Backup plans

Song said worsening levels of pollution and frequent food safety scares in China have made him determined to move his family out of the country sooner or later.

A 2012 survey jointly conducted by the Hurun Report and Bank of China showed that 46 percent of wealthy Chinese, whose net worth exceeded $1.6 million, were considering leaving China.

Moreover, that survey, together with a different study by China Merchants Bank Co and Bain & Co, suggests that wealthy Chinese are the most likely to emigrate. Concerns about pollution and food safety were also cited by respondents as major contributory factors in their decisions.

More-advanced, free healthcare systems, higher food safety standards and far better air quality that leads to a lower incidence of disease overseas are the main reasons prompting China's super rich to emigrate.

"The tougher competition among university applicants under the reforming Chinese education system and the difficulties graduates experience in finding jobs have forced parents to make backup plans to allow their children to study abroad," said Xie Baisan, director of the capital and financial market research center at Shanghai Fudan University.

To give their offspring a better chance of an overseas education, the wife of 39-year-old Shanghai businessman Zhao Xijun applied for a Canadian permanent residence permit by making a business investment in 2005, a year before giving birth to the couple's first son.

Zhao's second son was born in Shanghai in 2012 and has Canadian citizenship through his mother, but the family still lives in the city.

As the only member of the family still in possession of a Chinese passport, Zhao will run his clothing business from Shanghai for the next five to 10 years.

His 5-year-old son is studying at a kindergarten in a British international school in Shanghai, at an annual cost of 80,000 yuan in tuition fees.

"My sons will stay in Shanghai until they graduate from middle school. They will be sent to senior high school in Canada when they are fluent in both Chinese and English," said Zhao.

He added that he prefers to live and work in China, but that sending his children overseas to gain a better education is more important than his personal feelings.

So, according to Zhao's plan, while the children live and study together in Canada, he and his wife will stay in Shanghai to run their business, hoping to generate higher profits.

Meanwhile, Yang Changyi has never really questioned where his loyalties lie. He and his wife remain in Wenzhou because it's their "real" home, a city full of friends and relatives. "I've been living here for the past 50 years, close to my family and friends. I don't want to move out of the area and have to make new friends and get used to life in another city or country."