It is a life style I guess. Last time I came back I borrowed a bike from a friend of mine, so this time I asked her whether I can do the same. But she told me that she already gave it to a housekeeper she hired since she starts to drive to work.
Down payment, depends. Young people who works <10 years,following the shining example in the US, usually buy houses and cars by large amount of loan (30 years of payment). Older people usually less risky because they work much longer and save much more, my brother and one of my sister used cash (about 500,000 Yuan each, including furniture and internal decration). And plenty of people who work >20 years use cash to buy apartment, or at least pay off in a few years. And these apartments have about the similar size like a regular single family house in the US (something like 1600 square feet).
price of gas, about 2.3-2.7 Yuan for a liter (one gal. equals to 3.7-4 liters?, I don't remember exactly). So it is definitely cheaper because the gov. now tax gas very low, unlike the Europe and the US. the highway in CHina is maintained by toll fees. Few highways are free of charge<g>
No, CHina has no sale tax. One does NOT need to pay tip in restaurants or for other services, but a lot of expensive restaurants charge 10% so-called service fee (an unvoluntary tip<g>)
Hotels, I am not 100% for sure, but I think there is NO tax. And if there is, then it is in the price they have told you. Comparing with the US gov. Chinese gov. is very poor, because of much lower tax. |
