It turns out that there is no inflation in China, it is just that big cities cannot feel it

I have been back to Taiwan twice this year. I can clearly feel that the prices in Taiwan have risen a lot. From the breakfast shop to the beverage shop, there is no exception. This year, due to the energy crisis and frequent black swan incidents, almost all countries are facing Inflationary pressure.

Except - China?

There is a question mark behind it because the Chinese government only announced this year’s inflation rate in early December. Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China, pointed out that China’s current inflation rate is about 2%, compared to Taiwan’s 3% (some scholars believe that the real data should be 4-5%), 5% in South Korea, and 7.1% in the United States, which are indeed relatively small.

I myself live in China's new first-tier cities and have not felt obvious price increases, except for a while last year, Heytea and Naixue ( a relatively high-end hand-cranked beverage brand in China ) have raised their prices to 30 RMB ( full text prices below) All are above RMB ), but this year, they have developed an affordable hand-cranked drink brand with the same mind, with a 40% discount on the price, and jointly "volume" to the consumption downgrade market.

It wasn't until I recently had the opportunity to leave Zhejiang for a long-distance trip to other provinces that I realized how naive I was.

Restaurant prices are almost as high as first-tier cities

It turns out that China's inflationary pressure has spilled over into the remote areas, while the vast majority of people living in first-tier cities are still enjoying cheap labor costs, high-quality and cheap commodities, and out-of-the-box food.

For example, as soon as I left Guangdong and entered Guangxi and Yunnan, I immediately felt a significant price gap.

A plate of fried pork with chili is about 20 to 25 yuan in Hangzhou, but it can be sold for 40 yuan in Honghe, Yunnan (Southern Yunnan). This is completely beyond the price of Beijing and Shanghai. Is this fried fairy meat? When I checked out, I was stunned and thought that I was cheated as a foreigner, so I went to find the boss to argue, but the boss took out his purchase order and showed me his pork purchase price, which was 30 yuan per catty, and I immediately fell silent. Firstly, it’s because the pork in Hangzhou is only 23 yuan per catty, and secondly, it’s because the meat on my plate really doesn’t cost a catty! Your chili peppers are also so expensive?

Another time we had a light meal in an unnamed small town on the side of a township road in Guangxi, and waited for the car to be charged. What is the concept of that small town? You can walk 500 meters, and there is only one road in the whole town. There are more than a dozen shops and snack bars along the road.

After nine o’clock in the evening, we walked into a snack bar with no one there. The name is still fresh in my memory. It’s called "Mengjie Snack Bar". We ordered a plate of fried rice and a plate of fried instant noodles. The price on the menu was 15 to 20 yuan (as for why the price is floating, let me explain later), how unpalatable the fried rice and fried noodles are, and how poor the ingredients are I won't say much, the explanation in one sentence is: in a bowl, half red, one green and nine white. But we were so hungry that we couldn't control so much, let's eat first, let alone take pictures.

The most classic is when the checkout, the boss offers 20 yuan a piece.

I was stunned at the moment, and subconsciously asked her:

"You wrote 15 to 20 for the price, why did you charge 20 instead of 15?"

Sister Meng was very calm, gave me a big smile like the warm winter sun and said:

"Because I fried 20."

The words revealed the confidence of a super chef. Could it be that Sister Meng learned from Sichuan Abbe? Am I narrow-minded?

"You speculated for 20, so who speculated for 15?"

I can't believe it, it turns out that the snack bar has the same division of designers, senior designers and design directors as the hairdressing salon?

"I fried it for 20 yuan."

Sister Meng once again confidently, firmly and slowly gave the same answer.

Gan Nan and I exchanged glances, defeated by the confidence of Guangxi super chef Meng Jie, obediently paid 40 yuan.

What is the concept of eating an ordinary fried rice for 20 yuan in China? It is not expensive in first-tier cities, it can be said to be a normal price, but please note that this is the price of first-tier cities, and this is just a town that is not known how many rings away. There is no discrimination, but the income level of this place is really good. Support this price?

I have encountered such examples countless times along the way in Guangxi and Yunnan, including 40 yuan a catty of chicken in Yunnan Nujiang, 80 yuan a takeaway fish (few ingredients are unpalatable), and a bowl of 5 yuan rice in Shangri-La (Note: Hangzhou The official price of a bowl of rice is 2 yuan) and it doesn't scare me anymore.

Before entering Guangxi and Yunnan, in Fujian and Guangdong, the provinces with the highest GDP and consumption levels in China, it is completely reasonable for prices to be comparable to or surpass those of Hangzhou, but Guangxi and Yunnan? What is it expensive? Excuse me?

Pay special attention to the price I am talking about here is not the price of the scenic spot. I usually turn a blind eye to the price in the scenic spot and don't pay much attention to it. I’m talking about small roadside shops that locals go to eat without a sign. They can’t even be found on Dianping. They are usually dimly lit and undecorated, and they sell simple fast food such as noodles and rice. Snacks, no tourists and no local specialties.

Moreover, this phenomenon does not only occur in inland provinces. I have also seen price hikes in counties in coastal provinces. Prices in small counties are not much cheaper than in big cities. A meal outside does not cost 200 or 300 yuan. Nothing. The prices in local supermarkets are not even as cheap as online fresh food shopping in big cities, and the delivery fees for takeaways are also unambiguous. There are not as many key food choices as in big cities. In the past two years, many young people in China have fled the big cities and returned to small counties to "lay flat". I really want to ask, the income of the county is not as high as that of the big cities, and the living prices are generally or even more expensive. Apart from the obvious advantages of housing prices, they go back Is it really lying down or "waiting to die"? This is not irony, I am really confused about how people living in the county should save money and live?

Is it really easier to save money in big cities than in small places?

For this reason, I specifically checked the comparison of per capita disposable income and consumption levels in Yunnan Province and Hangzhou City.

In the first quarter of 2022, the per capita disposable income of Yunnan residents was 6,810 yuan, and the per capita consumption expenditure was 4,887 yuan; the per capita disposable income of Hangzhou residents was 21,958 yuan, and the per capita consumption expenditure of urban permanent residents in the city was 12,397 yuan.

This means that Yunnan people’s daily consumption accounts for 70% of their income, while Hangzhou accounts for about 56%. Yunnan people can only save 3 yuan for every 10 yuan income, while Hangzhou people can save about 4.4 yuan.

Don't you think it's unreasonable no matter how you look at it?

It is true that big cities have high incomes, but theoretically the level of consumption is also relatively high. Otherwise, why have so many young people in Beidiao complained that they could not save money in the past two years and would rather go back to their hometowns to make a living? But the fact is that the daily consumer prices in big cities are not much higher than those in county towns. The "daily consumer prices" mentioned here refer to firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea, not high-end restaurants or luxury brands, which are what are needed for basic survival. Consumption of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in November this year, China's food prices rose by 3.7% year-on-year, 1.9% in Beijing, 3.7% in Shenzhen, and 3.5% in Hangzhou. The food prices in the three major cities were all lower than the national level; As far as county towns, such as Anji County in Zhejiang Province, food prices rose 4.2 percent in November, and 4.3 percent in the inland province of Yunnan, both higher than the national average.

I'm not sure if there is any way to explain that the price increase in big cities is less than that in small places, but I have walked through large and small cities in China, and I can really feel that the prices in small places are really not "smaller" than big cities at all. As soon as I returned to Hangzhou from the trip, I immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "I can finally feel the normal price again!" Finally, most of the takeaways are free of delivery fees, and the price of fast food should be between 20-25 yuan. This is what we are everyday.

But when I think of the lovely people I met along the way, I can’t help but think about them self-righteously. Did they bear the greatest inflationary pressure for us? Why are people in small places the first to feel the rise in prices? Is it because the population base there is small and the people are more silent and docile, so can they be sacrificed first? If the big cities are the first to rise in prices if they change places today, then countless migrant workers in the big cities will face brutal pressure to survive, unable to repay their mortgages or rent, so what should they do?

In this era where even adding an egg has to be haggled over and over again, big cities and small towns all share the same joys and sorrows, and the "urban-rural balance" has been unexpectedly achieved.