Source: China Daily

12-07-2008 17:36

Special Report:   30 Years of Changes

By Hu Yuanyuan (China Daily)

Shen Jun, a 36 year-old employee at a Beijing-headquartered State-owned enterprise, sometimes jokes with his younger colleagues that it would've been great if he had made one more mistake when he took the entrance exams for postgraduate studies in 1997.

"You see, when I took a job after finishing the three-year study for postgraduate degree, I suddenly found I couldn't get an apartment from the enterprise anymore, but my former college students who went to work in 1997, the year we received a bachelor's degree, all have cozy lives in their own apartments," Shen recalls, raising his eyebrows.

In 1998, China abandoned the welfare housing system in which State enterprises built houses for employees. Employees only had the usage rights but no ownership. That same year the government set up a housing matching fund system to encourage people to buy their own apartments. Enterprises and employees contributed the same amount of money to the fund.

Shen still remembers the strong sense of loss after he heard the news. "Suddenly, I didn't know what I should do," he recalls.

On May 9 of 1998, the People's Bank of China began offering individual mortgage loans but at that time, only a few people would do that.

"You know, Chinese people really hate debt, especially in the 1990s when a 10,000 yuan loan could be a big sum," Shen says.