An old Chinese saying dating back to over 2,000 years says food is all-important to the people. But 20 centuries later, Chinese citizens are still grappling with several food safety concerns.
Wang Yang, a 46-year-old college teacher, clearly remembers the time he lived in a small apartment in the university. Similar to the college dormitories of today, there was usually only one shared kitchen and a toilet on the same floor. Such buildings, mostly built in the 1950s and 1960s, aimed to address the housing needs of staff.
The period between 2001 and 2010, amid China's continuously expanding economy with the GDP compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) reaching 15.4 percent, has attracted rising foreign direct investment (FDI). Over the past 10 years, China's FDI CAGR averaged 9.5 percent.
For many young college graduates before the 1990s, tongzilou was an important word in their vocabulary. It referred to the low-rise apartment buildings with long central corridors, communal toilets and cooking facilities at one end.