Cost of Living in Shenzhen: An American Expat's Perspective

I like living in a giant, industrialized, futuristic city because I grew up in such a small town America. I've never seen something like this before. But also the cost of living, the affordable health care, the incredible public transportation, the healthy foods, the conveniences, the quality of education for my children. I mean, there's just a lot of benefits I see with living here. My name is Bradley Cray. I'm 36 years old and I'm an American living in Shenzhen, China. Now, this is a perfect example of how you can see the contrast between the past and the future in China. So, if you look over here, this goes to a

little Nanshan Village. As soon as you cross through there, you feel like you're time traveling 50 years in the past. Does not look anything like if you turn around and go this way. to the giant, bustling, booming skyscrapers of the city. It's like if Silicon Valley and New York City had a baby in China. That's how I would describe Shenzhen. And uh it's like the very southern point of China in Guangdong province, right above Hong Kong. My dad kind of had that Christopher McCandless Into the Wild dream and he took me and my brothers and my mom to Colorado to a small town with like 6,000 people way up in the Rocky Mountains and we just lived there.

Just a very calm childhood. In Shenzhen, you don't need a car. The subway systems are incredible. They're all new, up-to-date, and incredibly cheap. And so, me and my wife it will cost us like 60 cents to get home on the subway. The kids ride the subway for free. That's what I mean, by the end of the month all included costs for transportation have to be less than $50. One of my favorite parts about the subway stations in China is a lot of them lead to underground malls. It's like a subterranean shopping extravaganza. Like to think about it, above us right now, the whole city's just walking, going

about their day and we're below them in some spectacular mall. And it just blows my mind sometimes because the whole world's existing above us. It's time to pick the kids up from school. You even have to beep the kids in and out and it's an electronic system. That's for my son. That's for my daughter. Come here. It's really not that expensive to raise kids here. Per semester, 6 months including food for both kids, we paid like 300 bucks.

He played with you a lot of times? Is he Ultraman? As a father, I think my mental health living in China is a lot better simply because I don't have to worry about things like school shootings for instance or my children being kidnapped from the park. My kids, they're growing up not bilingual but trilingual. My wife speaks French with them, I speak English with them and they're going to school learning Mandarin all day. My wife doesn't work, she's a stay-at-home mom. When I went to see what the schools were giving to my children for food, I had a film a TikTok video on it. I was like, this is crazy. Like, this is what America should be doing.

I had never left America until I was like 26 or 27 years old. Red, white, and blue my whole life, man. Like, but uh there was a certain time where I was like, I really want to see what's out there. I wanted to teach English overseas, so I ended up in Shenzhen, China. During COVID, I got locked out of the country cuz you know, the whole world shut down and I ended up in Tahiti. That's where my wife is from. And uh two babies came along and we moved back to Shenzhen in June of 2025 and we plan to stay here for the foreseeable future. I like to get me a coconut water every day, but here I can pay with my hands.

Use the biometrics on your handprint and I don't need a wallet, I don't need a phone. And it's paid. I can take it. With my teaching job in China, I was making around 4,000 American dollars a month. So now in China, I'm a marketing manager. My base pay is around $3,500 a month, but with my TikTok and Instagram, which will easily put me over $4,500 a month living here. Well, this is my apartment in Shenzhen, China. Start with the biometrics. I don't need a key. I can just use my thumbprint and come on in.

Welcome. This is a three-bedroom apartment, roughly around 1,000 American dollars a month, but it's in a pretty good part of the city. You can get much cheaper than this. Here's the kitchen. Not very big. Don't drink the tap water. Always boil it. Boil all the water here. Now, this is the living room. It's nice, spacious. Here's the balcony. Uh pretty good view. Little cloudy today, but uh not bad. And this is the third bedroom. It was supposed to be an office, but kids always win, so now it's a toy room. So, this is where the kids play.

We only have one bathroom. Four people sharing it. So, it gets a little crazy. But here it is. Kids' room. Just enough to put both the beds for both the kids. This is our room though, me and my wife's. Uh also not a bad view. Big old open window. My Wi-Fi every month is roughly around 29 American dollars and my electricity is close to 100 bucks. For the health care, I pay $90 a month and that includes my two kids. The most convenient parts of life here is the delivery services. Anything can be delivered to your house within 15 minutes. We're talking about a phone charger, shampoo for your shower, or a meal. And I just order whatever I want. When

the delivery driver gets here, he'll call me and I'll just tell him to put it in the robot and he puts it in the robot and the robot takes it to my door. My robot's here. Nǐ hǎo, buddy. All right. Thanks. Scooters. Scooters, scooters, scooters, Scooters everywhere. It's a scooter paradise, man. They're flying everywhere. They don't abide by any traffic laws. They go on the sidewalks. They go on the road. They go down the wrong side of the road. They go sideways on the sidewalks.

I've been hit by like four of them. Incredibly dangerous. And it's one of the things that frustrates me the most about living in a big city in China. In China, there's no concept of personal space. A lot of the times when you walk by the schools, the children, they'll say, "Lǎowài" or "wài guó rén". It's like a foreigner. But you hear it all the time. So, it's like some of the first words you learn. "Lǎowài" and "wài guó rén". I think it's more of a curiosity thing cuz they don't see many foreigners. So, when they see you, "Lǎowài" "wài guó rén".

I speak a little bit of Mandarin. I need it for daily life, simple conversational, but I'm not fluent. Wǔ nián. Oh, 5 years. Cool. SO, you can get the whole chicken for five bucks. You can get a whole crate of eggs for about 250. It's the biggest beer I've ever seen. That's a beer. Dang, dude. Got to get some nuts. That's healthy. That's only $2 for these. So, all that chicken in there, it's only $1. It's on discount right now. Some sort of apple juice. $1. I'm going to get that. Month by month with the groceries and eating for a family of four, it can vary. So, if I go to the Walmart here in China, I can literally fill up the

entire grocery cart from bottom to top for 100 American dollars. Before you romanticize moving to China, you have to realize it's not an immigration country. And if you overstay your visa here, you will be caught and you will be deported. Man, I love this city. Moving to China was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I met my wife, I had kids. I never planned on being a father. I think if I would have never moved and I would have stayed in America, I would be living a much different life and probably not a life that I'm proud of. I would love to stay in China forever.

You never know where life's going to take you, but if all the stars align perfectly, I'll be here forever. In Shenzhen. Sounds like you are having a conversation with your friend. Yeah. If there's anything else you need help with or want to talk about, feel free to let me know. All right, I will. you for the kind words. You are doing me a solid job in the end. Thank you so much for your kindness and support.