Zhou Yuanyan is becoming middle class – one ring road at ?a time. When she moved to ?Beijing as an 18-year-old from Inner Mongolia, she lived in a village on the capital’s sixth ring road, an hour and a half by bus to work. After starting out as a waitress she quickly switched to selling property.

“I increased my commission income quite a bit over the past three years, so we were able to move twice,” she says with a flash of pride, charting her progress to the fourth ring road and, eventually, the third.

Now 22, Ms Zhou lives with her mother in a small apartment about 40 minutes from the city centre. She makes between Rmb3,000 and Rmb6,000 a month ($455-$910), depending on commission, which puts her on the cusp of the middle class, according to a definition used by Boston Consulting Group. Her mother makes Rmb1,500 in a cleaning job. They spend Rmb2,000 on rent and save about Rmb1,800 a month.