Tremendous changes have taken place in the lifestyle of the Chinese people in the past some 50 years, especially in the past two decades as average income has increased steadily. People today in China have money to buy or invest in houses and apartments, cars, computers, stocks and traveling abroad. China's GDP edged up from 7.4 trillion yuan in 1997 to 10.2 trillion yuan (about US$1.23 trillion) in 2002, with the per-capita GDP reaching US $1,000 in 2002.

The increase in residents' income is reflected in the growth of bank savings deposits. In the first 30 years of the second half of the last century, the balance of residents' savings deposits increased from 860 million yuan in 1952 to 21.06 billion yuan in 1978. In the 20 years after the initiation of reform and opening-up, the balance of residents' savings deposits has increased in a geometric progression. In the eight years between 1979 and 1986, the balance of the savings deposits increased by 11 times, reaching 223.85 billion yuan, which rose to 2,151.88 billion yuan in 1994. It means within the 16 years, the balance of the savings deposits increased by 101 times. Six years later, in 2000, the balance of residents' savings deposits increased to 6,433.24 billion yuan, or 305 times the 1978 figure; it reached 7,376.2 billion yuan in 2001, and 8,691.1 billion yuan in 2002.  Residents' foreign exchange deposits, stocks, bonds, internal stocks, and cash have all grown by a large margin.