Short answers, pulled from the story.
The China Family Panel Studies project began its work in April 2010. The Institute of Social Science Survey at Peking University launched the initiative to document changes across Chinese society.
Researchers excluded Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Hainan from the initial scope of the China Family Panel Studies survey. The goal was to capture data representing ninety-five percent of the total Chinese population.
Yu Xie served as a principal investigator affiliated with both Peking University and Princeton University. Zhang Xiaobo led research efforts from his position at Peking University while Tu Ping directed operations based at the Institute of Social Science Survey.
Researchers implemented Probability-Proportional-to-Size Sampling with implicit stratification for the study design of the China Family Panel Studies. Administrative units and socioeconomic status served as the main variables for grouping areas during the process.
The original target sample size reached sixteen thousand households for the China Family Panel Studies. Eight thousand households came from five independent sampling frames known as large provinces including Shanghai, Liaoning, Henan, Gansu, and Guangdong.