Nomad List| 🏆 Nomad Score™ | 167 reviews |
| 💵 Cost | |
| 📡 Internet | |
| 😝 Fun | |
| ⛅️ Temperature (now) | |
| 💦 Humidity (now) | |
| 💨 Air quality (now) | |
| 👌 Safety | |
| 👍 Quality of life | |
| 🚶 Walkability | |
| ✌️ Peace | |
| 🚦 Traffic safety | |
| 🏥 Hospitals | |
| 😄 Happiness | |
| 🍸 Nightlife | |
| 📶 Free WiFi in city | |
| 🖥 Places to work from | |
| ❄️ A/C or heating | |
| 😁 Friendly to foreigners | |
| 🙊 English speaking | |
| 🗯 Freedom of speech | |
| 🤚🏿🤚🏻 Racial tolerance | |
| 👩 Female friendly | |
| 🌈 LGBT friendly | |
| 🎅 Startup Score |
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| 🌍 Region | Asia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 🚩 Country | China | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ⏱ Average trip duration | 4 days | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 📡 Internet speed (avg) | 2 Mbps | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ⛅️ Weather | 🌤 -2°C 29°F + 💦 Humid (67%) + 💨 5km/h = Feels like -4°C 25°F | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 💨 Air quality (now) | 😷 126 µg/m3 equal to 🚬 🚬 🚬 🚬 🚬 🚬 / day | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 💨 Air quality (annual avg) | 👎 146 µg/m3 equal to 🚬 🚬 🚬 🚬 🚬 🚬 🚬 / day | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 🔌 Power | 230V50Hz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 🚕 Best taxi app | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 📱 Best wireless carrier | China Mobile | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 💸 10 CNY in USD | USD 1.42 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 🏧 Suggested ATM take out: CNY 1,000 | USD 142 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 💸 Tipping | No | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 💳 Cashless society | 💵 No, cash only (esp. for foreigners because WeChat is very hard to set up) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ☕️ Best coffee place | Starbucks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 🚰 Safe tap water | 🚫 No, not drinkable | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ♻️ Return rate | 0% of visitors return | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 👨👩👧👦 Population | 1,800,000 people | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 👫 Gender ratio | 👨 54% 👱♀️ 46% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ⛪️ Religious government | Non-religious | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 🏠 Apartment listings | Ganji | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ✈️ Best short-haul air carrier | Hainan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ✈️ Best int'l air carrier | China Southern Airlines | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
😷 Air quality in Urumqi is very bad (126 µg/m³) today: avoid exercising outdoors, close windows and try to stay inside, more info | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| no-beachcoldcold nowdirty airbad air qualityslow internetcheap cost of livinglow crimehigh humiditymany men | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 💵 Nomad Cost™ | $1,458 / month |
| 💵 Cost of living for expat | $942 / month |
| 💵 Cost of living for family | $2,046 / month |
| 💵 Cost of living for local | $584 / month |
| 🏠 1br studio rent in center | $298 / month |
| 🏢 Coworking | $71 / month |
| 🏨 Hotel | $1,007 / month |
| 🏨 Hotel | $47 / night |
| 🏠 Airbnb (24 listings) | $1,540 / month |
| 🏠 Airbnb | $50 / night |
| 🍝 Dinner | $3 |
| 🍹 Coca-Cola (0.3L) | $0 |
| 🍺 Beer (0.5L) | $5 |
| ☕️ Coffee | $3 |
Based on Urumqi's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:
+ Very small hipster scene but nice... techno place, hipster cocktail, hipster café, tattoo scene... its not that indie though, like organised hipster. still too small, you always go to same places + Really good service, fast, they come and pour you water while drinking cokctail and stuff, cray + Young people who can speak english are friendly, come speak to you easily and are all like "wtf are u doing here" + Not a busy city, you feel you can take your time here, go to ice rink, walk in park + Nature and mountain not too far, its common to take car 30 min to go iceskating in mountain +/- Everyone with a car is a taxi driver, so u rarely use Uber/YandexTaxi, just go on the road, show your hand and people stop, you tell destination and it costs 1$. Problem you need to speak russian, im not good enough yet +/- People are mixed friendly. They are very nice and give you stuff and all when you are introduced, but people who dont speak english and dont know you, they are not helpful and a bit rude +/- city safety idk, I feel safe but every local tells me it's not a safe city - No one speak english ffs - city is bullshit communist wide street for car, shitty to walk, everything is far, cars everywhere, city center is not a city center, 4-lane in city center wtf fix this - Police is corrupt and not your friend. My only encounter with them was ok tho - People behavior is oldschool, men harrassing girls, men buying big car or iphone has status symbol, men trying to fight, girls expecting guys to be alpha male - Always fog in city and pollution
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 3° 37° 3° 38°AQI 50✈️1h$1,378 / mo6Mbpsdespite the polluted air and unsafe traffic, interesting natural sites are in close proximity (5-10km and further): Mana river (low complexity for rafting), not far from the city there is a meander, on which you can raft, returning to the same place), the nature reserve Stolby (with rocks on which to climb, including the without insurance), and other places. The city is "wild, brutal", sporty (russian center of rugby, freestyle wrestling, bandy, one of the centers of biathlon)
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels -2° 28° 0° 32°AQI 11✈️2h$2,038 / mo14MbpsBest place for solo travellers. The people here are awesome. Almost no crime against foreigners according to statistics. Give this paradise on earth a try :)
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 11° 52° 11° 52°AQI 163😷✈️2h$826 / mo8Mbps+ Very small hipster scene but nice... techno place, hipster cocktail, hipster café, tattoo scene... its not that indie though, like organised hipster. still too small, you always go to same places + Really good service, fast, they come and pour you water while drinking cokctail and stuff, cray + Young people who can speak english are friendly, come speak to you easily and are all like "wtf are u doing here" + Not a busy city, you feel you can take your time here, go to ice rink, walk in park + Nature and mountain not too far, its common to take car 30 min to go iceskating in mountain +/- Everyone with a car is a taxi driver, so u rarely use Uber/YandexTaxi, just go on the road, show your hand and people stop, you tell destination and it costs 1$. Problem you need to speak russian, im not good enough yet +/- People are mixed friendly. They are very nice and give you stuff and all when you are introduced, but people who dont speak english and dont know you, they are not helpful and a bit rude +/- city safety idk, I feel safe but every local tells me it's not a safe city - No one speak english ffs - city is bullshit communist wide street for car, shitty to walk, everything is far, cars everywhere, city center is not a city center, 4-lane in city center wtf fix this - Police is corrupt and not your friend. My only encounter with them was ok tho - People behavior is oldschool, men harrassing girls, men buying big car or iphone has status symbol, men trying to fight, girls expecting guys to be alpha male - Always fog in city and pollution
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 3° 37° 3° 38°AQI 50✈️1h$1,378 / mo6MbpsDefinitely an underrated place for nomads - Huge city with a small town feel. Lots of different neighborhoods to appeal to different types of people: some commercial, some hipstery, some historical, some modern. Food and rent is cheap (and the food is damn good). People are very friendly as compared to other big Asian cities. You can also get easy work as a tutor and make good extra cash. I survived for five months tutoring and doing other English related work for max 12 hrs a week (leaving me lots of time to work on other projects). You could also easily get a full time teaching gig but that defeats the whole nomad idea i guess. My favorite area is Gulou, or the Drum Tower. Old, local style with ancient buildings and some great cafes.
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 3° 37° 3° 38°AQI 51😷✈️3h$2,135 / mo2MbpsI lived and worked (at a law firm) in Chengdu for about 3 months. I absolutely loved the city! It's so different from east coast China, especially given the Tibetan influences in many areas. I had a company arrange my apartment and registrations, but was a seamless process. I am a white, American male who speaks a decent bit of Mandarin, and I found the locals to be incredibly hospitable. China is general is extremely affordable for a Westerner, and Chengdu offers the luxuries of any large, Western city/metro area.
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 15° 59° 15° 58°AQI 61😷✈️3h$977 / mo🌇 Also went here6 peopleDefinitely an underrated place for nomads - Huge city with a small town feel. Lots of different neighborhoods to appeal to different types of people: some commercial, some hipstery, some historical, some modern. Food and rent is cheap (and the food is damn good). People are very friendly as compared to other big Asian cities. You can also get easy work as a tutor and make good extra cash. I survived for five months tutoring and doing other English related work for max 12 hrs a week (leaving me lots of time to work on other projects). You could also easily get a full time teaching gig but that defeats the whole nomad idea i guess. My favorite area is Gulou, or the Drum Tower. Old, local style with ancient buildings and some great cafes.
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 3° 37° 3° 38°AQI 51😷✈️3h$2,135 / mo🌇 Also went here6 peopleShanghai 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 do speak English. It gets better if you speak basic Mandarin though. You don't need to care about the characters. Just learn to speak, that's important enough. The nice thing about Mandarin is China is so big everyone has an accent, so for Chinese it really doesn't matter so much that you have one too. Depending on how and what kind of money you make, your experience also changes. Like most places in Asia, English teachers are the lowest rank in the hierarchy of foreigners here. Chinese know. But if you're an entrepreneur, even (or especially) an online one, that's high regarded. The problem with working online here is obviously the firewall which can make it very difficult. I've heard good stories about Shadowsocks which seems to work better than regular VPNs. The recent China vs. America tensions are in fact making people slightly more hostile against Western foreigners. But remember this is Shanghai, it's a metropolitan city, they're usually much less xenophobic than out in the country. Mostly Shanghainese are happy to embrace foreigners, become friends with them, as long as they speak English. And as long as you invest a lot of time. Just popping in and out like a nomad isn't necessarily going to work so well with Chinese. Relationships are long-term.
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 10° 50° 11° 52°AQI 32✈️4h$1,883 / mo🌇 Also went here6 peopleSpend a few hours and learn the Korean alphabet (not that hard) and Google some names of Korean dishes + it's spelling in Korean. It will help a lot as most restaurants only have Korean menu's and often without pictures. As mentioned previously on the reviews, it's a little hard to eat alone, but Gimbab Chonguk (김밥천국) is everywhere and 24/7 - no one will bat an eye. Also look for places that "specialises" in dumplings, They are usually "alone-eating" friendly. And so are ramen places as well as Korean "chinese" restaurants - Jajangmyeon (자장면) is very good and super addictive. Bibimbab restaurant places are fine too. Actually, it's not that hard to eat alone in Korea. The "group" meals are generally quite obvious and will be things like BBQ. You'll figure it out. Do Get used to kimchi and spicy food otherwise you'll end up eating the same thing all the time. Be adventurous. Challenge yourself and eat an octopus alive (산낙지). If you're really brave try 보신탕 before authorities close them all - I haven't but a lot of Weagukins (foreigners) secret do. Cafe's generally have really good wifi, as you would expect from one of the most connected countries in the world. Expect to pay $4-6 for a latte and maybe even more at Starbucks. Best cafe's are usually around Hipster areas and Universities. Indie owned cafe's are awesome. Nightlife is great, probably amongst the best in Asia. Can get very expensive especially at night clubs in Gangnam where it would could be like $10 for a beer - in that case you can still get drunk for $2 with soju just outside at 7Eleven. Winters are stupidly cold and summers can be brutally hot & humid. Go between April and June or September to October. They have cherry blossoms in spring which is beautiful and so are the autumn leaves. Lived here for many years. It's a cool place and vastly underrated. Seoul is continuously becoming more expensive and cost of living will soon be comparable with places like Tokyo.
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ✈️4h$2,400 / mo🌇 Also went here6 peopleI have been to many cities but I have been returning to Taipei the most. The keyword in my opinion is liveability. Although dense the city is relaxing. Turn off the main roads and you often find streets empty, especially during office hours. Small parks are everywhere, just as food stalls and a cheap bikes to cycle in between them. Like Tokyo you can find gems of cafe's and shops just by walking around. On the bustling side of things there are plenty night markets. And being a city with lots of students Tapei has got a proper night life too. Culturally, there is everything you can expect from a big city: cinema, festivals, music scenes, (hidden) cocktail bars and modern art venues. Within an hour outside Taipei you can reach the ocean and mountains. I also liked getting a cheap rental car and just touring the island. All-in-all Taipei has got a good balance between quiet places, nature and being a big, bustling city. It definitely hasn't got as many gems as Tokyo, as big of a food scene as Hong Kong or as big as a party scene as Bangkok but it does combine many of these things in a balanced manner. Few other thing I want to mention. Like others said the air quality can be brutal when the wind is coming from China. There are not many Western tourists so expect to feel a bit like Lost in Translation sometimes. There are lots of Japanese influences. The youth is very Western oriented and liberal. Still they life with parents until married. Stay in student houses if you can, it's cheap and social. The food is great but carbs based (lots of noodles!). Get some veggies from markets and eat some chicken/eggs from the 7Eleven to top up proteins. The insects are crazy. Butterflies are huge but so is other stuff.. If I could change Taipei I would also add more digital nomads and coworking spaces. Ok that's it!
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 16° 61° 16° 61°AQI 48✈️5h$2,764 / mo🌇 Also went here5 peopleIt truly is a garden city - the amount of green space is mindboggling. Everywhere you go it's green and amazing. One of my favourite cities anywhere.
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 47° 117° 32° 89°🥵AQI 63😷✈️7h$2,873 / mo🌇 Also went here7 peopleHipster capital of the world
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 12° 54° 12° 54°AQI 46✈️13h$3,381 / mo🌇 Also went here5 peopleBest city in the world! You can certainly live the Nomad life in NYC for a lot less than 5k a month! I've been doing it since December 2018 for around $2500/mo. AirBnB is the way to go!
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 9° 48° 10° 50°AQI 43✈️14h$5,344 / mo🌇 Also went here6 peopleLived there for 5 month on a contract project in one IT company, With my monthly income of $3,400 it was disgustingly hard to have a normal lifestyle. The city is also very dirty, specifically the Mission. Would not recommend moving there as an expat.
🎒 Nomad 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 17° 63° 17° 62°AQI 31✈️14h$6,129 / mo🌇 Also went here5 people✅ Affordable to live
✅ Very safe
✅ Warm in the spring
✅ Spacious and not crowded
✅ Easy to do business
✅ High quality of education
✅ Safe for women
❌ Very slow internet
❌ Pretty slow internet
❌ Not much to do
❌ Gets very cold in the winter
❌ Too hot in the summer
❌ Humid now
❌ Bad air quality year round
❌ Not many nomads go here
❌ Difficult to make friends
❌ Roads can be dangerous
❌ Freedom of speech is weak
❌ Not very democratic
❌ People don't speak English well
❌ Hostile towards LGBT
❌ People smoking tobacco a lot
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