As everyone who has spent time in the UAE will know, the country is a land of many contrasts - including incomes.
While some enjoy luxury villas, huge 4x4s and expensive spa treatments, others have turned parsimony into a fine art.
On a Saturday afternoon, they do not head for the nearest coffee house and blow Dh30 (US$8.16) on a cappuccino, but instead make a beeline for an unpretentious Indian restaurant and enjoy a cup of tea for Dh1.
Rather than the satin sheets of the luxury penthouse, they bed down in a bunk in a dormitory shared with several fellow workers, and they probably enjoy a more sociable existence as a result.
More than 12 months ago, I left the UAE after five years and moved to Beijing. Once there, I quickly discovered that the Chinese capital offers at least as many financial contrasts as the Emirates.
While in the UAE it is guest workers from other parts of the globe who help to create the vast strata of incomes and spending habits. In China, it is internal migrants who fuel the diversity in buying power.
The construction workers from Shaanxi province or the cleaning ladies from Qinghai have incomes and lifestyles that seem from another planet when compared with the luxury-drenched existences of the well-off entrepreneurs and senior executives.
One group spends a few yuan on a fried egg sandwich from a street stall, while the other lives it up in the capital's elite restaurants after a day shopping at designer outlets.
For newly arrived expatriates, it adds up to a confusing array of choices as to how to splash the cash, one no less daunting than in the UAE.
Thankfully, the first major hurdle to cross, finding reasonably priced accommodation, is relatively straightforward. A pleasant one-bedroom flat can be found for about half the cost of its Abu Dhabi equivalent. Mine costs 3,700 yuan (Dh2,077) a month.
Transport is also not too much of a headache. The Beijing metro is ridiculously cheap at 2 yuan per journey, and a taxi ride from the centre to the second ring road, near to where I live, costs only about 20 yuan.
But along with income tax, food is a major financial headache. My bags of oatmeal, cartons of orange juice and loaves of wholemeal bread are not too expensive. They cost a little more than I used to pay in the UAE, but they do not exactly break the bank.
The cost of fruit and vegetables, however, is something else entirely, and being a vegetarian I am almost kept awake at night by it. If you ever needed evidence that social inequality in China is a big issue and getting bigger, look no further than the prices of apples or pumpkins.
At the bottom end of the scale, apples can be picked up for about 4 yuan (Dh2.24) per kg. This is affordable even for those on a cleaning lady's wages.
For the health-conscious, though, these cheap and cheerful apples may not be all they seem. Apples tend to have higher pesticide residues than most other fruit and vegetables, so in China, where food safety regulations tend to be less strict or well enforced than in many developed countries, buying organic is an even better idea than it is anywhere else.
The prices, however, are enough to make all but the millionaire businessman think twice. One kilogramme of organically grown apples can easily cost 20 yuan (Dh11.22) per kg - five times as much as the non-organic.
I recently saw a modestly sized organic pumpkin in my local supermarket priced at 36.7 yuan (Dh20.60). Organic tomatoes, carrots and potatoes can cost almost a dollar apiece. It's horrifying.
My bills for accommodation and transport may be modest, but my shopping costs have rocketed. I do, however, have the choice over what I eat, which is more than can be said for China's struggling migrants.
And I can console myself with another thought: at least I don't live in Taiwan. On a holiday to the island, I visited a health-food store in north-west Taipei that sold organic apples, imported from the US, for nearly US$2 (Dh7.34) each.
Even the well-off businessman who swans around in a luxury car would hesitate to pay that much, and everyone else must have to take a chance with the cheap stuff - or go hungry.
* Rupert Wright is on holiday
