![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/china-must-rethink-its-reliance-on-property-sales-to-see-real-growth/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/130310875_unfinishedbuilding3.jpg&description=Image source, Joyce Liu/BBC Image caption, Zibo's outdoor barbecues provide tasty, affordable, food The small eastern city of Zibo in Shandong province is experiencing an outdoor barbecue craze. People from all over China are coming here to taste its lamb skewers, which have become legendary via social media. It's quite a raucous experience and certainly not for the faint-hearted. The street is packed, you sit on little plastic chairs, drink beer and wrap chunks of meat with spring onion on the local flatbread while karaoke songs pump out in all directions. On the face of it, these crowds appear to show an economy rebounding strongly from the coronavirus emergency - but according to economists that's not the case. Rather, they say, this is an example of people choosing a cheap, tasty, option at a time of great pressure on household incomes. Image source, Joyce Liu/BBC Image caption, Zibo attracts people from all over China, who come for the lamb skewers and karaoke A man sitting with his shirt off tells us this is the perfect spot to enjoy a hot summer night with his family, and that this type of fun has a price tag to match the moment. "This place is great for ordinary people," he says. "Recently, it's been hard to make money but still easy to spend it. After three years of Covid, the economy is only slowly recovering." University graduates are being hit especially hard by China's economic doldrums, with youth unemployment hovering at or above 20%. Some students are feeling nervous about their futures. "Yes, I'm worried," says one woman who'll soon graduate. "There's a lot of competition. It's hard to find a job. All my classmates feel the same pressure." For those who have jobs, a big reason for their reluctance to spend big is economic security. They're concerned about the potential to join the ranks of the unemployed, and their household's largest single investment is, in many cases, no longer worth what they thought it would be. The real estate sector is under){kind=link}
The small eastern city of Zibo in Shandong province is experiencing an outdoor barbecue craze.
People from all over China are coming here to taste its lamb skewers, which have become legendary via social media.
It’s quite a raucous experience and certainly not for the faint-hearted.
The street is packed, you sit on little plastic chairs, drink beer and wrap chunks of meat with spring onion on the local flatbread while karaoke songs pump out in all directions.
On the face of it, these crowds appear to show an economy rebounding strongly from the coronavirus emergency – but according to economists that’s not the case.