Chinese cities climbing up global cost ladder

When it comes to how much we spend on groceries, few of us are given options. We don't fly off to a city in a distant country to do our food shopping more economically. Yet we are aware that there are significant variations in prices of everyday goods across different locations, even within the same country. For example, according to the findings of the latest Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, a kilogram of white grain rice costs 19 yuan ($2.99) in Shanghai but only about 9 yuan in nearby Suzhou.

The ranking, which compares the price of a weighted basket of goods, saw Chinese mainland cities become more expensive compared to their regional peers but continuing to offer value for money compared to hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong. First-tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou are already as internationalized and expensive as their well-known Western European or North American counterparts.

In fact, the cost of living in Shanghai, the most expensive Chinese city surveyed, is now on a par with that of Tokyo, which held the unenviable title of the world's most expensive city for years. We (at Worldwide Cost of Living Ranking) expect first-tier cities to continue along these lines. But it is the second-, third- and fourth-tier Chinese cities that are attracting attention and rapidly moving up the cost of living ranking.