Results tagged “bubble”

How should a government combat runaway inflation? Most sensible economists would suggest a series of tightening monetary and fiscal policies to realign the aggregate supply demand picture. Well, China has raised interest rate four times this year, twice last month, to no avail. Prices, at both the producer and retail levels continue to bubble up, as do asset prices, such as the real estate and the equity market.

The People's Congress is expected to pass an Anti-Trust legislation today, the first of its kind in China, and one, 13 years in the making. For those that are law buffs, Fortune has a nice article here, with some in-depth analysis. We, not exactly students of jurisprudence, have only one question in mind. Will the powers that be stop China Mobile from charging us extortionist rates? Where are our free "night and weekend" minutes? Where are our free "in network calling"? Ok, that's more like three questions.

Nevertheless, according to Reuters Estimates:

ICBC’s share price on Monday valued it at 28 times analysts’ forecasts for its earnings per share in 2007, far above 11 times for Citigroup and an average of 16 times for major global banks.

We're sure that you're all sick and tired of hearing about the Chinese stock market, but since we're struggling bloggers, we get vicarious thrills by talking about things that people with money do. Stocks in China took a slight tumble on Friday, amid more concerns that stock capital gains taxes were in the works. Everyone is still debating whether or not the stock market is a bubble or not, but some analysts say that whatever market corrections come won't have a hugely deleterious effect on the economy either in China or abroad.



  • "Xupu Bridge's 240 suspension cables are to have a large-scale renovation to make the bridge safer and more beautiful prior to the opening of World Expo 2010, the Shanghai Engineering Administrative Bureau has said." If no Expo, safety not an issue.




  • "The list of potentially deadly products reaching the United States from China continued to grow Thursday, as an importer recalled frozen fish that may be tainted with a lethal toxin ..." Good thing we don't eat Chinese exports here in Shanghai!




  • "Around the lake, several specific zones will be built such as one for vegetable picking, a rare vegetable exhibition room, a vegetable and fruit bar and children's world, the report said." We have marked our calendars.




  • "But we don’t see any compelling parallels of doom at this time. China’s yuan is not in deflationary territory, like the dollar was in the late ‘90s, which helped cause the tech boom & bust."




  • "Shanghai's food and drug watchdog has ordered a city-wide recall of all drugs made by three local companies who are not registered drug makers, the Labor Daily reported today."




  • "A Taiwanese blogger named Sen Lin (森林) has written a tongue-in-cheek defence of Shijingshan Amusement Park. The piece is facetious, but sounds exactly like ostensibly serious arguments you hear in China every day."




  • "A program will train restaurant operators how to set up no-smoking areas for the sake of people's health, the Shanghai Association on Smoking Control said yesterday." We want a Shanghai Association on Smoking Control T-shirt.




  • "The article then trots out the bromide that 'China may look innovative...but observers say it's got a long way to go.' It then quotes (misquotes?) Andy Rothman at CLSA-Asia Pacific Markets, as saying 'there isn’t a single innovative Chinese company.”




  • "The Yunnan provincial government has announced that there will be 'absolutely' no dams built and no mines opened in the Three Parallel Rivers area, one of the World Natural Heritage sites listed by the UNESCO."




  • "Coca Cola ... has launched a program to give 100,000 sets of playing cards with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria prevention knowledge to Chinese migrant workers. The poker cards will be handed out at railway stations and construction sites..." Smart cards.


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    Photo by Swiss James found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.

    We stumbled upon what must be one of Shanghai's cheapest juice bars last night. It's called Super Sonic Bar and it's located in the basement of the Pacific Shopping Center (tai ping yang bai huo or 太平洋百货) on Huaihai Lu, easily accessible from the Huangpi Nan Lu metro stop on Line No. 1. They have lots to choose from — including non juice items like bubble tea — and the most expensive thing on the menu in 15 kuai. We had an OJ for that price in a decent sized cup (see photo) and it was good. You can watch the juices being made, too, so you know they aren't throwing in anything strange. We are regulars at the Huangpi Lu station and we foresee ourselves becoming regulars at Super Sonic, too — not only because summer is upon us, but because we like to buy juice from shops named after J.J. Fad songs.



  • "...the February surge was caused by exporters shipping goods early to beat an expected change in taxes, leaving less to ship in March."




  • "Mak was convicted on two counts of attempting to send sensitive material to China, acting as a foreign agent without notifying the US government and making false statements to federal agents."




  • "The serious accidents should be taken as 'lessons that have come at the cost of blood and lives,'"




  • "A stock-market bubble has been building rapidly,... The risk is getting higher that it will burst".




  • "China may face a shortage in its work force in two years time because the amount of surplus labor will not be as great as has been estimated"




  • "Finding and retaining good personnel was ranked the second- most difficult aspect of the Chinese banking industry by the 40 foreign banks polled, behind regulation."




  • "...deposits for land bidding can now not only be paid with RMB, but also US dollars, Hong Kong dollars, Japanese yen and euros, payable to the municipal land bureau. This was not the case in the past."




  • "A Chinese government spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, told reporters that Yasukuni was an “important and sensitive political issue” and asked Japan to “strictly abide” by its pledges to cooperate with China."




  • "China should give priority to a manned space flight, lunar exploration, new launch vehicle, high-resolution earth observation"




  • "The authorities declared this case domestic despite Cho's legal status as a Korean citizen, while the media plastered the front pages citing "Korean" as his national origin."




  • "The dogs will first receive tranquilizers to keep them calm before they are injected with a special medicine..."




  • "the rehabilitation effort for the Songhua River, one of the most heavily polluted rivers in the country, would remain in effect for 10 years"




  • "The water that leaves the plant will still not be drinkable, however, and the city will still have a long way to go before all of its river discharges are properly treated"




  • "... tests to determine if the (Chinese) disease is porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, a viral disease... it is the costliest virus for swine herds in the United States."



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    Photo by Christian Wind found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.



  • "Cancer topped the list of ten most lethal diseases for urban residents in China last year, followed by cerebrovascular disease and heart disease..."




  • Bill Dodson writes... "That Freeman could be so comfortable in Suzhou says as much about being an expat in China as it does about Suzhou."




  • "... over the past few years there have been several stories detailing the efforts of Liu Dan and his colleagues to reintroduce tigers into the wild. But this latest interview exposes the Harbin park as a fraud."




  • "A stronger yuan will push up real estate sales as more foreign investors buy houses in China to bet on further yuan appreciation,... Banks also benefit from a booming property market.''




  • "the total retail sales of consumer goods in the country totaled 3.2 trillion yuan in the golden week from the May 1 to May 23 this year, up 15.5% over the same period last year."




  • "there are other, less rational reasons to disregard the advice of China’s top economic officials and stop worrying about the bubble: some people just like to gamble."




  • "At least one of the cemeteries hit by the thieves simply paid up and failed to report the crime, apparently out of fear of offending the relatives of the person whose ashes were stolen."




  • "The house movers used to make a good profit about three years ago with a booming market in this business," said Wu. "The illegal operators are having an adverse effect."




  • "Officials said the fish could seriously harm aquatic creatures if it is allowed to breed in open water..."




  • "Teenagers under the age of 18 made up nearly 80 percent of the abortion patients during the holidays and some girls may even have been having their second operations in months,"




  • "Neighboring residents said the water rose to ankle level and left some of their clothes soaked and floors covered in mud..."



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    Photo by jules_shanghai found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.



  • "But four years after she retired at 26 with nothing but an elementary school education and a body crippled by sports injuries, the former marathon champion says she has been duped."




  • "Beijing's waterways suffer from severe pollution. But even if they did not, the residents of the capital might present an even greater threat, writes Dongting Lu."




  • "The report shows that the price of second hand houses in most large cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hangzhou soared in 2006 while the renting price were stable."




  • "China’s aggressive posture was on display this week at a UN meeting on climate change in Bangkok, when Beijing’s representatives tried to ensure the conference communiqué specifically blamed industrialised nations for global warming."




  • "A police officer with the Dalian Railroad Department fired five shots to kill a family of three who had showed up to demand compensation. The local government and publicity department censored all news."




  • "Gym staff recognized Freeman immediately from his photo posted on the Department of Justice Web site; computer records showed he registered under the name John Freeman and listed a Suzhou cellphone number as a contact."




  • "Hong Kong's commissioner for transport Robert Footman refused to allow the number plate Zestra because it is the name of a feminine arousal oil used widely in the city of 6.9 million."




  • "In fairness, much of the mainstream Chinese press refrained from using the April 16 tragedy as a vehicle to criticize the United States."




  • "Posters telling travelers how to behave appear in almost every train station, bus stop, hotel and scenic spot. 'We are treated like little kids,' Luan said."




  • "It is not forgotten any more, thanks to a band of internet campaigners who have exposed the shameful truth: the schoolchildren perished because they were ordered to sit down in their theatre seats so that Communist party officials could leave first."




  • "China's smog-choked capital and the financial hub of Shanghai have agreed to close their roads for the country's first "no car" day, along with over 100 other cities." Mark Sept. 22 on your calendars.




  • "Local media report that Google (GOOG) China will make a major adjustment on its regional functions and move its marketing headquarters and client service department from Beijing to Shanghai and its engineering institute from Shanghai to Beijing."




  • "... China’s total power generating capacity doubled to 700 gigawatts! The fruits of those efforts are now dazzlingly manifest: by the end of next year, China will have an electricity surplus. Shanghai will once more be a ‘switched-on city’."




  • "Police found a body in Xinkaihe watercourse on Friday. It was later identified as a driver surnamed Shen, who had been missing since April 15. The three suspects ... stole Shen's motorcycle, phone and cash, and then forced him to jump into the water."




  • "Citing unnamed sources briefed on the talks, the New York Times reported Saturday that preliminary exchanges have started and that league officials would prefer the arch-rival New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox to be the teams going to Asia."




  • "China's top family planning body has warned that the world's most populous country could face a "population rebound" because the newly rich are ignoring population control laws and because of early marriages in rural areas, state media said Monday."




  • "China's State Council Work Safety Committee issued an urgent circular on Sunday, requiring the transportation, chemical and mining sectors to take strict precautions against serious accidents."




  • "While many say it's an unworkable plan, the country is seeking a more sophisticated approach to recycling."




  • "The sequel approach to Shanghai’s resurgence is certainly seductive ... and it captures some aspects of what is going on. But the Shanghai-is-back-as-a-Paris-of-the-East line can obscure some key contrasts between past and present."




  • "The fitment expense accounts for 42.16 percent, goods for a new house take up over 18 percent, wedding cost 19.70 percent, other expenses like wedding clothing, the honeymoon travel account for about 15 percent."




  • "Sydney FC are on course to attract their biggest attendance of the Asian Champions League campaign - and perhaps their biggest home crowd in 15 months - at next Wednesday night's must-win match at Aussie Stadium."


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    Photo by Mike Chen found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.

    ChinaTechNews.com directed us to this press release about a publicly traded company named Admax Resources, Inc., and why it is changing its name to China YouTV Corp. The reason is simple, really: Admax has decided to follow the well worn path many companies take — the one where they go from mining minerals in Canada to online video sharing in China.

    Are you in the Chinese stock market? We're guessing the answer is no for most of you — by law, only Chinese nationals are allowed to purchase A Shares traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. Well, sucks to be you (and us). We're missing out on a get-rich-quick opportunity of a lifetime, as millions of Chinese are swept up in stock trading mania. The International Herald Tribune reports:

    Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.

    It's good to know the good members of the Shanghai police force are rolling up their sleeves and hitting the mean streets in an effort to protect us from all the ills of modern China ... like shops that sell bubble tea. From the Associated Press:

    And at least one person (a former editor of the magazine) hates it:

    Moon River looks like a diner. It feels like a diner. And, most importantly, it tastes like a diner. The people behind this place got the details right -- the black and white tile floors, the red swivel-top stools and even the colorful curly straws. And we love the huge retro neon sign out front -- it's perfect. They've even got a jukebox (the same one they had out in Gubei) but it no longer works, and -- we just learned this -- did you know jukeboxes are technically illegal in China? An old Cultural Revolution law that never came off the books, we were told.

    Shanghaiist Reads returns—to the delight of some, to the dismay of others—with a blow-by-blow markup of the Oct. 20, 2006 issue of SH. Get your highlighters out, kiddies:

    Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash.

    If you don't think the "everyone born in a certain year is the same" philosophy is a crock of shit and you live your life by the rules of readings of the stars done by people who don't have real jobs, then read on.

    Photo of the JW Marriott in Shanghai.

    The economy expanded by 12 percent per year since 1990, house prices rose to 55 times the level of average annual disposable salaries, and more skyscrapers were built in Shanghai than in New York. A 100-square-metre new apartment costs an average of 914,000 yuan ($112,800 US), according to the Shanghai Real Estate Exchange.

    Shanghai's building boom/bubble is not news for anyone who has read a newspaper or counted the contruction cranes protruding from the city's already formidable skyline over the past couple years. But this New York Times story puts the growth into some kind of perspective:

    Shanghaiist staff (all six officials ones plus numerous groupies) are unabashed devotees of the Super Voice Girls, so imagine our pleasure when we found out that Li Yuchun, the androgynous wonder from Sichuan and final winner of the contest that sent tingles and shivers down the spine of people throughout China, became a cover girl. Sort of -- she made the cover of a Special Issue of TIME magazine called "Asia's Heroes".

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