Typical Chinese Family Apartment Tour | What Life Costs in Shenzhen, China
About this video
A walk through a family apartment in one of Shenzhen’s priciest districts reveals the real numbers behind daily life for two working parents, two kids, and grandparents helping at home. From mortgage costs to wet market grocery prices and education expenses, the video lays out a transparent budget alongside a tour of their cozy, lived-in space. It’s a grounded look at how ordinary families balance careers, childcare, and rising costs in a modern Chinese city.
Video transcript
hey guys this is Whitney in China so right now I'm in Fudian District it's basically the center of Shenzhen I'm taking you inside my sister's home we'll do a full apartment tour and break down all their monthly expenses let's go so this is the residential compound where my sister lives I will show you more about the neighborhood later let's head inside first so many apartment buildings in Shenzhen are equipped with elevators so first we have a password lock first we need to change the shoes so here we go this is the living room for shenzhen this is
actually a pretty spacious shared area so the first thing you will notice is this big bookshelf my sister is a Chinese language teacher so naturally there are books everywhere and there is a large reading and work desk under the bookshelf there is a whole row of drawers for storing daily supplies and medicine because honestly space in Shenzhen is expensive so people try to maximize every bit of storage they can and one thing you might notice there's no sofa in this space and that's because they have two young kids running around all day so having more
open space just makes life easier and they also have this little dining table and some storage shelves so right next to the living room is the kitchen so first we have a very big fridge here there's different kinds of vegetables egg tofu and sauce okay we have an oven we use the gas stoves and we like the open flames to cook and here's the range hood because we cook a lot with open flames and high heat in Chinese cooking so the kitchen can get pretty smoky sometimes and this is the gas water heater we use it for both cooking and hot water for showers a
dishwasher here so my sister uses the kitchen a lot because families with kids in China usually pay much more attention to home cooked food and nutrition so they don't eat out as often as younger people living alone so this kitchen looks like open plan but there is actually a sliding door you can close it while cooking and now we come to the balcony so one thing I noticed after I reading lots of comments from foreigners is that balconies in China are used very differently so in a lot of western countries balconies are like leisure space but in China it's
usually much practical so people will put washing machine here and boring cleaning suppliers here and of course we have a wash basin and grow plants dry clothes here so most Chinese families still prefer air drying clothes instead of using dryers it saves electricity and honestly a lot of people think clothes smell better after drying in the sun so this is the first bedroom my sister's father in law stays here together with their three year old son this room looks pretty small but there is a surprising amount of storage in here most of it is filled with
the kids toys and this is the master bedroom where my sister and her husband sleep look the beautiful views from the window and here's the wardrobe they use it to store the clothes and blankets and then there's a smaller bedroom for their seven year old daughter and which doubles as her study room but tonight this gonna be my room I will stay here tonight and this is the bathroom bathroom is relatively compact we even used the space behind the bathroom mirror for storage the total size of this apartment is around 970 square feet my sister bought it at
the peak of the market for around 9 million RMB which is about 1.2M US dollars Today the value has dropped closer to 7 million RMB like many families here they're paying a 30 year mortgage at one point their monthly payment was close to 40,000 RMB but after paying off part of the loan early it's now closer to 10,000 RMB per month and if you want to rent a similar apartment in this neighborhood it would probably cost around 8,000 RMB per month for an unfurnished unit alright now let me show you guys around the neighborhood a little bit this community is
huge there are around 90 residential buildings here and one thing you'll notice in a lot of Chinese neighborhoods is the security there are 24 hour security and cameras at every entrance so people generally feel pretty safe living here over there are the delivery lockers you just type in your code and grab your packages and inside the community there are gardens playgrounds swimming pools with different depth for both kids and adults schools, kindergartens tennis courts football fields there's honestly a little bit of everything here there are also tons
of trees and plants around the neighborhood there's also a massive park where people come to relax walk their dogs or just spend time with family after school or during weekends honestly you could probably stay inside this neighborhood all day and still have everything you need inside this park we have so many fitness machines this is like a smart bike and we also have some screen on it you can see the metrics like the distance your goal and calories and resistance and the most important part is it is completely free so this is my sister's father in law
because both my sister and her husband work full time he moved here to help take care of the children this is actually a very common arrangement in China for many families grandparents help cook pick kids up from school shop for groceries and take care of young children every morning he comes to the wet market to buy fresh vegetables, fruit, flowers meat and seafood for the family thank you so inside this wet market there are different sections so this section basically just for fruit you can see all kinds of fruit yes, it is vegetable section basically
just all kinds of vegetables this section they have all kinds of meat the seafood section they have shrimp all kinds of fish wet markets are still extremely popular in China especially among older generations compared to supermarkets many people believe the food here is fresher and cheaper so now i am with my sister's father in law we're picking the kids up from school in China nine years for compulsory education are free covering primary school through middle school but even so many parents still spend a lot on after-school classes my niece currently
takes English and calligraphy classes which together cost 26,000 RMB ($3,600USD) per year now we are heading to pick up the younger brother from kindergarten so you can see there are parent volunteers helping control traffic while students cross the street and one thing you will probably notice is that there are lots of grandparents here picking up their grandkids that's actually very common in China especially in families where both parents work full time hi~~ since kindergarten isn't part of the compulsory education in China it costs around 16,000 RMB
($2,200 USD) per year including meals and daily care so what does their monthly cost of living actually looks like utilizies are actually pretty affordable here water is only around 40 RMB ($5USD) per month and management fees are about 300 RMB ($40USD) electricity is much higher during summer usually around 800 RMB because honestly shenzhen feels like summer most of the year during winter it drops much lower food and daily expenses for the whole family are usually over 10,000 RMB ($1400USD) per month transportation cost around 1,000 RMB ($140USD)
monthly then there are yearly expenses like insurance healthcare travel and kids education all together their average household spending comes to around 25,000 RMB per month for a family of 5 living in Shenzhen i asked my sister if life in shenzhen feels stressful and she said yeah the pace here is really fast but after a while you just get used to it and honestly i think that's how a lot of people in big cities feel so that's all for this video i'll see you in the next one bye
