<p>sentimentGX4 and BostonTW are equally ignorant of China. China has gone on urbanization for 2 decades, and boasts a middle class larger than almost the entire population of the U.S. Round-trip tickets to US are nothing compared to the cost of the overseas tour trips those people has annually. Considering the large income gap between the poor and rich and the low service cost in China, those riches in China actually have HUGE amount of cash to spare. If you know anything of east Asia, you should learn that the revival of Hong Kong economy and the hope of Taiwan’s sustained development have been depending on the agreements they signed with Mainland, i.e. the CEPA and ECFA.</p>
<p>All my relatives and friends told me after their trip to US that, everything sold in US stores is CHEAP. They bought a lot of shoes, watches, jewelry, and electronics to bring back to their homes, and say the savings from the purchases only would cover multiple round-trips between China and America.</p>
<p>Due to the vast population of China, your anecdotal story about how your family in Hong kong and canton, is not indicative of how the more educated Chinese think of US universities, especially when your stories are from many years ago. In highly educated circles of Chinese, people from Hongkong and Canton are hardly an intellectual force of China in its history, although they make some good money from trade and manufacture sectors. Most of students in China’s elite universities (top 50) are fully aware of the education system of the U.S., and can make sound decisions for themselves when they are going to invest huge amount of money in their future careers. They really don’t count on the hearsays from a few ABCs getting cheap in UCs any more. And that is a reason why USC recruits well in China.</p>