inflation
The costs of living vary greatly across China, as does the average salary. National per capita monthly income for city dwellers in 2011 was 21,810 yuan ($3,461), which averages out at 1,817 yuan. In Beijing and Shanghai, where residents’ living standards are among the highest in China, per capita monthly income in 2010 was respectively [...]
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From NetEase Magazine The Economist introduced the Big Mac index in the last century based on the theory of purchasing-power parity: it benchmarks many countries’ prices of a Big Mac burger sold at the local McDonald’s against the U.S. average Big Mac price and thereby enables a comparison between many countries’ currencies. We’ve borrowed the idea to [...]
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From NetEase and IFeng Red is an auspicious and festive color. Money is a one-size-fits-all gift. Therefore, in China and other Chinese-speaking communities, presenting cash tucked into a red envelope as a Chinese New Year gift has become an ingrained practice, which not only conveys goodwill, but also spares the giver the trouble of racking [...]
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From Youku A video, filled with face-to-face interviews with single men and women in Beijing, sparks debate on China’s Internet. Even though the video serves as a trailer for a comedy film titled “A Big Deal,” literally “A Colossal-sum Transaction,” and should not be taken as a news documentary, many of the hard-hitting arguments have [...]
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From Afinance, Sohu One man’s meat is another man’s poison. After years of skyrocketing housing prices, which spells financial straits for potential home buyers, China’s real estate market finally shows some signs of a soft landing. In Shanghai, home prices fell as much as 30 percent in the suburban. While most potential home buyers are [...]
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From NetEase 220 yuan ($34) per day as a commission demanded by the company in the form of operating charges and rent; 200 yuan ($31) on gas. So even before a “taxi bro” (a casual slang for cab driver) in Hangzhou hits the road early in the morning, he is already over 400 yuan ($65) [...]
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From Sohu On August 1, over 1,000 taxi drivers in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, went on a strike from early morning and parked their cabs in different parts of the downtown Hangzhou to protest rising fuel costs and worsening road traffic. The demands that taxi drivers on strike have made include: lowering operating charges and [...]
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China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has announced oil price increase, effective at 12:00 a.m. on April 7. Gas price is up by 500 yuan per ton; diesel price up by 400 yuan per ton. On average, #90 gas and #0 diesel are up respectively by 0.37 and 0.34 yuan per liter. (US$0.212 and [...]
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The following essay and the tweet at the bottom of the page, have stricken a chord in Chinese people and circulated on the Internet, not only for its unmistakable sarcasm, but for its unexaggerated wrap-up of newsy issues that have been heard from news over the past few years. The essay has been updated or revised [...]
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The rapper(s) discusses Chinese inflation and rising Consumer Price Index (CPI), and tells how it affects people’s everyday life. The song is a parody of Taiwanese girl band S.H.E.’s Chinese Language (song title). The video features montage of several Stephen Chow’s movie excerpts. Stephen Chow is a very popular comedy actor/director in Greater China as [...]
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Original posts in Chinese: 1 2 3 4 China’s National Development and Reform Committee released the result of October’s consumer price monitoring in 36 cities nationwide. 80% of commodities are more expensive than in September. Talks about making ends meet come at a time when Chinese suddenly find their meals cost more, while their salaries remain [...]
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