Several news outlets in China -- including Sina.com, Beijing.org.cn, FM365.com -- erroneously reported recently that Runzheimer International, a well-known survey organization, had placed Beijing over Hong Kong as the most expensive city in China.
But Runzheimer International yesterday released statistics from its database of 300 locations worldwide to the China Internet Information Center that show Hong Kong the most expensive city in China.
Runzheimer’s statistics placed Beijing in 10th place worldwide in the sample of 300 locations while Hong Kong was in third place behind Tokyo and Seoul, which was first.
A spokesperson for Runzheimer said that the statistics were not meant to indicate the most and least expensive locations worldwide but rather were a sampling of locations from the company’s database of about 300 places.
Using the U.S. dollar as a standard for its index, living costs around the world were analyzed for a U.S. family of 3 with a base salary of $100,000. The Runzheimer International index listed its top ten expensive cities as follows: Seoul (147), Tokyo (138.8), Hong Kong (115), Moscow (113.4), New York (100), Singapore (96.3), London (95.1), Beijing (84), Mexico City (77.6) and Paris (65.4).
(CIIC 07/19/2001)
