| I definately agree with Xinyu's comments.
You can't compare two cities based on Absolute Price because you were a tourist in New York. It's also ridiculous to reach the conclusion that CNN's survey is wrong based on all your Absolute Price comparision between Shanghai and New York. You should know: No one lives in New York got his or her paychecks from Shanghai in RMB. ***************************************************************************** I lived in Shanghai for more than 20 years before came to New York 3.5 years ago. At the beginning, I had the same feeling as you. It's kind of unafforadable to live in this city because I always multiplied everything by 8. Then the prices were just crazy! But when i went back to Shanghai in July 2004, I made the same mistake. I divided the price of everything by 8, then everything became so so so cheap! That's a wrong and confusing way to compare the living expenses of 2 cities. Also sometimes you will find something "made in China" in NYC are even cheaper than the same stuff in shanghai (in Absolute Price), especially after the holiday season, everywhere is on Winter Big Sale. eg. I purchased a cashmere sweater from AnnTaylor only for $40 (include 8.625% tax already) after applying all the coupons. But as I know, the same quality cashmere sweater will cost at least 600RMB. (my mom purchase two cashmere for me at Shanghai, both of them cost more than 1000RMB) So please don't be too subjective. |
Life in New York is Tough for Me