Ni Lu takes things one step at a time. “It’s most realistic to set yourself targets for the next three or five years – longer periods of time you can’t control,” the Shanghai girl says.
Ms Ni’s short-to-medium term goals include working less, travelling a lot; finding a man to marry and having a baby.
With her ambitious agenda, the 24-year-old office worker at Shanda, an internet company, is an emblem of China’s young generation. Markedly different from their parents and grandparents, under-30s in the world’s most populous nation have grown up in a relatively stable society and experienced increasing, if modest, prosperity, so they have certain expectations.