Consumers in China today are spending their money on housing, transportation, telecommunications, medical and health care, culture, education and entertainment, leisure and tourism. This is remarkable in that not so long ago basic subsistence was a major concern of many citizens. The Engel coefficient (the proportion of food expenses of total consumer spending) of urban residents decreased from 57.5 percent in 1978 to 37.7 percent in 2002; and that of rural residents dropped from 67.7 percent to 46.2 percent. Today urban residents are shopping at supermarkets as well stocked as any of the best in the Western world and are enjoying dining out at fine restaurants — or at Western food restaurants like McDonald's, KFC, Maxim's de Paris, and Dominoes Pizza. In rural areas, people are less dependent on grains and are eating more eggs and meat. Affordable, ready-made clothes are available everywhere with people dressing in the latest fashion, both Western and Chinese.
In terms of housing, household goods, transportation and telecommunications: The practice of work units providing housing for employees came to a stop five years ago in China after being in place for some 40 years. Over the past five years, some 40 million families moved into new homes. At the same time, more and more households with medium and low incomes moved into homes with larger living space thanks to the efforts of governments at various levels to construct new buildings, affordable houses and houses with low rents. Today, Chinese people are buying their own apartments by obtaining housing loans from banks. Between 1999 and 2000, the ratio of families with their own houses rose by 10 percentage points to reach 59 percent, while the ratio of households which rented houses dropped sharply to 11.5 percent. At the end of January 2003, the number of China's fixed phone subscribers reached 218 million and the number of mobile phone users in China grew to 212 million, according to statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry. The number of short messages sent via cell phone keeps rising: In 2002, China's mobile phone users sent over 90 billion text messages, as against 18.9 billion in 2001 and one billion in 2000. As for the Internet, China today ranks third—next only to the United States and Japan—in the number of citizens who are on-line at least one hour per week. By the end of 2002, the number of Internet users in China had reached 59.1 million. In 2002, more than 10 million computers were sold in China. Other IT products, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, laptops and digital video cameras also sold well in China. In the year 2002-2003 people in the cities were buying large-screen, high-definition color TV, refrigerators with freezers and other components, and the latest in washing machines, for example. Air conditioners, home entertainment units, water heater and furniture also are popular consumer items while video cameras, computers and exercise equipment are becoming commonplace in the average home. More people are buying cars. The number of private automobiles has exceeded 10 million from 4.2 million five years ago. China's motor vehicle output has topped 3.25 million annually, the fifth in the world. In 2002 alone, 500,000 Chinese individuals bought private vehicles.
Traveling is becoming a common lifestyle among ordinary Chinese as their income increases. A total of 877 million Chinese people traveled inside China while 16.6 million traveled overseas in 2002. According to predictions by the World Tourism Organization, China is expected to host 130 million international tourists annually by 2020, and there will be 100 million Chinese traveling abroad annually.
