China’s Rich are Young and Itching to Travel

China's new urban rich are:

1. younger

2. better educated

3. itching to travel

By 2015 China will have more than 8.5 million affluent households – defined as having an annual income of more than $25,000 according to

MasterCard.

The 25 million people in those households will have annual discretionary spending of $117 billion!

Two years ago, China already had 2.9 million such households with $18 billion to spend on other things besides life's necessities.

More than 67% of Chinese households with $16,000-50,000 in annual income were under 40 years old.

Of that group, 83% have a university education and 80% of them have already traveled abroad at least once in 2006.

The favorite destinations are Hong Kong and Macau. 

Europe and the United States are next.