Tough job market teaches China´s graduates a lesson in life

Xiong Bingqi, professor of education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, says most Chinese parents spare nothing to send the children to the best kindergartens, primary schools, high schools and universities to receive best education they can afford.

Their goal is, of course, to get the "best jobs", so it's not easy for them to change their minds, Xiong says.

Xia Yinyin, a finance major at Peking University, is unshaken in her determination to find a job at a multinational investment bank, although her dream of working in Hong Kong, Asia's financial hub, has died.

Xia looked set for a job in a prestigious Hong Kong-based investment bank after a five-week internship there last summer, but the bank scrapped its recruitment plan this year due to the financial crisis.

Xia was forced to try domestic commercial banks, but she finally clinched a contract with a multinational investment bank before accepting an offer from one of the country's four big state-owned commercial banks.