BEIJING, Sept. 24,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- It's 9
pm on Beijing's Chang'an Avenue.
Thirty-year-old Ma Yuqiang, an experienced cyclist from
Beijing, waits patiently at a busy
intersection, eager for the green light to continue his ride.
Interestingly, the same bicycle congestion has caught Ma's
parents before, in the 1980s.
Yet, it is the younger Ma's bike that reflects a sea change in
Chinese people's consumption pattern. His bike costs 100,000 yuan ($14,202), while his father's was less than
200 yuan.
In documentaries documenting China in the 1980s, scenes of bicycle flows
carrying plainly dressed Chinese along Chang'an Avenue are iconic.
For people back then, bicycles were their means of transportation
and even the most valuable "asset" in their homes. China is known as the "bicycle kingdom" in the
world.
"In the 1970s, my father's Phoenix brand 28-inch bicycle was the
pride of our family. Bikes were the vehicle of transportation for
most people back then, and in the 1980s, the streets and alleys of
Beijing were full of cyclists and
a sea of bicycles is parked in front of Tian'anmen Square," Ma
recalled.
Decades have passed, and although China remains the world's foremost bicycle
kingdom, both the cyclists and the bicycles they ride have
undergone tremendous changes, reflecting an evolving picture of
Chinese people's consumption pattern.
Since the founding of the People's
Republic of China 75 years ago, with the deepening of
market-oriented reforms, China's
commercial circulation and consumption have achieved historic
leaps, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a post on
its website on September 11.
The scale of retail sales has steadily expanded, the consumption
structure has been continuously optimized and upgraded, the supply
market has gradually improved, and the quality and efficiency of
the circulation system have continued to improve, noted the
NBS.
From function to fun
After turn of the century, as Chinese consumers pursue
efficiency and productivity and China's cities grew larger, millions of
Chinese switched from bicycles to cars. This shift, alongside the
growth of China's automotive
industry, spurred a surge in car ownership, making China the world's largest automotive market.
According to NBS data, China's car
ownership reached 49.7 units per 100 households by the end of 2023,
2.9 times that of 2013.
The shift from bicycles to cars was just the tip of the iceberg
in changing Chinese consumption patterns. The other big-ticket
items of the average Chinese household also experienced a giant
leap to greater quantity and quality with Chinese people's growing
income, benefiting domestic and foreign companies in the
process.
Measured by the average number of color TV sets, refrigerators,
and washing machines owned by every 100 urban Chinese households,
the numbers are only 0.6, 0.2 and 6.3 in 1981. By the end of 2023,
the set of numbers has been vastly boosted to 107.8, 103.4, and
98.2.
Also, the incomes of Chinese residents have grown dramatically
over the past 75 years, rising from 49.7
yuan (about $7 dollars) in
1949 to 39,218 yuan in 2023, an
increase of 75.8 times, data from the NBS showed.
As the nation's economic strengths grew along with the reform
and opening-up, the consumption pattern of Chinese consumers have
shifted from merely meeting material needs to focusing on quality
and service-oriented consumption, and has transformed from physical
consumption that meets the needs of everyday life to service
consumption that embodies the needs of a better life, analysts
said.
Driven by the continuous increase in income levels and changes
in consumption concepts, the trend of consumption upgrading is
becoming increasingly pronounced, driven by growing incomes and
evolving consumer preferences.
As the country moved from the era of scarcity to the era of
abundance, the story of the bicycle continues.
"Entering the 21st century, mountain biking became a fad, and
young people have become obsessed with outdoor cycling. Bicycles
have gradually transitioned from being mere transportation tools to
becoming symbols of entertainment and lifestyle," Ma, who spent
170,000 yuan on his two bikes, said.
"This reflects not only increased disposable income but also a
shift in spending toward health, entertainment, and cultural
enrichment."
Diversified consumption
Analysts noted that as China
became the world's largest manufacturing nation, with its large
industrial capacity continues to supply the market with loads of
commodities in ever increasing quantity, those supplies are more
consumer-oriented and catering to the specific needs of the average
Chinese consumer.
By 2023, the number of items of consumer goods registered by the
State Administration of Market Regulation has approached 200
million.
The transformation of the China
market from oblivion to the world's second-largest consumer market
is an epoch-making event in the history of global economic
development, Bian Yongzu, executive deputy editor-in-chief of
Modernization of Management magazine, told the Global Times on
Tuesday.
"China's vast and rapidly
expanding consumer market, strong purchasing power of Chinese
consumers, and their wide array of demands provide huge room for
foreign companies to generate revenues and experiment innovations,"
Bian said.
For example, the renewed popularity of cycling reflects a
growing focus on low-carbon travel, sharing economy, individuality,
and an active lifestyle. These new trends have generated great
market opportunities for domestic and foreign brands.
As the nation continues to implement the strategy of expanding
domestic demand, introduce policies to boost consumption, enhance
the alignment of supply and demand, continuously improve the
adaptability of supply and demand, and cultivate new business
formats and new models, analysts said that consumption will
continue to be the "main engine" in driving China's economic growth and benefiting the
world.
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SOURCE Global Times