Although well past noon, Lu, 43, has been awake just a couple of hours thanks to an online skin-care business that requires only a few hours of attention a day to earn him enough money to pay his mortgage and bills. Lu’s routine may not be typical of most residents of this quiet southwest Shanghai suburb, but his status as a home-owner is — the pin also indicative of China’s emerging middle class keen and savvy enough to protect its interests. "I think we needed to protect our legal rights in a rational way," Lu, the self-proclaimed organiser of the campaign, told AFP as he chain-smoked Davidoff brand camel online and sipped Coca-Cola. Like other residents at Green World apartments, Lu is content with his home, so when residents got wind of a government plan to extend the high-tech train through their neighbourhood, they took action. discount camel