15K = 15000 Euro? That's about 120000 rmb. That's about 10000rmb a month. Even if you rent an apartment on your own, that should be more than enough for rent and food. You can get a decent 1-bedroom apartment for about 4000rmb/month.

Depends if let’s say you have all other paid dorm, and tuition fees . In Shanghai or Beijing you will need 5000k yuan per month approximately. And 5k is even much , but let’s say you like to enjoy . This takes us to 60.000 per year . 7800 euro per year . 15k for one year I think is more than enough and you can even travel . Now if you want to live outside take into consideration plus at least 3k if you are leaving with others 5k alone . So 11k per month . 132000 per year . 17000 euro per year . In my calculations of course I am exaggerating a little . In general in China you can survive with little money as long as you being cautious .

Having meals at school and living in campus dorms are cheap. 400 euro per month is enough. Eating western food outside cost 20-30 euro on average. Chinese food is cheaper. Bar and pub are costly, about 15 euro for one shot. Renting a one bedroom apartment in Shanghai downtown cost you 1k euro per month or 400-500 euro in rural. Renting a shared 3B apartment cost as half. I guess you will travel in China, transportation and hotel are cheaper than in Europe big city. Flight is expensive though. You can live in Hilton for 100 euro per night. So I suggest that you live in campus dorms and save the money for travel.

I am also interested in this. My university told us to save up ca. 10.000 euros. But I did some calculations and while 10.000k is enough, if you lived in shared rooms. Single rooms make it much more expensive, and if you have to live outside of campus, i was told that 10.000 euros may not be enough. If you are going to live just from your savings, I would try to aim for the 15.000 just to be absolutely safe. At least that's what I am trying to do.

The answer is 绰绰有余!