Natural disasters fuel demand for insurance cover

Zhang Li, a 35-year-old company executive in Ningbo, a coastal city in eastern China's Zhejiang province, is making a number of calls these days to find an adequate family property insurance policy.

In fact, what is different this time around is that Zhang is proactively contacting insurance companies whereas in the past she used to hang up on calls from insurance agents.

What led to the sea change are the torrential rains and floods that hit southern China during the end of June. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, floods have battered 12 provinces and resulted in direct economic losses of around 13 billion yuan as of July 5.