The Imperial Color was yellow gold and the roofs of the Forbidden City were the same color. During imperial times, anyone wearing the imperial color, who did not belong to China’s ruling family, usually lost their heads.
Now, China is having a gold rush and holds more than a thousand tonnes of Gold as of June 2010, while gold demand from China’s middle class has grown 13 percent annually for the last five years.
As you can see from this Sky News video, Chinese are gobbling up gold as fast as they can regardless of the price. To them, it is an investment and the Central Bank of China is quietly buying gold to build reserves. China is now the world’s largest producer of gold.
Frank Homes writing for Wall Street Pit, Global Market Insight, says China can’t get enough gold and state-controlled China National Gold Group signed an agreement with Kensington Mine in Alaska to buy more.
In fact, Pacific Money.com says, “China’s society is changing beyond all recognition. At the heart of the most sweeping social and economic transformation the world has seen is the rise of a powerful new largely middle-class population. In 2000, only 4% of China’s urban households were middle class; by 2012, that number skyrocketed to more than 66%.
Discover China’s Heart and Soul
_______________
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.
Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.
iLook China 
As many as 51% of Chinese working professionals suffered from some level of depression, the Ministry of Health said in 2011. They blame pressure from a rapidly changing society, increased competition, long work hours and high property prices.
I think it is safe to say that most if not all people suffer from some level of depression at some time in their lives. To feel depression over the high cost of property seems to be a waste of time—frivolous even. Even in the United States only 66.1% of adults own homes and most of them really don’t own the property because they pay a monthly mortgage payment. And when the house is paid off, the owner still has to keep paying the government an annual property tax that doesn’t exist in China.
It seems to me that no one really owns the house they bought.
i like studying the articles you write. Carry on the nice work! You understand i think plenty of individuals are seeking this information
When we travel in China, we often stay in a Jinjiang Inn , a chain of reasonably priced, modern, clean hotels that serve a complimentary breakfast. There are hundreds of Jinjiang inns in most if not all of China’s major cities. This chain caters primarily to the Chinese middle class or Asian business people. Most foreign tourists stay in more expensive, upscale hotels. We prefer the Jinjiang Inn.
That’s where we stay when we are traveling in China. Good choice. I understand that the Jinjiang Inn chain is owned by a Japanese company. I wonder if the Chinese middle class would stay there if they knew.
Everyone loves it when individuals get together and share opinions. Great site, stick with it!
I’m impressed, I have to admit. Rarely do I encounter a blog that’s educative and entertaining, and without a doubt, you have strike the claw on the head. Your thought is excellent; the issue is a thing that not enough people are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy that I stumbled across this.