The stock market

The Shanghai Stock Exchange opens in 1990.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange opened in 1990 amid great excitement among investors. Like many young people, Jiang Qinghua was enticed by the prospect of trading in stocks, but there was a drawback; servicemen were not allowed to buy shares. So he resigned from the army, transferred to Nanjing No.3 People's Hospital, and opened stock exchange account. Being a prudent investor, Jiang invested one third of his savings in the stock market, one third in other financial products, and left one third in bank.

Jiang still logs on to the Internet every day to check the market. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses, but he never considers quitting. For him, playing the stock market has become a way of life. By 2007, there were nearly 70 million shareholders in China. Even the elderly began to spend their retirement playing the market.

Investment funds

In 1997, Jiang Qinghua started to invest in investment funds after new regulations standardized and regularized the funds industry.

In 2002, funds suffered a setback when 53 out of 54 closed-end funds and 13 out of 17 open-end funds suffered heavy losses.

But as more and more firms were quoted on the stock market, investors began to buy into funds. Attending sales pitches and lectures on investment funds became a middle class craze, and by September 2007, total funds assets had reached more than 3 trillion yuan.