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)

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)

A boat, center, is surrounded by Japan Cost Guard's patrol boats after some activists descended from the boat on Uotsuri Island, one of the islands of Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, in East China Sea Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. Regional tensions flared on the emotional anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender as activists from China and South Korea used Wednesday's occasion to press rival territorial claims, prompting 14 arrests by Japanese authorities. The 14 people had traveled by boat from Hong Kong to the disputed islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. (Photo by Yomiuri Shimbun/Masataka Morita/AP Photo)

People board a train at the West Railway Station on January 7, 2012 in Beijing, China. China's railways are bracing themselves as millions of migrant labourers are set to leave cities for their native villages to celebrate the Chinese New Year. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Graham Fink has been documenting the demolition sites of Shanghai for five years, trying to capture the state of flux during this period of rapid urbanisation. His Ballads of Shanghai exhibition is at London’s Riflemaker gallery until Sunday. Here: “Big Dreams”. (Photo by Graham Fink/Riflemaker)

A man rides a motorcycle along a street in the snow in Altay, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region, February 9, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Farmers work on a farm near a construction site of new residential buildings in Shanghai, China, February 20, 2016. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A picture made available on 30 March 2016 shows members of the anti-terror squad of the local paramilitary force have a training in Suining, in southwest Sichuan province, China, 29 March 2016. (Photo by Zhong Min/EPA)