People try to keep warm their hands by a heater as they wait for their seats outside a restaurant at an outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, Saturday, December 23, 2023. A cold wave began earlier in the week bringing extensive snowfall and freezing temperatures across China. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

Water vapour cascades down the Gold Buddha Mountain after a rainfall, drawing large crowds of visitors, on May 13, 2024 in Chongqing, China. (Photo by Qu Mingbin/VCG via Getty Images)

A woman dressed in traditional clothing visits a business street in Beijing on June 5, 2024. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

An applicant try-out during a stewardess recruiting interview for China Southern Airlines on October 12, 2006 in Beijing, China. Over 160 candidates have competed at the Beijing Region selection for a total of 15 berths in the next stage of recruitment. The China Southern Airlines launched a nationwide campaign to single out qualified stewardesses, the first of its kind to recruit stewardesses through TV shows. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Some are in it just for the money, others to help buy a meal. Then there are those who trade for fun or to spend time among friends. Millions of investors – pensioners, security guards, high-school students – dominate China's stock markets, conducting about 80 percent of all trades. Retirees gather in brokerage houses dotted around China also to enjoy some company and savour the air conditioning on hot days. Some start as young as 13, trading from home with an eye on future careers in finance. Winning isn't guaranteed. This year, among the most turbulent in China's financial history, its stock markets more than doubled in the six months to May, only to crash amid concerns that growth in the country, which makes everything from cars to steel, is slowing faster than previously thought. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

People dodge waves in Sansha Township of Xiapu, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 10, 2015. China is on highest alert as super typhoon Chan-Hom approaches the eastern coast at high speeds. The National Meteorological Center issued a red alert on Friday morning for Chan-Hom, whose center was spotted 550 km southeast off the coast of Zhejiang Province at 5 a.m. (Photo by Jiang Kehong/Xinhua)

A Uyghur boy sits atop a horse as he has his picture taken outside the Id Kah Mosque before the Eid holiday on July 28, 2014 in old Kashgar, Xinjiang Province, China. Nearly 100 people have been killed in unrest in the restive Xinjiang Province in the last week in what authorities say is terrorism but advocacy groups claim is a result of a government crackdown to silence opposition to its policies. China's Muslim Uyghur ethnic group faces cultural and religious restrictions by the Chinese government. Beijing says it is investing heavily in the Xinjiang region but Uyghurs are increasingly dissatisfied with the influx of Han Chinese and uneven economic development. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A student uses a ruler to measure the distance between forks before a formal dinner at The International Butler Academy China on September 16, 2014 in Chengdu, China. Over the last several years, there has been a surge in demand among China's wealthy for Western-trained butlers, with many academies seeing large portions of their graduating classes hired by Chinese families or companies. (Photo by Taylor Weidman/Getty Images)