Great Improvements Brought to Chinese People's Lives in Past Five Years

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Great Improvements Brought to Chinese People's Lives in Past Five Years

Gone forever are the days when three generations shared one shabby, crowded one-room house, and when mobile phones and cars were only a luxury few dared to dream of owning.

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Gone forever are the days when three generations shared one shabby, crowded one-room house, and when mobile phones and cars were only a luxury few dared to dream of owning.

During the last five years, the people's lives have improved dramatically in China.

The per-capita floor space for urbanites was only 8.8 square meters in 1997 and the figure rose to 10.3 sq m in 2000. For rural residents, per-capita floor space has grown to the current 25.7 sqm from 22.46 sq m in 1997.

According to the National Statistics Bureau, in 1997 the per-capita annual income for city dwellers and rural residents was 5,160 yuan (some 620 US dollars) and 2,090 yuan (250 US dollars), respectively. The two figures rose to 6,860 yuan (827 US dollars) and 2,366 yuan (285 US dollars), respectively, in 2001.

Retail sales amounted to more than 3.76 trillion yuan (453 billion US dollars) in 2001 compared with 2.73 trillion yuan (329 billion US dollars) in 1997 and the total amount of Chinese people's savings deposits has increased to more than 8 trillion yuan (964 billion US dollars) from 4.6 trillion yuan (455 billion US dollars) in 1997, statistics show.

During the first half of this year, the per-capita monthly disposable income of urban residents amounted to 657 yuan, an increase of 17.5 percent on a yearly basis, according to a recent sample survey of 45,000 urban families conducted by the National Statistics Bureau.

What people are spending their money on has also changed. The proportion of cost for food, clothes and other daily necessities has decreased by a large margin, while expenditure for housing, communications, traveling, culture, education and recreation has grown markedly in recent years. The proportion of income spent on food, out of total consumption, for urban and rural residents has dropped to 37.9 percent and 47.7 percent, respectively, compared with 46.4 percent and 55 percent in 1997.

Air conditioners, personal computers, mobile phones and private cars are no longer rare consumables in the eyes of the ordinary Chinese people. The number of mobile phones in use in 1997 was 13.25 million, and the figure has currently reached 180 million, the largest in the world.

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