Trying to survive on a shoestring

　 Two girls walk in Sanlitun in Beijing, where few can imagine surviving on 1,000 yuan a month. Zou Hong / China Daily
　
　

　 Fried egg pancake is a popular Beijing breakfast
　
　

　 Spending nights in a shared room saves money

There are many things we expats take for granted in the constantly changing city of Beijing, living our lives of relative or genuine luxury.

Between Starbucks, Costa and Jamaica Blue, coffee aficionados will no longer die of thirst (or depression) in this tea-driven city. The trendy labels fluttering in the Village, Shin Kong Place and the Place have fashionistas scrambling for their Marc Jacobs clutches, to shell out for threads flown in from overseas.

An expatriate of any financial standing ought to relish the virtual smorgasbord of local delights and foreign luxuries that Beijing has become during the last few years. The sad truth, however, is that few of us ever really appreciate anything until it"s gone. The money, that is.

What if you were made to live on a mere 1,000 yuan a month? Could you do it? Would you survive? How would you make ends meet? Where would you live? What would you eat?

The question of rent proved most challenging, as even my thriftiest friend paid more - 1,500 yuan - than the amount allotted in these pages for the entire month. I discovered several websites (www.zhantai.com/bj/11 and www.bjzfw.com), advertising cheap and threadbare rooms (300-500 yuan per month) in the outskirts of Beijing, outside the Fourth Ring Road - where (here"s the catch) one would have to be willing to live with up to four roommates.

But everyone deserves options - even on 1,000 yuan per month. A tip from a Beijingcafe.com member led me to a network of "homestay" agencies (Beijing Homestay, China Homestay, Beijing Hutong Homestay), in which foreigners live with a Chinese family for free or a symbolic fee. The price? Teaching the family English. Expat be warned: This may sound too good to be true.

"The hostess turned out to be completely uninterested in having any interaction with us, so anything we learned about Beijing, we found out on our own," said Ricki Shaffir, who stayed in a homestay with her husband for five months. Turning now to the dilemma of getting food, the old phrase "you are what you eat" can mean only one thing, we must all become street food.

The frugal expatriate can forget about any Western food for the duration of their stay in Beijing - it"s all about local grub found in markets or on city streets.

Beijing is awash in a bobbing sea of street vendors selling colorful, tasty and - you guessed it - cheap food. Between noodles, porridge, fried egg pancake, meat roll, sausage and an endless array of dumplings, the thrifty expat won"t be forced to subsist on instant noodles alone.

And so we finally get onto the issue of getting around. Living cheaply also means living far from the city center, so some form of transport will be needed to commute to that 1,000-yuan profession, most likely as a teacher of sorts.

The penny-wise foreigner can enjoy the luxury of renting a bike for free at bus stations around the city - they need only deposit a certain sum (200-300 yuan), which will be given back upon returning the two-wheeler.

But if weather conditions don"t permit riding in the "fresh air", then the bus is also a welcome option at 0.4 yuan per ride inside the city (using an IC card). The subway is also a convenient choice, although slightly more expensive at 2 yuan.

Some of Beijingers make 1,000 yuan or less work for them each month and you can too. Even if you don"t really need to, just stop and think for a second how much money you could save by looking after the pennies: it"s an eye-opener.

Are you an expat who has survived in Beijing on a shoestring? We"d love to hear about it. Please write to metro_opinion@chinadaily.com.cn. and let us know how you did it.