The economic crisis has people returning once again to the virtues of frugality, and in 2009, all of China has been struck with a “tornado of practicing thrift”. According to the 2009 Prime Time Report of City Life – Survey done in June in the 10 top-tier cities across China, city dwellers of different regions are found to vary in degrees of practicing frugality, with Beijing's "cheapskates" placing third in the opinions of those surveyed.

Shanghai, China

According to the survey done, when asked which dwellers of the 10 cities were the most thrifty and frugal in their opinion, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing took first, second, and third place respectively. Shanghai took the crown, mentioned by more than 40.1% of those surveyed as being the most impressively frugal, with Guangzhou and Beijing falling short by more than 30 percent. Also, Shanghai residents themselves placed a high regard for their “cheapskate” practices; almost 70% of those interviewed in Shanghai, thought that the Shanghainese were the most frugal and thrifty when it comes to counting heads and figures in finances – the most out of all those interviewed in self-assessments of frugality. Another thing to note is that out of the 10 top-tier cities surveyed, degrees of “frugality” decrease in consecutive order in the list of the following cities: Chengdu, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Dalian, Nanjing, and Harbin.

When it comes to self-assessments of frugal practices, there is an obvious trend of southern city dwellers placing a conscious value on their thrifty practices, much more so than those to the north do– with Wuhan residents taking the crown in self-assessed frugality, out-assessing even the 'most frugal' Shanghainese. The third and fourth places in self-assessments go to Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with Beijing dwellers coming in fifth.

Analysts say that aside from regional differences of habit and culture, the result of the survey is in accordance with the cost of living as it pans out in the cities surveyed – Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are the three top-tier cities in the country with costs of living above all the others; in face with the financial crisis, city dwellers look to rein in expenses and practice frugality, as is the reasonable way to go about coping.

Being a “cheapskate” doesn't necessarily entail a drop in the living quality for most residents of cities, they are just cutting back on the luxury spending. According to this survey, over half of those interviewed said that they would mostly cut back on luxury spending: cut back on travel (45.3%), cut back on dining out (43.8%), cut back on entertainment (39.6%) and even make cutbacks to dietary supplements (38.1%).

Read the original in Chinese here

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