[Eauz]

A young man from rural China with a college diploma and a job at a computer software company in central Beijing would seem to fit the model envisioned by the late leader Deng Xiaoping's doctrine of "Let some people get rich first."

But this 26-year-old man from Hebei province, who earns slightly more than 2,000 yuan (about $300) a month, enjoys none of the creature comforts that a select few have in urban centers of this rapidly growing economy.

The man is among the ranks of a growing social class known as the "ant tribe"--a reference to educated young people who are poor and huddling in low-rent housing outside the city.

Each day, he commutes two hours to the city center from his tiny, shared apartment, which costs him and his room mate 500 yuan a month in the Changping district on the northern outskirts of China's capital.

"I figure that the only difference from being just a high school graduate is that I don't have to do physical labor," he mused.

Rising real estate prices both in major urban centers like Beijing, as well as in provincial cities, have added to the woes of the ant tribe and other youth, and have become a source of discontent toward the government.

This discontent is believed to have been a key factor that fueled mass anti-Japan demonstrations in provincial areas across China last month. Slogans lamenting soaring housing costs were visible on many banners.

A visit to Changping illustrates the growing divide.

Mule-driven carts traverse dusty unpaved roads dotted with a few shops in the district. Handbills advertise apartments complete with "showers, toilets and heating" for rents ranging from 150 yuan to 600 yuan a month.

Those rents are a fraction of the 2,000 to 3,000 yuan monthly rent sought for apartments leased in the neighborhoods lining Si Huan Lu, or the 4th ring road circumnavigating central Beijing.

One Changping apartment building here features 40 units, each measuring about 15 square meters. The interiors of the bare concrete-walled apartment building are austere with minimal furnishings. A broadband cable fixture provides the only hint of contemporary luxury.

The ant colony population is likely to grow.

A study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences notes that while 12 million college graduates will seek jobs over the next three years, only 2 million job openings will be available at major businesses during that period.

Deng Ying, 22, a Hunan province native who graduated from a specialized college in Beijing this year, managed to land a job at an insurance company. But with a monthly salary barely topping 1,000 yuan, Deng says: "When considering marriage, I would like to buy a home, but that is impossible in Beijing. I have to return to my hometown."

The average Beijing college graduate's starting pay is around 2,800 yuan a month. Thus, it would take a couple 20 years to buy an 80-square-meter house on their combined income in a popular area.

Land prices in the neighborhoods around Si Huan Lu have doubled or tripled since 2007 to between 20,000 and 30,000 yuan per square meter.

According to an official at Lianjia Real Estate Agent Co., the largest realtor chain in Beijing, most young Chinese who take out a mortgage are "city dwellers who rely on support from their parents."

"If they wait to save enough money for a down payment, they risk seeing prices skyrocket to unaffordable levels. So the discrepancy between those who can afford to buy and those who cannot keeps growing," the official said.

That phenomenon is not limited to Beijing.

According to an agent in Baoji, Shaanxi province, where an anti-Japan demonstration was held Oct. 24, housing prices which hovered around an average 1,500 yuan per square meter two to three years ago now exceed 4,000 yuan.

Development programs geared for western parts of China, where Baoji is located, caused average income levels to rise by about 60 percent from 2005 figures. But that has done little to help them become homeowners.

"Housing prices have risen constantly in the last few years. While workers cannot afford housing, the government is doing nothing," said an auto repair worker who participated in the demonstration.

A 23-year-old school teacher who watched a demonstration in Deyang, Sichuan province, on Oct. 23, said: "Without a home, people cannot find a hand in marriage. Everyone is getting irritated at the inability to envision their future.

"That's why people of my generation participate in demonstrations," the teacher said.

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I guess the reality of capitalism is catching up with the dreams of Chinese. In the end though, if they really want to live in a house or afford the rents of 2000 - 3000 yuan, then they should be either going back to school or finding a second job that will help pay for these places. You have to take the good with the bad, with regard to capitalist growth.

[Chill]

I guess the reality of capitalism is catching up with the dreams of Chinese.

What dream...?
Chinese are aware of this reality long time ago, ever since 1976. Capitalism is something no society can leap over. It's just the natural law of development. But it doesn't matter we call this a primary stage of socialism, because we can just define this concept to whatever is actually here. Man invent new words to describe new things even if only a little different from the old ones, anothor natural behavior.

[Chill]

if they really want to live in a house or afford the rents of 2000 - 3000 yuan, then they should be either going back to school or finding a second job that will help pay for these places.

Actually it is really quite easy to make money to afford rents of 2000-3000 yuan in Beijing. The only thing you need to do is to study a little harder at school. Chinese government don't use money from tax payers to raise lazy people. Every one is on his own and can depend on nobody. Nowadays it is often the case that people rush into big cities like Beijing and Shanghai without thinking. (Including college graduates as Beijing has so many universities, just everywhere. You get your degree in Beijing doesn't mean you are good enough to get a nice job in Beijing.)If you don't have the ability to survive there, maybe you should go back to where you originally were. If you want to promote yourself to a higher level, then don't complain but work hard. Beijing cannot afford so many people so someone has to live like that if they believe their hometown is not good enough for them. It can be the price of capitalism but it is also the choice they make. There are hundreds of other choices which can make their life much easier. But Chinese seem to be too thirsty for success, which is not a bad thing, and such chance mostly exists in big cities.

[Eauz]

Actually it is really quite easy to make money to afford rents of 2000-3000 yuan in Beijing. The only thing you need to do is to study a little harder at school. Chinese government don't use money from tax payers to raise lazy people. Every one is on his own and can depend on nobody. Nowadays it is often the case that people rush into big cities like Beijing and Shanghai without thinking. (Including college graduates as Beijing has so many universities, just everywhere. You get your degree in Beijing doesn't mean you are good enough to get a nice job in Beijing.)If you don't have the ability to survive there, maybe you should go back to where you originally were. If you want to promote yourself to a higher level, then don't complain but work hard. Beijing cannot afford so many people so someone has to live like that if they believe their hometown is not good enough for them. It can be the price of capitalism but it is also the choice they make. There are hundreds of other choices which can make their life much easier. But Chinese seem to be too thirsty for success, which is not a bad thing, and such chance mostly exists in big cities.

Which, is what I originally said...

[unbalanced zealot]

This is a good article Eauz ... there's been a few like it in Australian newspapers alluding to the same dynamic in Oz.

[HoniSoit]

Actually it is really quite easy to make money to afford rents of 2000-3000 yuan in Beijing.

Doesn't really correspond to my experience in Beijing.

The only thing you need to do is to study a little harder at school.

It helps more if your parents happen to be businessmen/women or government officials. Studying hard - I am sorry to say - helps very little. Capitalism is not meritocracy and is even less so in today's China. And we can safely ignore all the rubbish about making choices.

[Chill]

Doesn't really correspond to my experience in Beijing.

What's your experience then? 2000-3000 yuan rent is the price for apartments of about 30m^2 to 40m^2 beside ZhongGuanCun and in the middle of the top 2 universities where demand is apparently larger than supply. Also people can split the price by having a roomate. You can also find one farther but don't need to commute for hours as the subway system is quite developed which can bring you from one side of the city to the other within an hour.
It is easy for people who have permanent residence in Beijing and receive just OK education to make that money. It is easy for people who grew up elsewhere but graduate from a good university in Beijing. Students from my university can easily get much more than affordable once they graduate. My roomate was the last 10% in our department and even he can get 6 grand with merely a BS. A lot of people in their 40s can get much more than ten grand a month. It is just hard for people who have nothing but themselves in this city to make this money.

It helps more if your parents happen to be businessmen/women or government officials. Studying hard - I am sorry to say - helps very little. Capitalism is not meritocracy and is even less so in today's China. And we can safely ignore all the rubbish about making choices.

It does help, in the way that your family is rich. You can use the money to support you to go to good colleges in Hongkong and western countries, but never Chinese top universities. You don't need to be sorry. And also don't pretend you know it. I grew up from a normal family in a normal city and through studying hard I can get a much better life than most Chinese. I'm sorry, but getting successful through studying hard is the tradition in China for thousands of years. It was nearly the only route to become a government official in China for centuries. Whether it is meritocracy has nothing to do with whether you can get an average salary through studying just a little harder. I don't understand why you bring 'meritocracy' up. You're trying to prove studying hard helps little using this? So studying hard is useless in capitalist society and even more useless in China?
What does your last 'rubbish' words mean?

[HoniSoit]

2000-3000 yuan rent is the price for apartments of about 30m^2 to 40m^2 beside ZhongGuanCun and in the middle of the top 2 universities where demand is apparently larger than supply.

If you are talking about several people sharing an apartment (each would pay a monthly rent between 500-1,000RMB), then yes obviously lots of people could afford it. And far fewer could pay a 2,000-3,000RMB rent. But as you are surely aware, there are quite a large number of migrants working in white-collar jobs in Beijing who barely make 2,000-3,000RMB a month. So things aren't really that easy for many.

I grew up from a normal family in a normal city and through studying hard I can get a much better life than most Chinese.

I never said there aren't exceptions. But really one's family's socioeconomic circumstances (and very often your geographic location) do largely dictate what kind of school you go to, what kind of education you get, the sort of social skills you acquire and the kind of social connections you will have etc. etc. While I certainly do not deny there are people like you who through academic achievement have done well, there are also many who study hard but simply cannot get very far because of the things I mentioned.

It was nearly the only route to become a government official in China for centuries.

But you probably know more than I do that it is almost impossible now to get any good-paying government jobs without very strong social connections.

[Chill]

But as you are surely aware, there are quite a large number of migrants working in white-collar jobs in Beijing who barely make 2,000-3,000RMB a month.

That depends on how you define white-collar job. If you mean all non-physical job can be defined white-collar job, then a lot of white collar jobs provide salary lower than common seen physical jobs.
Once I tried to move things of like 50 kg from one side of campus to the other side. I found a guy to do this for me and he asked for 50 yuan and refused any further bargain. Then he moved the things with a motor tricycle without any sweat. Just calculate how much he can gain with just two offers like this per day. And he belongs to the lowest level of society.
Like I said, because there are just too many migrants with poor education. Those people do contribute a lot to the development of this city, but they're not sure what they want. Nowadays a lot of people just follow. Things can be easy. They make it harder. They can either go back home to work or abandon merely typing the keyboard every day and do some labor work.
As to normal Beijing residents and migrants with a degree from a decent university, you won't expect a salary of mere 2000 yuan.

I never said there aren't exceptions.

This is not an exception. All my schoolmates who are successful, very few of them have a strong family background. A lot of their families are not as good as mine. I think this is enough to prove this is anything but an exception.
I'd say geographic location is indeed important. Which primary school you go to is strongly decided by where you live. But then you can take exams to go to better junior and senior high schools on your own. The more remote you live, the more you need to climb. But I start to have very poor schoolmates(actually many) from the countryside in senior high school.
The best high schools in China provide the lowest tuition fee. The percentage of students from small villages is the largest in top universities in China. Money is rarely a big problem(as all good schools in China are owned by the government and the government subsidize heavily. A university like my school can just live on the subsidization without any other source of income) and location is less and less important with the level of education rising up. As to social skills and social connections, I'm not sure what you mean. But I don't have any like this until I went to college when I lived on my own.

But you probably know more than I do that it is almost impossible now to get any good-paying government jobs without very strong social connections.

I do know more than you do. Government jobs are not good paying at all......(except for Hongkong). However, if you want to get a government job, there are two things you need to do. First is to get a degree proving you are good at some area. Second is to take the exam held by the government. Then that's it. You pass it, you get the job. It is a problem, however, to get promotions to where you do have solid power, like mayors etc. At that stage, you probably need strong social connections. But this is too far from what we are talking about, a decent salary. (To add one thing. The president of China, Mr. Hu Jintao, was born in a village in one of the poorest provinces in China. But he graduated from No.1 University in China and graduates from that university take a heavy portion of high level officials.)
You have no idea how much weight education takes in China. If you live in a developed country with a high fame education system, you won't be surprised to find there are many Chinese students, some supported by scholarships, more and more supported by their parents, which took probably ten years to save the money. Why do Chinese parents throw their life savings on just a few years education of their child? Do you really think they'd do this and their child still work for the stupid sons of some government officials?

[FreeStyle]

Housing problem in china is more political than economical. When something turns more political in china, it always got distorted from its original charactoristics. The problem lies in the "Wishes" that every chinese got: to have his/her own house. Just imagine a national housing system to guarantee that each one of the billian people to Own a house. Is that possible? The housing price got to be soaring if everyone wishes to buy a house.

Anyone trying to build such a system in china has got to fail, and put china's resources to a huge waste.

And those who advacate for building such a system pratically put china to a dangerous social chaos.

Chill is a bit naive and narrow minded on the good side, and on the other side, infected by the ideology inplanted into her by the chinese national educastion system. She thinks she can be a representative of the chinese people, but in fact, she can only represent herself. Period.

[Chill]

Chill is a bit naive and narrow minded on the good side, and on the other side, infected by the ideology inplanted into her by the chinese national educastion system. She thinks she can be a representative of the chinese people, but in fact, she can only represent herself. Period.

He, thanks...
Thanks for your deep insight...
I'm infected by both Chinese and American education.
I didn't think I could be a representative of the Chinese.
In fact, I do can represent more than myself.

[Rei Murasame]

infected by the ideology inplanted into her by the chinese national educastion system.

Just as a check, which ideology are you claiming that it is?

Chill so far seems to be leaning toward her own experiences for most of the things she's saying, which may or may not be a good idea, but I don't think it's so easy to declare what ideology that is, just from this one thread.