BEIJING -- Real estate prices are surging throughout China despite controls put in place to ward off a property bubble. Smaller cities taking advantage of loopholes are leading the upswing.
Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, last year instituted rules that let college students file the city as their place of household registry under China's tightly controlled system. Students can use that status to buy property in the city with their parents, as one student admitted.