See here for a cost of living comparison

See http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=backhome&MsgID=60160

and http://www.finfacts.com/costofliving3.htm

City World Cost of Living Index

Beijing 95.6
Shanghai 90.4
Singapore 88.0
San Francisco 84.9

How does this compare to average US cities? According to this page (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0883960.html), the cost of living index for San Francisco is 177. So translating the world cost of living index to US cost of living index, then

Beijing 199
Shanghai 188
Singapore 183
San Francisco 177

In other words, if you make US$100k in an average US city, you would need to make US$188k in Shanghai, and US$199k in Beijing, $183k in Singapore.