The high cost of moving to a city

For Su Qiulan, a 28-year-old media organization employee in Nanning, the capital of Southeast China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, going back to live in her hometown is not an option.

"Life is traditional and dull in my hometown. People don't care about quality. No one is interested in things like dancing or body fitness," she said.

Su said she likes to go to the gym, swim, travel and dine in fine restaurants. If a new shopping mall opens, she and her friends like to go and shop there.

"However, all these are not part of people's daily lives in my hometown," she said.

The daughter of a fisherman, Su originally came from a county under the authority of Beihai city, a small coastal town at the southern end of Guangxi. Like many people in her hometown, she chose to live in a bigger city because she thinks life is "better and more convenient".

Nanning, although it is considered to be a third-tier city nationwide, is much more appealing than their hometowns.

"I like Nanning. I've lived here for 10 years since I went to university. This is my home now," she said. In her mind, Nanning has a better emotional connection with her than her real hometown.

"People in Beihai think I am an outsider if I don't talk because I don't look like a local. But even when I do talk they still won't consider me as a local because my accent has changed," she said, believing she has already lost the "aura" of her hometown.

For foreign businesses that aspire to cash in on China, the second-largest and fastest-growing market in the world, Su's words are familiar. Millions of young men and women like Su are settling in bigger cities every year and eager to become "true" residents there.

Desperate to get rid of the aura of small townsfolk and become integrated into city life, they have a greater willingness to dine in restaurants, shop in department stores, go to the gym and travel, facets of life familiar to native urban residents.

Just like other Chinese women, Su admires luxury brands. However, she cannot afford to buy brand products at present, so she opts for fake ones. She has a "Christian Dior" handbag that she bought because it is "well-designed, of good quality and was priced affordably".

"It is very common to buy these (fake brands). Using them won't embarrass me because all of my friends do the same," she said.

In addition to luxury goods, a passion for high-end brands is high as well in lower-tier cities, even for brands that have not entered those cities yet. For example, the famous convenience store chain 7-Eleven Inc has not entered Nanning yet, but a convenience store brand called 7-24, which resembles 7-Eleven in many respects, including its logo design and decoration, has been developed in the city and become highly popular.

"For luxury and high-end brands, the lower-tier markets are not as important as Beijing and Shanghai because the purchasing power there is relatively low. What's more, they believe that tapping into those markets will lower their brand image and dilute their value, which will lead to the loss of key customers." said Jeacy Yan, a partner of IDG Capital Partners, one of the first foreign investors to enter the China market in 1992.

However, people in those markets value and desire luxury brands, a fact that shows "a great purchasing potential for high-end brands", Yan noted.

But Su's case aside, there is ample evidence that urbanization in China is not always a story of hard toil and sweat repaid with good cash. Despite all the consumption potential shown by people like Su, surging housing prices overshadow and restrain it. In order to own a property of their own, many new city dwellers have to cut down on their daily expenditures. Su is one of them.

"My 2,900 yuan ($475.80) mortgage every month causes me much stress. I have to be careful about expenses because money is always tight," said Su, who earns between 4,000 to 5,000 yuan a month.

Like many Chinese, Su believes that owning a property is necessary because it delivers a sense of safety and it is generally a good investment because the value of real estate in China is rising in many places.

In 2006, Su' and her boyfriend spent 300,000 yuan together to buy a 130-square-meter apartment in Nanning. The price of the apartment soared by 233 percent to 700,000 yuan last year. She sold the apartment, using the money as a down payment for another home in a prime location in Nanning. Now, they have a 400,000 yuan mortgage.