From the People's Daily app.

And this is Story in the Story.

Commercial insurance, a relatively mature industry in Western countries, is now mushrooming in the emerging Chinese market. Unlike older generations who were cautious about insurance, millennials in China are fueling the market.

The average price of insurance products purchased by post-1990s customers was $322 in 2017, a quadruple increase from 2015, according to financial information provider jrj.com.

Total insurance premiums collected by online insurance providers in China will amount to 430.2 billion yuan in 2019, according to calculations from CIConsulting, a Shenzhen-based market research firm.

About 46 percent of middle-income consumers invested in life insurance and medical insurance products, up 8 percentage points from 2017.

There are about 200 million middle and high-income consumers in China and that number will exceed 500 million by 2022, indicating significant room for industry growth. 

Today's Story in the Story looks at China's burgeoning insurance sector and how younger Chinese are fueling an industry their parents and grandparents practically ignored.

Dawn breaks over Lujiazui Financial District in Shanghai on March 7, 2017. (Photo: VCG) 

When an insurance company salesman cold-called Liu Zhenqi for the first time, she didn't take him seriously. Days later, when the same salesman called her again, the 25-year-old woman was swayed.

Eventually, Liu agreed to meet him at a cafe in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, where she signed a contract for critical illness and accident insurance for $1,700 annually.

"I felt that it was time to buy myself commercial insurance," Liu said.

Liu recalled her family's reaction after she bought an insurance policy. "They could hardly understand it," she said, adding, "my grandma and my father asked, 'Don't you already have social medical insurance? Why would you buy another one?'"

She explained to them that commercial insurance covers a wider variety of diseases and offers more payment. "Social insurance is far from enough for serious diseases," Liu said. Her new critical illness insurance plan offers her roughly $50,000 should she fall seriously ill.

Which, unfortunately, is a strong possibility for Liu's generation. News about millennial Chinese suffering from serious diseases than previous generations have made the rounds on social media, causing many to worry about their health and wellness even when they are healthy. 

Among the top 10 cities with the highest risk awareness, four of them are from the Yangtze River Delta region, including Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, Shanghai, Hefei in Anhui Province and Wuxi in Jiangsu Province.

Shanghai resident Liu Jiayu, a 32-year-old woman, spends over $10,000 dollars annually on health insurance for her husband and their 5-year-old daughter.

Liu's husband, the primary financial contributor of her family, works at a start-up company that offers very little insurance. She purchased critical illness and accident insurance plans for him to help them prepare for potential future risks.

Young people are more interested in buying insurance for themselves and their family. (Photo: VCG)

One insurance agent said more than 60 percent of his clients are 20- and 30-somethings.

Based in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province, the agent works with five domestic and international commercial insurance companies, spending his days introducing them to potential buyers.

"I do find that young people are more interested in insurance than the older generations," he said, explaining that every week he receives calls from curious millennials asking about insurance plans.

"Most middle-aged and old people, by contrast, are very difficult to be persuaded," he added. "I once suggested to my mother that she buy critical illness insurance, but she rejected the idea without hesitation. She thinks that commercial insurance is useless."

Lydia Liu, an employee at an international insurance company's Shanghai branch, said that the older Chinese generations are more irresolute when it comes to buying insurance.

"It may take several weeks or even months for them to make a decision," Liu said. "Meanwhile, my millennial clients will sign a deal over a cup of coffee."

One negative to emerge as a result of the rising insurance industry is fraud. And many new clients are questioning whether their costly insurance plans are reliable enough to provide a helping hand if and when it is needed.

Lydia and Zhenqi both admitted their insurance contracts are too complicated for them to understand. "Sometimes I ask my agent to explain the clauses to me, but I forget them after a while," Zhenqi said.

The only way to avoid being swindled is to choose the most renowned insurance companies. Her own plans were bought from a leading domestic insurer, which is also on the Fortune-500 list. 

Lydia Liu suggests that prospective customers try not to gain small advantages when choosing an insurance plan.

"If two insurers offer similar products with $45,000 dollars in coverage, and one costs $1,600 dollars while the other is only $500 dollars, customers should be aware of the possible tricks behind the cheaper one," she illustrated.

"After all, commercial insurance companies are not charity groups," Liu said, “there is no such thing as a free lunch." 

(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Lance Crayon, Brian Lowe, and Da Hang. Music by: bensound.com. Text from Global Times and China Daily.)