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Hi, everyone and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope. 欢迎你又回到闲话英伦. Hi, Anlan.

Hello.

Today we're going to have our last episode in our price comparison series, comparing the cost of living in London and in Beijing.

Uh.

We've talked about food, eating out, we've talked about housing, renting, buying.

Uh.

Today we're going to talk about行 transport, and some of the other miscellaneous.

OK.

Transport is a big expense for people living in London.

Transport is incredibly expensive compared with other cities around the world, and especially compared with Beijing as well.

Especially public transport.

Yes.

So let's start with buses. I'm really embarrassed that I had to do research on this for Beijing, because it's been sometimes since the last time I took a bus or a subway even.

Lucky you.

No, I just don't have to commute because of my work. So Beijing, as far as I know, it's about 2 RMB and then it goes up a little bit, but it wouldn't go up too much. 2 RMB within 10 kilometers. What about London?

In London, one trip on a bus will cost you 1 pound 50.

That's a lot.

Yes.

Do you have any discounts like for kids and older people?

There are, there are one a few discounts but not that much.

Uh.

If you're an older person, then you get free transport.

I see.

And if you're quite young, if you're very young, then you get free transport as well. But for adults, there is a maximum per day, which is 4 pounds 50.

噢，就是4镑5封顶.

Yeah.

Still expensive though if you think they're just buses.

Yeah, it is. But that's how the transport works in London. So, once you reach a certain cap, then you're not charged any more.

But that cap is still very…

It's still relatively very high.

If you think about it. You spend￡4. 50, which is the equivalent of, about 40 RMB.

For standing on a bus.

For standing on a bus. What about underground or subway, 地铁? I know for a fact London is notorious for exist offensive underground.

That's correct. There's a difference between peak and off peak.

Peak time will be rush hour.

Yeah. And that is ￡3.90.

￡3.90 for one ticket?

Yeah. And off peak would be￡2.80.

So￡4… Let me wrap my head around this, because I've already forgot a lot about that. Or I guess I just tried to ignore it when I was travelling on the underground. ￡4… so over 30 RMB, well, close to 40, actually.

Yes.

Just for one trip.

It can be cheaper; it can also be more expensive. This is a calculation based on where most people in London would live.

I see.

So this is going to work. This is not going from one part of London to another for maybe fun or pleasure.

And in Beijing it’s 1/10 of this price, it's a 3rmb to start and then it can go up to 9rmb, but then you travel very far.

Yeah.

But can you make it cheaper by buying like a monthly pass?

You can, the same type of distance that I mentioned before, which is about maybe 14 kilometers, a monthly pass would be about￡200.

￡200.

And that's unlimited.

Yeah, but I if I take taxis for the entire month to commute somewhere, that probably come to less than like￡200.

Yeah.

Wow, 地铁月票就是200磅. I feel for the common working folk in London.

That's one of the reasons why cycling and walking is becoming a lot more popular.

Being forced to exercise.

Yeah.

Because you cannot afford public transport. I dare not ask about taxis if public transports are already so expensive.

There are different types of taxis, first of all.

You have the black cabs.

Yeah.

This is something most people know about London, 就是伦敦很老式的那种黑色的taxi. Those are the most expensive.

Yes.

How expensive?

They start with￡3.20.

￡3.20. So that's the starting price. And then?

Then per kilometer, beyond that, you’re looking at roughly 2 pound 84 per kilometer.

OK. I'll tell you what, let me do the calculation. Because when you say that people will still have to do the calculation. 如果粗略的算一下，10公里的路程，这种传统的black cab的话, 怎么样都超过人民币200块了。And in Beijing, the same distance with normal taxis, standard taxis, you get it slightly over 30.

Yeah.

That's a huge difference.

This is a huge difference. Yeah.

You also have to tip them.

You also have to tip as well. Don't forget that.

This always cracks me up like if you're already charging me that much, why do I still have to tip you?

Well, pretty much if you're taking a black cab, then you must have money.

That's true. But then you have mini cabs, mini cabs were kind of like… they are not like黑车, they're legal cabs but they're just private cars.

Yeah, they’re kind of a bit cheaper normally, you’re looking at maybe a hundred and fifty RMB also for the same equivalent journey.

OK. I know for a fact that mini cabs, for example, for 14 kilometers is about￡40.

Yeah.

So that will be 350 RMB.

Uh.

I feel like we're dealing with a lot of numbers.

Yeah, well basically mini cabs are slightly cheaper, and they are also legal as well.

But nowadays with Uber, 现在这个优步，cheaper yet, and it's just easier to use, faster service.

Uber is a little bit controversial in the UK.

Safety?

It's not so much about safety because black cabs don't like Uber, so they put a lot of pressure on the government to ban Uber.

Same here, actually. Taxis do not like 滴滴, for example.

Yeah.

I would say Uber is like 滴滴. You have your 快车, you have your专车, and that is cheaper than mini cabs, right?

It is cheaper than mini cabs, and it's just a lot easier as well. With the mini cabs, you always have to get the fare upfront. So when you call them, you have to say to them how much it's going to be because they don't have meters.

They don't have meters. Sounds a bit dodgy.

It is, but they are regulated. They are licensed.

So we just talked about public transport and then taxis. What if you actually drive yourself, that is not going to be any cheaper?

No, it's actually going to be more expensive. That's because in central London, we have a congestion tax.

拥堵税.

Yeah.

How much is that now？

￡15 a day.

A day!

Yes.

If you go into central London you have to pay￡15.

Yeah.

And the next day you have to pay another￡15.

Yes.

No wonder you don't see a lot of people driving…

No.

Inside London.

Even if you just go in and then come out again, you have to pay.

Ah. But say, if you actually do drive into the inside of London, parking is another huge expense.

Yes. You're looking at about 3 to 5 pounds an hour.

3 to 5 pounds an hour, 差不多25~45人民币.

And bear in mind that there are not many parking spaces. There are not many car parks in central London.

So you go around really try to find a very, very expensive parking spot.

Yeah. If you're lucky.

That's why, like you said, in especially central London, you really don't see many people driving, and some people they don't even take underground anymore or buses. They just like you said cycle or they just walk.

Well, exactly. This is one thing about London. When you go through the city of London at rush hour, you can still see lots of people who are wearing very expensive suits, they’re obviously very wealthy. But they're getting underground. It's just simply because it's easier.

I see. So that's about transport. Of course, there are many other aspects of life. But we can't possibly cover all of them. So we decided to cover the basics. You might ask衣食住行, where is 衣？

Yeah.

To be honest with cloths, there's such a wide variety.

Yeah.

You can spend as little or as much you want, the same as in any country really.

Pretty much.

So there's really not… it's really not a great indicator of… because it's all about brands.

Yeah. And it's all about different types of lifestyle as well. If you look price comparison websites and you have to think there are different people that have widely different lifestyles as well.

Exactly.

Even if some of these figures are probably not completely spot on. Hopefully, gives you a good idea of roughly what the differences are and also especially in Beijing, what the similarities are.

But whichever city you live in, we would really like to see your shares in the comment section. let us know how expensive or how inexpensive living in your city is. Let us know.

And if you've been to any other places in Europe or even America, Canada and other countries, let us know in the comment section.

Yeah. Make us jealous. By the way, it's really good to have you back, Anlan.

Thank you very much. It is good to be back.

We'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.