The Beijing Bureau of Statistics has reported that the Engel’s coefficient -- the ratio of food expenditure to overall household spending -- in the capital dropped from 58.7 percent in 1978 to 31.7 percent in 2003. A lower figure is believed to indicate that households have more disposable income to spend on non-essentials.

Residents of the Chinese capital have gone beyond merely having sufficient food, clothing and shelter: they are moving swiftly into the territory of the well-off.

Also in the 1978–2003 period, disposable personal income increased from 365 yuan (US$44) to 13,883 yuan (US$1,677), up an inflation-adjusted 7.4 percent annually.

Looking over a wider time span, gross production value in the city rose from 788 million yuan (US$95.2 million) in 1952 to 366.31 billion yuan (US$44.3 billion) in 2003.

Per capita GDP was 170 yuan (US$21) in 1952; by 2003, it had climbed to 32,061 yuan (US$3,874).

One of the most noticeable areas in which Beijingers are spending their newfound wealth is on cars. Fifty-five years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing has transformed itself from a kingdom of bicycles into a motor city.

The capital now has some 1.3 million privately owned vehicles registered. In 2003, 407,649 new vehicles were sold in Beijing, leaping 56.5 percent from 2002. Second-hand vehicle sales jumped 37.8 percent in the same period. Although sales growth has slowed through much of 2004, monthly sales still averaged 38,000 units.

Still, the economically disadvantaged have not disappeared. In 2003, 161,000 urbanites and 67,000 rural residents received benefits provided to those whose income puts them under the minimum standard of living.

(China.org.cn by Guo Xiaohong, September 28, 2004)