Deep inside China, near coal mines, factories, and farmland, entrepreneurs are building the country's next growth engine. (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS REPORTER, JANE LANHEE LEE, SAYING: "This is Ruzhou - a city serving about a million people in and around it. It's in Henan a province right in the middle of China known for being poor and for supplying a bulk of China's migrant workers." But what's really surprising is how all the way out here, things are starting to feel like China's other big cities. Ambitious young migrant workers are coming back from big cities like Shanghai and Beijing to start up businesses closer to home - riding a rising tide of consumer spending. Meet Yu Pengfei. After seven years on the factory floor a chance encounter landed him a job in a wine company. In 2009, he came back to open Ruzhou's first wine shop. Yu holds a wine tasting every week. His shop's club already has 150 members, and now he's got plenty of competition. Gao Zhepeng. He was an editor at one of China's biggest Internet portals and decided Ruzhou needed its own. (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FOUNDER OF RUZHOU ONLINE, GAO ZHEPENG, SAYING: "I came back here with all the knowledge I picked up in Beijing - new information, new perspective on the internet - as well as a broader way of thinking." Launched in 2009, the portal is now the city's biggest with thousands of visitors each day. And Song Erjuan. After cutting her teeth as a saleswoman in the big city, she opened two clothing boutiques. The most expensive jacket goes for about 100 U.S. dollars - that's well over half of what the average worker here makes in a month. (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CLOTHING SHOP OWNER, SONG ERJUAN, SAYING: "That's not expensive. You think that's expensive? It sells pretty well. Our shoppers here in Ruzhou are doing pretty good." So what's fueling the boom times in small cities like Ruzhou? Retail consultant James Sinclair. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MANAGING PARTNER, INTERCHINA, JAMES SINCLAIR, SAYING: "In addition to salaries, you've got investment income, stocks and shares from property. You also have one-off windfalls that are coming from urbanization - compensation payouts for relocation. And this is all aggregating." Big brands have caught on and are building up fast in small cities as China's next generation of consumers gets ready to show its spending power. ENDS