90 percent Chinese middle class over-fatigued

BEIJING - Nearly 90 percent of middle-class people in China are under “great pressure” and “do not feel good” about their health, a latest survey has said.

Around 88.9 percent of the people said they were “over-fatigued”, and 53.3 percent said they were not satisfied with their physical and mental conditions, the study said.

The study, conducted jointly by Xiaokang magazine and Tsinghua University, said China’s “high housing price is swallowing middle-class people’s fortune and causing great pressure that overtaxes their body”.

The respondents in the survey consisted of civil servants and white-collar workers in the city. More than 80 percent of them had a monthly income of more than 3,000 yuan ($440).

“If the soaring housing price cannot be curbed effectively, China’s middle class may collapse,” Tang Jun, a sociologist with the China Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

At least 60 percent said their pressure was mainly about buying a house and paying mortgage loans, the survey said.

While more than 60 percent said they were sacrificing their health for money, 16.1 percent said they can accept this deal and 45.4 percent said though they don’t want to accept this deal they have no other choice, according to the survey.