Wu Rongtao (left) and his wife overlook the scene of the residential area on the
balcony of their new home on June 27, 2002. The popularization rate of colour TV
sets and refrigerators in China exceeded 90 percent in more than 20 years of reform
and opening. Cars and houses have now become new items of consumption for the
Chinese people in the new century.

Xinhua Photo by Zhang Guojun