Yes it's something we think of as key. They also have very busy Uniqlos and Ikeas (if you wanted to get nitpicky those might be thought of as a bit upper middle

Yes it's something we think of as key. They also have very busy Uniqlos and Ikeas (if you wanted to get nitpicky those might be thought of as a bit upper middle class there, but then you could look to Taobao or all the local brands). And the fact is that those cities are hugely populous and all those shops are doing a roaring trade. I'd say the diagram in the article looks pretty on the money in terms of rapid growth of middle class. It's not as big as in, say, Germany of course but it's definitely there and looking very healthy. There doesn't appear to be _significantly_ greater poverty in the streets than in NY, LA, or SF. There is clearly disparity as you might expect in a turbulent emerging economy - the levels aren't too obviously dissimilar to much of the US or UK and visibly greater than western Europe and Nordics. Shanghai already makes many major Western cities look like a backwater.