From Asia Times Online: “Zhang Jie, 21, a junior student at Xi’an University of Finance and Economics in the capital of northwestern China’s Shaanxi province, spends more than 5,000 yuan (US$604) every semester. “The tuition fee is about 3,200 yuan and other expenses are around 400-500 yuan [$48-60] a month,” said Zhang. Her annual consumption is in fact higher than the average disposable income of Chinese urban residents, which is 8,472 yuan a year.
Chinese urban undergraduates like Zhang have huge purchasing power, concludes a report released last week by Sinomonitor, a Sino-Japanese independent market monitoring company, and China Youth Zeitgeist Cultural Co Ltd, a domestic media firm specializing in university students. The report is based on a sample survey conducted among 10,000 students of 126 colleges and universities in 34 major cities from June to September last year. The study, called “Consumption and Lifestyle Study on 21st Century Chinese Undergraduates”, covers more than 30 kinds of products and services, as well as undergraduates’ ideas about brands, fashion, media and lifestyles. Among those surveyed, 62.7% are male students and 58.2% are from cities. ”
