Landlords of the Rings Push Urban Rents Higher

(Beijing) – A 26-year-old woman who moved to Beijing from a distant town for work could be a poster child for urban China's latest housing market phenomenon: skyrocketing rents.

The woman, surnamed Fang, said goodbye to Liaoning Province three years ago for a job that paid 2,400 yuan monthly and a one-room basement apartment on the Third Ring Road shared with a workmate that cost her 600 yuan a month.