Moving to Dalian

Today we look at moving to Dalian in China from Calgary in Canada. 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 Dalian people speak Mandarin and Chinese. In Calgary people speak English and French (both official).

Dalian is the governing sub-provincial city in the eastern Liaoning Province of Northeast China. Calgary is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. The city has enjoyed a continuous double-digit increase in GDP since 1992.
According to a nationwide appraisal by the National Bureau of Statistics, Dalian ranks eighth among Chinese cities in terms of overall strength. The city’s main industries include machine manufacturing, petrochemicals and oil refining, and electronics. Calgary's economy while diverse is home to 87% of Canada's oil and natural gas producers and 66% of coal producers.

The overall cost of living rank in Dalian is 238 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with low cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Calgary to Dalian will experience a change in cost of living of -29.2%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Dalian is ranked as a high degree of hardship location with a hardship index of 30% compared to Calgary with a hardship index of 10% which is a minimal hardship location.

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