ABSTRACT
China has experienced rapid economic growth within the past decade due to its position as “the factory of the world,” and while the rest of the world suffers from an economic depression, she has assumed the role of a stable consuming power. This growth has affected the rise of a new social class benefitting from economic reform originating in the late 1970s, which in turn has allowed them to develop into significant consumers in both the domestic and global markets. This consumptive power has provided them the opportunity to play a crucial role in compelling spatial differentiation in urban China, as evidenced through their housing choices (Fleischer, 2007; Goodman and Zang, 2008). Understanding the consumptive behavior of this new class has become a requisite to master the development of the urban and global markets.
