You will likely eat out more often while in China than you do in your home country. The food culture is one of the great things about living here. Chinese foods are extremely diverse. Even better, the cost of feeding is extremely low. Eating out for lunch every day, while enjoying banquet dinners with a group 5 nights in a week can be done for less than 1500 RMB a month. Foreign foods (i.e. food items from the west) are considered exotic and will naturally cost more than the local cuisines. Cooking at home a few nights a week can reduce these costs by half in no time.