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Jiang Qianyong and Amy Yan Dong have just paid almost two million yuan (HK$1.8 million) for a luxury flat, regularly entertain clients on the rooftop of their modern Shenzhen office, and enjoy mixing business with pleasure on trips to Hong Kong.

Their rooftop terrace overlooks an extensive nursery yard - the fragrant heart of their landscape design business - with a number of water trucks parked outside.

In most countries, Mr Jiang's white Mercedes-Benz would confirm the couple's status as members of the middle class. In China, this status symbol and the other trappings of wealth set them apart as seriously rich.

The couple, both in their 30s, appear to have everything that most mainlanders can only dream about: a comfortable and spacious home, cars, a successful business and a cherished three-year-old daughter.

However, they insist that they belong to a small but rising middle class.

'We belong to the middle class,' Ms Yan said. ' I know a large number of people in the city - many of our age - are in similar situations.'

Many economists and analysts have confirmed that a middle class is emerging on the mainland - a social class that is fast gaining importance.

'If it was just us doing well, it wouldn't be so good,' Ms Yan said.

'I am glad that most of our friends are all better off since they came to the city.'

They are the beneficiaries of an open-door policy and economic reforms that have enriched many well-educated professionals such as the Jiangs, who have made it with their knowledge, skills and hard work.

Five years ago, the young couple founded Green Art - a landscape design and construction company, which now claims to be the largest of its kind in Shenzhen.

They made a perfect team. Mr Jiang was an architecture graduate from Beijing's Qinghua University and takes care of the design and technical aspects of the business; Ms Yan, a former Beijinger, has managed to attract a string of lucrative contracts with her sales ability.

Their business prospered as fast urban development led to a demand for more consideration of green space and environmental needs.

'The middle class definitely exists in China, although now it maybe a minority which accounts for perhaps only four to six per cent of the population,' said Shi Wei, a senior economist at a leading think-tank under the State Council.

His organisation started research on the emergence of the middle class in 1994, when they defined the criteria for membership of the social group as those with an annual income of more than 100,000 yuan after tax.

'Now I would say the benchmark should be raised to US$25,000 (HK$195,000) in after-tax income, which is about 200,000 yuan a year,' he said.

Alternative ways to define China's middle class, as suggested by some scholars, include having assets of more than one million yuan or being the owner of an apartment.

These benchmarks would place the number of middle class Chinese at about 10 per cent of the population, based on the estimates of economists.

'If we take the urban population of China as a whole . . . only about 10 per cent can afford to buy a home,' Mr Shi said.

David Li, a lecturer at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said members of the middle class shared a number of characteristics.

'They have a considerable financial and non-financial income, live in suburbs and at least one bread-winner has college education or above and a white collar job,' he said.

'In China, this class is also rapidly gaining ground as a result of the formation of new opportunities and sectors due to information technology changes.'

Dr Li said the ranks of the middle class were also swelled by 'high income professional employees who work at multinational companies, property owners and small or medium business owners'.

Mr Jiang said the middle class also included those who had struck it rich by less conventional means. Many had taken advantage of policy loopholes, taking bribes and profiting from shady transactions from the stock market, he said.

Another characteristic of China's middle class, analysts say, is that membership is not necessarily made up of those with tertiary education.

'I knew some who made it from salesmen or insurance agents, with little or no education,' Mr Jiang said. 'In a city like Shenzhen, there is a popular saying that 'success comes from all possible places'.'

Mr Shi said the middle class had spread into rural areas, particularly in the eastern coastal regions and outskirts of big cities. 'They are owners of rural factories or shops or specialise in transport or growing special farm products other than grains,' he said.

Analysts said the Government should welcome the emergence of a middle class.

'The middle class is a group that likes social stability. They like reform, but do not want the progress to be revolutionary. They dislike corruption, but not as much as workers do,' Dr Li said. 'They are basically happy with the status quo and are averse to radical social changes. They are the stabilising force in the society.'

The central Government has introduced policies to encourage private ownership of houses and cars. Banks are expanding aggressively on mortgage lending markets and state plans are in the pipeline to cancel the hefty fees on purchases of private cars and replace them with a much lower and less arbitrary tax scheme.



Mr and Mrs Middle Class move in