@Scientist I don't think so. I bought those tickets directly from the ticket sellers. I

Or maybe you don't feel those tickets expensive. But if you feel their food in restaurants expensive, I think you must feel their wonder tickets expensive. Comparing their tickets with our similar tickets, like zoo, museums, I also feel their tickets very expensive.

I got some friends who were graduate students in mainland China when I was there, and I also had a labmate who was a postdoctor from mainland china, but I had never asked their stipend because I have never considered being a PhD student there.

@Scientist also, their tourism venue may require extra fees for things you do after buying the ticket to enter to visit, and that fee can be very expensive, too. For example, when visiting their zoo, if one wants to feed the elephants with grass, they need to be charged 10 RMB and if one wants to watch pandas, they also need to pay extra fee which was like 10 RMB but I can't remember very clearly; but 10 RMB was just the zoo entrance ticket.

@Scientist thank you very much...very for your reply

@Michael My friend answered me as: “in China PhD fellowship is 3500”

I assume he means rmb. He’s a Pakistani living in Guangzhou

@CaptainBohemian You’re probably right that the fee was correct if you bought from the booth directly, but still it’s not impossible that the clerk overcharged you. Chinese can be incredibly “resourceful”.

@Scientist thank you very much for the answer, but is that amount enough for a normal living and have savings?

@Michael Of course, allowing for a huge variation in lifestyle and standards, I'd say you CAN live well on 3500 rmb if you seldom leave the university for anything, share a dorm, and only buy basic necessity items. This is the typical student life in China. You might save few hundred rmb per month.

In my opinion, only earnings beyond 7000 rmb are fair for adult foreigners living in China. I wouldn't accept anything below 10-12k, but I am likely older than you. If you're going to HK you'll need 2-3x as much.

I again emphasize as a warning that problems with salary payment are common in mainland China. Quite frequently, you won't get what is stated, for unclear reasons. I didn't ask, but my bet is that my friend gets 3500 rmb per month realistically out of promised 5k.

I don't think this uncertainty around payment is so prevalent in HK where standards are more international.

@Scientist thank you very much for the insight. They are well appreciated!! Though, I asked the question on behalf of a friend that was offered PhD fellowship in mainland China recently.