cháng'ān​jū​dà​bù​yì

life is hard in the big city

长安居大不易 長安居大不易 cháng'ān​jū​dà​bù​yì
life is hard in the big city
(literary) it is not easy to live in the capital; a metaphor for the high cost of living in a large city. This expression originates from a pun on the name of the Tang poet 白居易 bái​jū​yì, to whom it was said that living in the capital Cháng'ān was not easy (bù yì).