Take a taxi in Shanghai and you will pay more than you would for a ride of
(1) ______. distance in Beijing. (1)______
Buy a beer at an international bar in Shanghai, and the same holds true.
Go out for an Italian, German or French meal and ditto.
And yet, according to a survey released yesterday by Mercer Human (2) ______
Consulting, (2)______
Beijing is the most expensive city on the Chinese mainland.
"There are some things that might be more expensive in Shanghai,
but the (3) ______ we have is based on a basket of goods," (3)______
said Ilya Bonick, Mercer’s regional head of information services.
Mercer’s cost of living survey is one of a handful of annual reports
produced by international (4) ______ (4)______
It takes into consideration such things as housing, food, (5) ______ ,
clothing, household goods and transportation. (5)______
Meals of noodles or jiaozi are not included in the report whereas products
(6)______ are likely to buy and are available in all the cities surveyed,
such as Coca-Cola and Pantene shampoo. (6)______
This year, Hong Kong, the most expensive Chinese city, took ninth (7)______ (7)______
The top three in the world are Tokyo, Osaka and London.
The good news is that Chinese cities are getting cheaper, driven by a
US dollar (8) ______ in value. (8)______
"Chinese cities have dropped significantly in the rankings as the
(9) ______ is pegged to the US dollar and has therefore been affected by
the dollar’s depreciation," said Marie-Laurence Sepede, Mercer’s research
manager, in a release. (9)______
"The shift in the China ranking is the most surprising," Bonick said. "We
have seen it become more (10) ______." (10)______
Another factor for the drop, said Bonick, is the wider availability of
products the company uses to measure.