looking to see how much i need to budget for food and transport and touristy things.

finbarrk

Suppose you could go through €50 if you spent the evening in Paddy O Sheas bar! Generally it should be enough though.

caoty

If you go local (food&snack and city transportation), €20 would be more than enough on average. If you fancy exotic (for locals) things, hard to say. Beijing has places where you can flush €100 very quickly.

Just for references, in terms of local things, a bottle of local beer in a restaurant costs between €0.5-1.2 (you can get that for €0.3 in shops). A meal (dinner alike) in a restaurant usually costs anything between €3 and €6. (You can get a meal, e.g. a bowl of noodles plus a bottle of beer in a lane way local rest, for €1. There are fancy exotic restaurants where you pay €40/50 for a meal)

City public transportation: €0.11 per journey (some exceptions) and it even goes down to €0.05 if you get a IC travel card(work with metro too), metro €0.22 (unlimited travel distrance) per journey. Taxi €1.1 basic standing charge (the first 3km included), €0.22 per km thereafter (there is some waiting time charge if you are stuck in a traffic jam, likely.). Roughly speaking, normally it shouldn't cost you more than €6 per taxi trip within the city area. I would recommend using metro service if possible(many must/might-go places, the zoo, the summer palace, the TAM square/forbidden city, the lama temple and the temple of heaven, etc. are all metro linked) (avoid rush hours)

BTW, not sure about in which weeks you are going, don't go in the first week of Oct. if possible. 1.10 is the Chinese St. Patrick's day and there is a one-week holiday, when all the rest of the Chinese population will join you at those places mentioned above.

sarkozy

I agree. €50 is a lot for Beijing. I was there last month. It's still roughly €1 for 10 yuan/kwai. Beers (pijao) is around 50c. Eating out is cheap. If you eat the Chinese, order at least 4 dishes plus starch between two (one or two meats, one green and something else). Chinese people don't expect tips and don't give them, they believe it's socially corrosive.

As has been said, transport is cheap. Buses are Y1, the underground is Y2.5, taxis are around Y15 (20-30 get you pretty big distances; e.g. to the airport is Y100 - rarely expect to pay more than Y40 and always go on the meter). Big Mac meals are around €2.50.

I mean, you can live much cheaper if you want, and with €50, you'd be living very well.

'Ghost Street' is amazing for food, especially when it's crayfish season.

Have fun, it's a great town.

caoty

sarkozy wrote: »

I agree. €50 is a lot for Beijing. I was there last month. It's still roughly €1 for 10 yuan/kwai. Beers (pijao) is around 50c. Eating out is cheap. If you eat the Chinese, order at least 4 dishes plus starch between two (one or two meats, one green and something else). Chinese people don't expect tips and don't give them, they believe it's socially corrosive.

As has been said, transport is cheap. Buses are Y1, the underground is Y2.5, taxis are around Y15 (20-30 get you pretty big distances; e.g. to the airport is Y100 - rarely expect to pay more than Y40 and always go on the meter). Big Mac meals are around €2.50.

I mean, you can live much cheaper if you want, and with €50, you'd be living very well.

'Ghost Street' is amazing for food, especially when it's crayfish season.

Have fun, it's a great town.

Since when has the underground gone up to 2.5?

dutch1

What is the cost roughly of hotels in Beijing ? Planning to be over there sometimein Novemeber/start Dec.

caoty

It really depends on how much you intend to pay/can afford. I reckon anything between €40 and €400. You may get some bargains as Nov/Dec is off peak season.

dutch1

Ye cool Caoty, It will be budget cost for me !