Many Chinese are tightening their belts during the country's economic downturn despite government efforts to boost domestic consumption and replace evaporating export orders.

Wang Hao, 24, a Beijing office worker, made a public resolution in June last year to limit his weekly living expenses to 100 yuan (14.6 U.S. dollars). That's the cost of eight Big Macs in China.

"The financial crisis has taught a spending lesson to young people in China, including me," said Wang, who posted his resolution on his blog at http://blog.soufun.com/whblog. So far the site has had 230,000 hits.

As the financial crisis squeezes the real economy, urban white-collar workers speak of shrinking bonuses and frozen wages. Some are unemployed but just how many is unknown as China has not released that information. Students are facing the worst job prospects since China's economic reform began 30 years ago.

In addition to Wang's campaign to save money, the number of people sharing dinners, houses, taxis and other activities with strangers they meet online continues increasing. Web users post their activities on sites, such as www.Pinkewang.com, and can be contacted by others interested in joining in their activities.

Lin Xiongbo, the founder of the Pikewang, said that only one month after the financial crisis broke out, or last November, his website saw a 100 percent increase of visitors. People also began to share other things to do such as training programs, sports, karaoke and other entertainments.

"Sharing activities with others can save a lot of money without lowering the quality of life. Furthermore, I can make new friends," said 27-year-old Xu Li, a manger in a public relations firm and a long-time site user.

Xu recently found other people to take part in a commercial English training program with her. By doing this together, they all enjoyed a 10 percent discount for the course, saving more than 1,000 yuan.

Chinese people are traditionally frugal. However, thanks to decades of fast development in China, the urban young generations, born in the seventies and eighties are more accustomed to a lavish and material way of living.

Designer clothes and the latest electronic products are chased by young citizens. Without family burdens, as most of their parents work in traditional state-owned institutions which cover health-care costs, many young people spend almost all of their monthly salaries. Some even spend money they don't have yet with ever-popular credit cards.

Members of the "Yueguang group", who spend all their monthly earnings before the end of the month, and the unemployed or part-time workers and freelancers, kept increasing in the society.


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