⭐️ Total score | 2.46/5 (Rank #291) |
👍 Quality of life score | Okay |
👶 Family score | Okay |
🎒 Community score | Okay |
💵 Cost | 😙 Affordable: $1,318 / mo |
📡 Internet | 🤬 Unusably slow: 4Mbps (avg) |
😝 Fun | Okay |
⛅️ Temperature (now) | 🌞 Perfect: 24°C75°F (feels 24°C75°F) |
💦 Humidity (now) | 😊 Comfy: 57% |
💨 Air quality (now) | 🌱 Good: 61 US AQI |
💨 Air quality (annual) | 😷 Unhealthy for some: 101 US AQI |
👌 Safety | Great |
🤮 Food safety* | Good |
👮♀️ Lack of crime* | Great |
🤝 Lack of racism* | Bad |
🎓 Education level* | Mediocre |
⚡️ Power grid | Great |
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change | Good |
💰 Income level* | Very low: $677 / mo |
🙊 English speaking* | Bad |
😤 People density | 🧘♀️ Low density: 6k ppl/km² (1 per 13x13m) |
🚶 Walkability | Great |
✌️ Peace (no pol. conflict) | Okay |
🚦 Traffic safety* | Bad |
🏥 Hospitals | Okay |
😄 Happiness* | Okay |
🍸 Nightlife | Okay |
📶 Free WiFi in city | Okay |
🖥 Places to work from | Great |
❄️ A/C or heating | Good |
😁 Friendly to foreigners | Okay |
🗯 Freedom of speech* | Bad |
👩 Female friendly | Good |
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly | Okay |
🎅 Startup Score | Bad |
🌍 Continent | Asia |
🚩 Country | China |
🗓️ Average trip length | 7 days |
📡 Internet speed (avg) | 4 Mbps ⚠️ Internet in Chengdu is fast averaging 32 Mbps but the Great Firewall slows down speeds to foreign websites by 8x to ~4 Mbps. |
⛅️ Weather (now) | 🌥 24°C 75°F + 😊 Comfy (57%) = feels 24°C 75°F |
💨 Air quality (now) | 👍 61 US AQI 🍃 OK |
💨 Air quality (annual avg) | 👎☠️ 101 US AQI = 🚬 / day |
🔌 Power | 230V50Hz |
🚕 Best taxi app* | Didi |
🚑 Travel medical insurance | Safetywing |
💸 10 CNY in USD | USD 1.38 |
🏧 Suggested ATM take out: | CNY 1,000 = USD 138 |
💸 Tipping | No |
💳 Cashless | 💵 No, cash only (esp. for foreigners because WeChat is very hard to set up) |
☕️ Best coffee place | Nu Cafe |
☕️ Best alt. coffee place | Dou Dou Cafe |
🏪 Best 24/7 coffee place | Aoting Garden Hotel |
🚰 Tap water | 🚫 No, not drinkable |
♻️ Return rate | 👍10% of visitors return |
📸 Visitors per year | 1,740,000 visitors |
📸 Tourists now | 33,347 tourists |
👨👩👧👦 Population | 16,000,000 people |
👨👩👧👦 GDP per capita* | $8,126 / year |
😤 Population density | 🤨 busy: 13x13m (169m²) per person |
👫 Gender ratio (population) | 👨 54% 👱♀️ 46% |
👫 Gender ratio (young adults) | 👨 56% 👱♀️ 44% |
👫 Gender ratio (nomads) | 👨 79% 👱♀️ 21% |
⛪️ Religious government | Non-religious |
🏠 Apartment listings | Wimdu |
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier | Hainan |
✈️ Best int'l air carrier | Air China |
🏥 Best hospital | ParkwayHealth China |
💵 Cost of living for nomad | $1,318 / month |
💵 Cost of living for expat | $850 / month |
💵 Cost of living for family | $2,202 / month |
💵 Cost of living for local | $629 / month |
🏨 Hotel (median price) | $593 / month |
🏡 Airbnb (median price) | $1,181 / month |
🏠 1br studio rent in center | $419 / month |
🏨 Hotel (median price) | $28 / night |
🏠 Airbnb (median price) | $39 / night |
🏢 Coworking hot desk | $219 / month |
🍛 Dinner | $2 |
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L) | $0 |
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L) | $1 |
☕️ Coffee in cafe | $4 |
👩🏫 International school | $18,302 / year |
📱 Mobile data (~10GB) | $2 / month |
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi) | $1 / trip |
✅ Affordable to live
✅ Very safe
✅ Warm now
✅ Warm in the spring
✅ Perfect humidity now
✅ Good air quality today
✅ Easy to do business
✅ Good hospitals
✅ Very safe for women
✅ LGBTQ+ friendly
❌ No freedom of speech
❌ No democracy
❌ Very slow internet
❌ Not much to do
❌ Gets cold in the winter
❌ Feels crowded
❌ Difficult to make friends
❌ Quality of education is low
❌ Roads can be dangerous
❌ People don't speak English well
❌ Not family friendly
❌ People smoking tobacco a lot
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
Feels | 489° cold | 468° cold | 6619° mild | 6619° mild | 7524° warm | 8228° warm | 8630° warm | 8228° warm | 8127° warm | 6418° cool | 5412° cool | 468° cold |
Real | 489° cold | 468° cold | 6519° mild | 6519° mild | 7524° warm | 8228° very warm | 8429° very warm | 8228° very warm | 8027° warm | 6418° cool | 5412° cool | 468° cold |
Humidity | nice 34% | nice 33% | nice 35% | nice 38% | nice 37% | nice 40% | nice 47% | nice 46% | nice 43% | nice 42% | nice 36% | nice 34% |
Most common | ☀️ Clear | ☀️ Clear | ☀️ Clear | ☀️ Clear | ☔️ Rain | ☔️ Rain | ☀️ Clear | ☔️ Rain | ☔️ Rain | ☔️ Rain | ☀️ Clear | ☀️ Clear |
Rain | dry 7mm | dry 11mm | dry 22mm | rainy 53mm | dry 50mm | rainy 62mm | rainy 297mm | rainy 198mm | rainy 138mm | dry 45mm | dry 19mm | dry 7mm |
Cloud | cloudy 51% | pockets 44% | cloudy 55% | cloudy 60% | cloudy 60% | cloudy 57% | pockets 45% | cloudy 61% | cloudy 54% | cloudy 67% | cloudy 59% | cloudy 54% |
Air quality | bad 167 US AQI | bad 158 US AQI | bad 145 US AQI | bad 130 US AQI | bad 121 US AQI | bad 101 US AQI | okay 90 US AQI | bad 101 US AQI | okay 89 US AQI | bad 106 US AQI | bad 142 US AQI | bad 160 US AQI |
Sun | seek shade 4 UVI | seek shade 5 UVI | seek shade 5 UVI | seek shade 5 UVI | seek shade 5 UVI | avoid sun 6 UVI | avoid sun 7 UVI | seek shade 5 UVI | avoid sun 6 UVI | seek shade 5 UVI | seek shade 4 UVI | seek shade 3 UVI |
Remote workers | 250 people | 280 people | 200 people | 200 people | 350 people | 233 people | 400 people | 267 people | 257 people | 333 people | 350 people | 200 people |
If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomad List's Climate Finder
Based on Chengdu's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:
I lived in Chongqing for about 5 years. I mostly love this place but it's not easy for Westerners unless you can speak some Chinese. But with a smartphone you can translate anything you need to say. Chongqing is beautiful, gritty and romantic. Extremely inexpensive and lots of things to do. Beautiful women. Maybe the most unique city in China. Weather terrible in winter and summer. Winter is foggy, rainy and low light while summers are uncomfortably hot and humid. They don't speak standard Manda
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked very bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 25° 77° 25° 77°AQI 59😷✈️22min$1,384 / mo5Mbps×Shanghai is a giant city and your experience really depends on a few factors like: 1) where you live in the city 2) do you speak basic Mandarin 3) do you make nice money 4) do you have to use the internet If you can afford to live in Jing'an or the French Concession, you can live a fashionable metropolitan lifestyle like you would in New York City. There's amazing food (Asian, Western and fusion). You'll be surrounded by entrepreneurs, artists, fashion designers and models. Many of whom d
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 21° 70° 20° 67°AQI 147😷✈️2h$1,847 / mo5Mbps×I lived in Beijing for almost 3 years from 2014-2017. It's an incredible city with a lot to offer. It's an imposing place and not the most welcoming, but that's because it takes time to adjust. In a nutshell: beautiful parks, very modern infrastructure , friendly people, good transportation (the subway is FAR superior to London or NYC, for example), amazing food, relatively cheap, extremely safe, loads to do, incredible history. The one major con is the air pollution—it can get really bad, so
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked very bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌥 Feels 18° 64° 18° 65°AQI 61😷✈️2h$2,483 / mo5Mbps×I lived in Chongqing for about 5 years. I mostly love this place but it's not easy for Westerners unless you can speak some Chinese. But with a smartphone you can translate anything you need to say. Chongqing is beautiful, gritty and romantic. Extremely inexpensive and lots of things to do. Beautiful women. Maybe the most unique city in China. Weather terrible in winter and summer. Winter is foggy, rainy and low light while summers are uncomfortably hot and humid. They don't speak standard Manda
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked very bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 25° 77° 25° 77°AQI 59😷✈️22min$1,384 / mo5Mbps×This city is not for everyone, if you like shopping malls and big crowded cities it is for you. It may be cheap but if you want to live in a good location with swimming pool, go to nice rooftops and restaurants, use taxis then it is similar cost to western countries. In many areas there are no sidewalks, big and dangerous traffic all the time, pollution, taxis do not want to go with meter, it can get really hot. Definitely try to live by the metro. Many foreigners, mostly friendly people, cheap
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open☀️ Feels 43° 109° 36° 97°🥵AQI 79😷✈️3h$1,331 / mo86Mbps×I don't understand why London has so high safety rating. Your phone could be stolen and your bicycle WILL be stolen here (or a part of it). I live here 8.5 years and I experienced the above multiple times. Police seems only cares about crime against person by whatever reason. Insure everything expensive that you own. I would also add that antisocial behaviour is quite common here and teenagers are heavily involved in crimes as police don't do anything with them because of their age. Basically th
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 10° 50° 11° 51°AQI 31✈️11h$5,464 / mo29Mbps×Amazing city. Absolutely loved it. Yes, expensive sooooo worth it! I was only here for 5 days but absolutely hooked and will be coming back.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked very bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 19° 66° 19° 65°AQI 49✈️12h$3,748 / mo152Mbps×Was really looking forward to Hua Hin after everything we had read. On the plus side, everything is very accessible and of course loads of high quality Thai food everywhere, mixed in with a bunch of expat options. Found the western-style markets and prices in general to be considerably more (in relative terms) than Bangkok. I imagine this is due to the large expat community here. Having said that, Covid has decimated the place and many expats have left. As an example, it’s Friday evening here
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked very bad👮 Safety mediocreTap to open☀️ Feels 39° 102° 32° 89°🥵✈️3h$2,355 / mo33Mbps×It used to be a nice city for nomads, but its out-priced now and don't recommend it. I am a single female- remote worker from USA with residence permit of 2 years and have to say its not what it used to be. Stormy tropical weather as we speak so unpredictable these days. Landlords charging ridiculous prices and amenities just don't match quality that should be given. Looking into Spain as we speak..
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 🙂 Okay📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 21° 70° 20° 68°AQI 29✈️13h$2,891 / mo96Mbps×Hong Kong is a great city with dense urban areas but also nature and hiking routes only 15 minutes away. There are restaurants for every taste and budget, from the best US fast casual chains to high end Michelin star restaurants. It's also extremely safe, despite recent political instability.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 🙂 Okay📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked great👮 Safety goodTap to open🌥 Feels 31° 88° 27° 80°🥵✈️2h$2,963 / mo🌇 Also went here33 people×Chiang Mai has had a deep Buddhist influence running over the last 1,000 years and this can be felt in the helpfulness, patience and generosity of the Thai and long-term transplants you come across. The city has an active community scene (nomads, spiritual seekers, hikers, creatives), several mountains with hiking spots and waterfalls surrounding the city, over 20 water bodies inside the city -- many have cafes and walks around, several public parks, and over 13 national parks with campgrounds w
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😝 Cheap📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked good👮 Safety goodTap to open🌥 Feels 38° 100° 36° 97°🥵AQI 176😷✈️2h$956 / mo🌇 Also went here27 people×I lived in Beijing for almost 3 years from 2014-2017. It's an incredible city with a lot to offer. It's an imposing place and not the most welcoming, but that's because it takes time to adjust. In a nutshell: beautiful parks, very modern infrastructure , friendly people, good transportation (the subway is FAR superior to London or NYC, for example), amazing food, relatively cheap, extremely safe, loads to do, incredible history. The one major con is the air pollution—it can get really bad, so
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked very bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌥 Feels 18° 64° 18° 65°AQI 61😷✈️2h$2,483 / mo🌇 Also went here32 people×Shanghai is a giant city and your experience really depends on a few factors like: 1) where you live in the city 2) do you speak basic Mandarin 3) do you make nice money 4) do you have to use the internet If you can afford to live in Jing'an or the French Concession, you can live a fashionable metropolitan lifestyle like you would in New York City. There's amazing food (Asian, Western and fusion). You'll be surrounded by entrepreneurs, artists, fashion designers and models. Many of whom d
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 21° 70° 20° 67°AQI 147😷✈️2h$1,847 / mo🌇 Also went here34 people×I love Taipei, extremely underrated place—not sure why, though I'm fine with that. The cleanliness, amenities, and kindness of the people will remind you of Tokyo.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 28° 82° 26° 79°AQI 87😷✈️2h$2,114 / mo🌇 Also went here26 people×This city is not for everyone, if you like shopping malls and big crowded cities it is for you. It may be cheap but if you want to live in a good location with swimming pool, go to nice rooftops and restaurants, use taxis then it is similar cost to western countries. In many areas there are no sidewalks, big and dangerous traffic all the time, pollution, taxis do not want to go with meter, it can get really hot. Definitely try to live by the metro. Many foreigners, mostly friendly people, cheap
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open☀️ Feels 43° 109° 36° 97°🥵AQI 79😷✈️3h$1,331 / mo🌇 Also went here38 people×Saigon has things going for it—great food, beautiful French architecture, interesting history, steady development, and nice enough people. But overall, the vibes are mediocre. Again, the locals are nice enough, though, as a Westerner, you're not going to feel as welcomed as you are in surrounding countries (I don't mean to sound entitled, that's an honest assessment). You just sort of exist; people stare at you and will be amused by you, but don't expect the celebrity treatment you get in othe
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌥 Feels 43° 109° 35° 95°🥵✈️3h$1,053 / mo🌇 Also went here27 people×The other reviews are right—it's a good city with excellent value for money. The people are nice enough. The infrastructure is good. You *should* like it, but you don't—it's incredibly, incomprehensibly boring. The vibe is aggressively lukewarm. You will find more excitement in a rural Japanese village than here—I'm not joking.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😙 Affordable📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked good👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 35° 95° 29° 85°🥵AQI 81😷✈️4h$1,219 / mo🌇 Also went here26 people×So… amazing food. Great public transportation. Very clean. But very conformist. Self expression limited. The irony of seeing an exhibit on graffiti, yet no actual graffiti in the streets. And the causal racism especially if you’re brown. You could be British born but still expect to be sat far away from everyone else at cocktail bars, experience comments and have weird assumptions made.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 🧐 Too expensive📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked mediocre👮 Safety greatTap to open🌧 Feels 33° 91° 29° 84°✈️4h$4,303 / mo🌇 Also went here35 people×2nd time to Tokyo in 2 years. So much to see and do and great value in the past few years due to a declining yen against the USD & Euro. Wework (not open past 6pm & only iceberg open on weekends), Airalo Esim, and Wise Visa are your friend. Check out my Youtube for some nomad guides (Chicvoyage, @digitalnomadworld). I like Roppongi area. Stay in a hotel
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 🙂 Okay📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked great👮 Safety greatTap to open☀️ Feels 21° 70° 21° 69°AQI 68😷✈️4h$2,829 / mo🌇 Also went here32 people×I recently visited Amsterdam for the third time (and the first time since 2018). I personally think it's a little overrated, but a cool place to visit nonetheless. The architecture is beautiful, and there are lots of good places to eat. I don't like the main area of the canals in the city centre; it smells of weed and is often packed. However, the outer edges - such as the Jordaan district - are less busy and more interesting in my opinion. One thing that surprised me is how much trash was o
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked mediocre👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 7° 45° 9° 47°AQI 33✈️11h$6,289 / mo🌇 Also went here24 people×I have heard of a friend of a friend that in France it is important to bring sandpaper and to have suitable medical insurance which covers eye reconstruction surgery. “Well worth a visit, would recommend”.
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked good👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌧 Feels 8° 46° 10° 50°AQI 63😷✈️11h$5,036 / mo🌇 Also went here28 people×I don't understand why London has so high safety rating. Your phone could be stolen and your bicycle WILL be stolen here (or a part of it). I live here 8.5 years and I experienced the above multiple times. Police seems only cares about crime against person by whatever reason. Insure everything expensive that you own. I would also add that antisocial behaviour is quite common here and teenagers are heavily involved in crimes as police don't do anything with them because of their age. Basically th
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked bad👮 Safety goodTap to open🌧 Feels 10° 50° 11° 51°AQI 31✈️11h$5,464 / mo🌇 Also went here30 people×How did SF get scored #98 on Nomad score? I agree with most of the reviews posted here. I generally work from home, but we recently rented a small conference room for a meeting. It was $250 per hour.. (yes Per Hour... no typos here).
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked bad👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌥 Feels 20° 68° 19° 66°✈️15h$5,956 / mo🌇 Also went here24 people×New York is cool. I’ve visited multiple times to see my family throughout my life, and recently came back from my first post-COVID trip there. Yes, it’s very expensive — but there is no city on earth that’s more captivating in my opinion. I used to think that New Yorkers were smug by claiming that NYC was better than everywhere else, but now I totally get it lol. My personal favourite neighbourhood is the Upper East Side, which is where you’ll find the coveted Museum Mile. But I also
⭐️ OverallAll 💵 Cost 😳 Way too expensive📡 InternetWiFi 😡 Slow👍 Liked mediocre👮 Safety mediocreTap to open🌥 Feels 15° 59° 15° 60°✈️16h$6,406 / mo🌇 Also went here28 people×Can't login? See the FAQ
By signing up, you agree to our terms of service and community guidelines.
One-time-payment: $39.98 $19.99 💫2024 NEW YEAR 0% off
Billed once. Then never again
One-time-payment: $218 $109 💫2024 NEW YEAR 50% off
Billed once. Then never again
Nomad List members
work remotely at
💖 Thanks for signing up! I hope you like my site. I put a lot of effort into making it.
📬 First, please go to your email and click the confirm link first to verify your email address, check your spam folder if you can't find it
💌 After you confirm your email we'll send you an email with more info
👩💻 You can start using Nomad List's member-only features now!