Results tagged “chineseeconomy”

• Adam Minter discovers “belt tongues” that help disable your car's seatbelt alarm without you needing to put on your seatbelt. Jeez, it's like people want to die in a traffic accident here or something. [Shanghai Scrap]
• The heaviest snowfall in at least 54 years just hit Beijing, causing tens of thousands of people to be stranded on highways linking the city with Shanxi, Hebei, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. Tragically, the snow also caused a primary school cafeteria's roof to collapse in Hebei, killing three children and injuring 28 others. [Bloomberg]
• An international human rights group is urging China to abolish its secretive “black jails,” a cottage industry created to keep petitioners from ever reaching their final destinations. They tend to become the most crowded at politically sensitive times... like, most likely, the upcoming President Obama visit. [Reuters]

Despite Shanghai getting the reputation for being filled with rich people, it seems that there are actually more billionaires and millionaires in Beijing. According to the Hurun Report, a survey that specifically looks at the rich, there are now 143,000 multimillionaires and 8,800 billionaires in the capital city, compared to just 116,000 multimillionaires and 7,000 billionaires in Shanghai. Surprising, right? We guess this is why you've got to have 3 million RMB more to be considered a "new aristocrat" up north. Altogether, China has 825,000 people worth more than 10 million yuan and 51,000 individuals with over 100 million yuan.

Who'd have thought it - it's easier for the Shanghai elite to reach "aristocrat" status than their counterparts in Beijing. According to the latest research by a special agency that tracks the wealthy, 51,000 people in China are qualified to be labeled "new aristocrats." However, while in Beijing this would require having at least 87 million yuan at your disposal, in Shanghai the same status can be achieved for the low price of only 84 million yuan! Supposedly, the standard Shanghai aristocrat cruises around in 1.75 million yuan Porsches, kept parked inside 22 million yuan homes that also house specially bred 100,000 RMB carps. The report also includes the qualifications to be considered "upper class" in four other Chinese cities. So if you're running low on your millions but still want to be an aristocrat, head to Shenyang, where you can achieve 'crat status by spending only 33 million yuan. Source: AsiaOne News

• Will this stop the pandamonium? [Daily Mail] "It is a desperate cry - or rather a very loud trumpet - for attention. These elephants were painted black and white to look like the pandas who have stolen all their fans. The elephant is Thailand's national symbol, but the country has gone panda-crazy since the birth of a female panda cub to pandas Lin Hui and Xuang Xuang at Chiang Mai zoo in Bangkok."
• Who’s Who Among China’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Advisers [WSJ] "China Investment Corp., the country’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, has finally unveiled its long-planned International Advisory Council, which The Journal wrote about Monday (Call us petty, but we can’t help noting - given that that one of council’s stated missions (In Chinese here) is to advise CIC on “increasing transparency” - that it took four days from the group’s first meeting for CIC to disclose its membership)."
• Work resumes at Shaoguan toy factory [Danwei] "The fight at the Xuri toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province that has been called one of the causes of the current unrest in Xinjiang made the cover of today's New Express. A major fight broke out at the factory on June 26 between Han and Uighurs workers, leaving two men from Xinjiang dead, but according to today's paper, which features a big cover photo of smiling Uighur women working at the factory, production has resumed."