Some thoughts on China the third time around

We have now traveled to China 3 times. The first time in Sept. 2003, then Nov. 2005, and now March 2008. So it is roughly every two years. While things changed between 2003 and 2005, the differences between 2005 and 2008 are amazing. There is definitely an economic boom here. We see it in the number of expensive cars on the street and in the shopping areas. Beijing while getting ready for the Olympics has under gone a huge building boom. It was amazing to see the amount of new apartment buildings going in. To live within the first two ring roads of Beijing, you will pay over 500,00 USD for approximately a 3000 sq meter apartment. And, people are buying apartments without a mortage system like the US. According to the two guides we have had, most young people are saving towards buying an apartment and they try to go within the first 4 ring roads. This is sort of amazing to us since some of the people we have met here have a monthly income of 500 RMB.

There are also the very rural areas that have not been touched by the economic growth. Hefei seems to be in the middle of this. It is definitely not the economic power that Chongqing is and it is not terribly poor either. But it is clearly more agricultural and has not reached the level of other large cities (a little under 5 million people). But, the number of very expensive cars like BMWs are amazing. But things here are not cheap especially compared to things two years ago. We went shopping last night and while some things were an amazing deal like 6 pairs of kids shoes for around 33 USD, other things were not so cheap. Clothes at local stores not department stores were around 100 RMB or 14 USD an outfit for Annie. Two years ago, we would have paid maybe 50 RMB. And the US dollar has definitely gone down. We notice that daily when we go to change money. So with the booming economy, there is definitely an increase in the cost of living. Groceries are still fairly inexpensive but when you only make 500 RMB a month, 100 RMB at the grocery store is pretty costly. It has been interesting to watch the changes here.