Universal Healthcare, gorgeous parks, smooth roads, almost no crime. And.......we pay 3% tax on our income.
"One thing of quick note about incomes is that Taiwan is much more tax friendly.
While a typical entry-level kindergarten teacher in Taipei would likely make less gross income than the equivalent in Beijing/ Shanghai/ Shenzhen, if employers behave legally, the Taipei based one will take home about the same amount of cash without all of the detriments of being in China vs TW (pollution levels of China vs best in Asia, virtually nonexistent system in China vs one of the best in the world, authoritarianism vs functional democracy, etc).
Directly comparing to Ian's numbers (which seem about right in my experience), in Beijing, you'll make ~18k RMB/mo.
However, in Taiwan, foreign worker incomes are taxed 3% by year's end (18% for the first 6 months and the difference is refunded if you are in TW longer). At ¥18k RMB, you're taxed 20% on ¥13k (¥5k tax exempt)
Per month averages over a full year:
Taipei- ~14.25k * 0.97 = 13.8k
Beijing- 5k + 13k * 0.8 = 15.4k.
What will even more clearly paint the picture of $$$ differences will be costs of living. On all of the income-cost elements, Taipei and Beijing are decently comparable to rest of the cities in their countries (Taipei is highly comparable to CN's "Tier 1" cities)"
