Saturday, July 30, 2011

Moving to Nicosia

Today we look at moving to Nicosia in Cyprus from Tianjin 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 Nicosia people speak Greek and Turkish. In Tianjin people speak Mandarin Chinese.

Nicosia, known locally as Lefkosia is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. Tianjin is the sixth largest city of the People's Republic of China in terms of urban population. Administratively it is one of the four municipalities that have provincial-level status, reporting directly to the central government. Also, its urban land area is the fifth largest in China, ranked only after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Nicosia is important commercially with many shops, two modern shopping malls, restaurants and entertainment. The city is a trade centre and manufactures textiles, leather, pottery, plastic, and other products. Copper mines are nearby. Nicosia is the seat of the University of Cyprus (UCY) and four other universities. Manufacturing is the largest (60.1%) and fastest-growing (18.2%) sector of Tianjin's economy. Farmland takes up about 40% of Tianjin Municipality's total area. Wheat, rice, and maize are the most important crops. Fishing is important along the coast. Tianjin is also an important industrial base. Major industries include petrochemical industries, textiles, car manufacturing, mechanical industries, and metalworking.

The overall cost of living rank in Nicosia is 160 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with middle cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from Tianjin to Nicosia will experience a change in cost of living of 27.5%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Nicosia is ranked as a minimal hardship location with a hardship index of 10% compared to Tianjin with a hardship index of 30% which is a high degree of hardship location.

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

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