Moving to Brazzaville

Today we look at moving to Brazzaville in Congo from Beijing in China. We highlight cost of living and other major differences likely to be experienced in our series of short blogs on moving between different international locations.
In Brazzaville people speak French, indigenous African languages. In Beijing people speak Mandarin Chinese.

Brazzaville is the capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Beijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China.
Over a third of the population of the Republic of Congo lives in the capital, and it is home to 40% of non-agricultural employment. It is also a financial and administrative capital. Industries present in Brazzaville include: machine shops, textiles, tanning, and manufacturing. As a key port on the Congo River, the city takes deliveries of raw materials, such as: rubber, wood and agricultural products. From here they are generally sent onward to Pointe-Noire for export. Beijing is amongst the most developed cities in China with tertiary industry accounting for 73.2% of its GDP. Finance is one of the most important industries of Beijing. Beijing is home to 26 Fortune Global 500 companies, the third most in the world behind Tokyo and Paris.

The overall cost of living rank in Brazzaville is 155 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with middle cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Beijing to Brazzaville will experience a change in cost of living of -5.6%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Brazzaville is ranked as an extreme hardship location with a hardship index of 40% compared to Beijing with a hardship index of 30% which is a high degree of hardship location.

Source: http://www.xpatulator.com as at July 2011.