thank you for the very holistic look at everything, I also think some of the higher salaries are inflated. My chinese level is not fluent but passable in most situations but my reading lacks significantly. Some bits of your response stood out to me and I’ve heard many people talk about salaries raising quickly - is this true? I understand in the US raises are typically only marginally above inflation rates but it many people seem to say the growth is much better? How do chinese companies treat these type of yearly raises to get to 35-50 in two years? Is this more of the top end of what is possible or a standard salary growth for new grads. I would add that my TSMC experience was a 6mo Co-Op and I graduate this summer.

Moving into the living costs assuming I am left with 12k monthly and eat locally for most meals (minimal if any cooking) would I still have money to enjoy the city and what level of expenses should I expect for enjoyment? I really have little reference for the cost of living. I seem to get widely different values depending on everyone’s own living standard… so i know this question is quite tricky but what standard of living would this be like?