Hot properties soar in the postal code education lottery

Parents are splashing out huge sums to purchase small apartments in areas that guarantee their children entry to the nation's best primary schools, as Zhang Yi reports.

Even by Beijing's jaw-dropping property standards, the asking price seemed stratospheric: 1.35 million yuan ($220,000) for little more than a 4.4 square meter box big enough to house a double bed, but nothing else.

The happy buyer who forked out way over the odds - 310,000 yuan per meter - for this tiny abode on Xinwenhua Street in Xicheng district doesn't even have access to a private toilet or kitchen.