World polo manager summit held in Beijing

Jointly held by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport and Beijing International Polo Club, a top level world polo club manager summit was held in Beijing yesterday. Polo club managers from 15 countries and regions including Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Britain, US, South Africa, Canada, Germany and Italy were participated in the summit and shared their opinion on how to promote polo’s development in China.

Beijing’s cost of living exceeds New York’s

By Han Manman

Beijing is the most expensive city on the Chinese mainland for expats working in here, ranking 20th in the world for cost of living and by far surpassing New York, a recent global survey found.

Conducted by US-based global consulting firm Mercer Investment Consulting (MIC), the survey investigated 214 cities on five continents and measured the cost of more than 200 items at each location, including housing, transportation, food, daily necessities and entertainment.

New York prices were used as a baseline for rankings.

According to the survey, Beijing is even more expensive than New York and Paris. The cost of living in New York was only 86 percent of the cost in Beijing.

While housing remains the biggest expense for expats from transnational corporations, the price of schooling, healthcare and imported goods in Beijing remains higher than other cities in the country, the report said.

“I think everything in Beijing is getting more expensive now – especially housing and daily necessities. The restaurants near my home on Sanlitun are also getting more and more expensive,” said John Gass, a project manager at a local IT company.

He said the only thing that has not become more expensive during the last five years is the cost of transportation.

Gass said that although the cost of living remains within his budget, he may feel pressure if the price continues to increase.

Lisa Deng, Mercer’s China market manager, said the survey has been conducted annually since 1990 to help multinational companies and governments adjust the wages of their overseas staff.

She said that compared to cities in other countries like Australia, the cost of living in most Chinese cities has been stable.

Four additional Chinese cities made the list of the world’s 50 most expensive cities: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which ranked 9th, 21st, 38th and 43th.

According to the survey results, the world’s most expensive cities in 2011 are Luanda in Angola, Tokyo in Japan and N’Djamena in Chad.

Pakistan’s port city of Karachi is the cheapest.

Italy wants piece of China’s booming tourism economy

By Chu Meng

A list of comprehensive stimulus plans under the “Travel Italy” project was launched by ambassador Attilio Massimo Iannucci at the Italian embassy in Beijing last Monday, aiming to attract some of China’s outbound tourism by opening non-stop flights and developing Chinese-oriented sightseeing destinations.

“It’s good news for Chinese tourists, who now have more choices,” the ambassador said.

“At the same time, it is also good news for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy and its Ministry of Economic and Tourism Development, for they finally decided to change from conservative to positive policymakers.”

Iannucci said the belated plan is tailor-made for China’s booming tourism industry.

First, three non-stop flights between China and Italy opened on June 15. Italian Alitalia Airline signed code-sharing agreements with China Eastern Airlines, for the first time jointly operating non-stop flights from Beijing to Rome and from Shanghai to Rome. There will be four flights per week.

With Air China, a non-stop flight from Beijing to Milan will operate three times a week.

Marco Sansavini, Italian Alitalia Airline’s executive vice president of sales and distribution, said the number of fights per week will also increase this autumn.

“Limited transportation services is a fundamental barrier to attracting Chinese tourists,” Sansavini said. “From now on, passengers from China to Rome by the Italian aviation network can easily access to 28 destinations in Italy.”

Meanwhile, a one-month roundtable talk, aiming to create new tourism routes and destinations in Italy exclusively to meet the needs of Chinese tourists, was launched with the support of tourism departments in Marche, Puglia, Veneto and Toscan and officials from Beijing, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, as well as professionals from 15 Chinese tourism companies in Beijing.

“In 2010, the Italian embassy in Beijing issued a total of 8,164 individual tourism visas, a 70 percent increase compared with the number in 2009. And Rome has been listed 15th among the most visited overseas destinations by Chinese tourists on Ctrip in the fourth quarter of 2010, and the second favorite European destination,” Iannucci said.

He said Italy has been lagging behind other European countries such as France, Greece and Spain in attracting Chinese tourists.

“We have to change that,” said Luisa Bergonzoni, the Beijing representative in the China Travel project. She said that Chinese tourists’ purchasing strength of luxury brands is constantly surpassing expectations of French manufacturers. But half the world’s top luxury brands are in Italy, such as Hermes, Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, Gucci and Versace.

“Italian handicraftsmen have maintained traditional skills and fostered many famous luxury brands because of their conservatism,” she said. “Also because of that, Italians are reluctant to face transformations happening in the world.”

The Palazzo Strozzi Museum in Florence will issue Chinese-language brochures and offer Chinese-speaking tour guides starting today. A Chinese tourism App for iPhone users is available for free.

Tibet exhibition opens in Beijing

(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)

 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-06/15/c_13931636.htm

 

 

BEIJING, June 15 (Xinhua) — Tibet today sits amid its best historical phase–featuring economic and social progress, ethnic solidarity, flourishing cultural development, and an improved quality of life for its residents, a senior Chinese official said on Wednesday.

Wang Chen, director of the Information Office of the State Council, made the remarks during his speech at the opening ceremony of the exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet in Beijing from June 15 to July 8.

During the past six decades, under the leadership of the central government and assistance from across the nation, Tibet has undergone sweeping changes, Wang said.

“The Tibet plateau has performed a miracle by achieving what could only be done in thousands of years in a short span of several decades,” Wang said.

The peaceful liberation of Tibet was an epoch-making tipping point in Tibet’s history, marking its transition from autocracy to democracy, from poverty to affluence, and from seclusion to openness, Wang said.

Wang said the exhibition showed that Tibet has been an inalienable part of China since ancient times.

The exhibition, with 500 photos, more than 30 relics, 30 tables and graphs and video clips, focused on the remarkable achievements made in economic, political, cultural and social realms in Tibet during the past six decades, Wang said.

The exhibition will also help the world to see a true picture of a changing Tibet, Wang added.

The exhibition is organized by the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, Information Office of the State Council, National Development and Reform Commission, State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, and Xinhua News Agency.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. It will be held once again in mid July in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region.

Report: Life in Beijing worse than Guangzhou, Shanghai

(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-06/12/content_12678965.htm

 

 

BEIJING – Life quality in China’s national capital of Beijing is worse than that in the metropolises of Guangzhou and Shanghai, according to a report on urban life in China.

The cities of Nanjing, Yinchuan, Hohhot, Hefei and Shijiazhuang also outpace Beijing in terms of life quality, according to the China City Life Quality Index Report, jointly released on Sunday by the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Capital University of Economics and Business (CUEB).

The “Life Quality Index” for Chinese cities was calculated using objective indicators such as per capita income and inflation rates, as well as subjective indicators provided by urban residents, such as their opinions on their incomes, living costs, medical care and living environment.

Subjective indicators were weighted at 40 percent in compiling the index, organizers said.

According to the report, Guangzhou tops Chinese cities with a Life Quality Index of 64.07, followed by Shanghai’s index of 60.5 and Nanjing’s index of 59.49.

Beijing end up with a Life Quality Index of 56.23, ranking eighth out of 30 provincial or regional capital cities.

Professor Zhang Liancheng, dean of the School of Economics at CUEB, said the satisfaction of urban residents does not seem to match up with the rate at which the country’s economy has grown over the past 30 years.

Factors such as soaring inflation, high property prices and the quickening pace of urban life have had a negative effect on satisfaction levels, Zhang said.

 

Foreign Drunk Driver Detained in Beijing

(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)

 

http://english.cri.cn/6909/2011/06/05/2724s641164.htm

 

A drunk student from a west Asian country was detained Saturday in Beijing, after he physically assaulted a policeman and drove into two pedestrians, local police said Sunday.

The 25-year-old student, who was not named by the police, together with some other foreigners, beat an employee of a parking lot over the fee Saturday morning in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, said a spokesman for the Beijing municipal public security bureau.

The student refused to identify himself when the police came to solve the dispute and tried to force his way out of the parking lot in his car, the spokesman said.

The student, who was drunk, physically assaulted a policeman who tried to stop the car. The policeman was then dragged behind the car for more than 40 meters. The student also hit two pedestrians with his car as he tried to escape. The policeman and pedestrians were injured.

The spokesman declined to identify the student, saying the police would handle the case in line with law.

Traffic police discovered that the alcohol level in the student’s blood was 204.7 mg per 100 ml of blood.

Starting May 1 this year, drunk driving is taken as a criminal offense in China if the driver is found to have more than 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood.

Housing subsidies at heart of Beijing’s ‘new deal’

(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/92c6ff5e-8b9e-11e0-a725-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss

 

By Jamil Anderlini

 

When Guo Chunping, 47, an unemployed cleaner, met Hu Jintao, China’s president, a few months ago her widely publicised remarks about her state-subsidised apartment caused an outpouring of disbelief and scorn.

Ms Guo said she paid Rmb77 ($11.90) a month for her 45 square metre flat in suburban Beijing, an impossibly small amount to most urban Chinese, many of whom went online to deride the claims as Communist party propaganda.

In spite of widespread popular disbelief, a visit to her flat and statements from neighbours confirmed Ms Guo’s account.

Ms Guo is a beneficiary of a Chinese “new deal”, a hugely ambitious social plan to tackle worsening social inequality and address imbalances in the economy while maintaining the rapid investment and construction-led growth of the past decade.

Central to the initiative is Beijing’s plan to build 36m state-subsidised housing units within the next five years.

By 2015, the government hopes to have almost a fifth of the country’s 218m urban households living in apartments that are state-subsidised in some way, up from an estimated 11 per cent at the end of 2007.

The goal is not only to overhaul the real estate market but to create a new impetus to keep the economy humming even as Beijing attempts to shift to a different growth model.

In its latest five-year plan, which runs from 2011-15, the Communist party has identified its top priority as shifting from an economy driven by investment and export-oriented, low-end manufacturing to one driven by consumption and innovation.

As part of the shift, the party also aims to reduce the widening income gap and improve the well-being of its citizens. One way it hopes to do this is by reining in speculation and rapid price rises in the residential real estate market that have made owning an apartment in the booming cities an impossible dream for most of the population.

In the past year, Beijing has introduced a slew of measures to bring down overheated prices – including increasing minimum downpayments, banning banks from giving mortgages to people with more than one property and launching a trial property tax in Shanghai and Chongqing.

A huge portion of China’s rapid growth in the past decade has been driven by investment in real estate and by the stimulus it gives related industries, ranging from steel and cement to makers of washing machines and cars. So by curbing rising prices and developers’ profits, Beijing risks a wider economic slowdown, one reason the subsidised housing plan is so important.

Ernest Ho and Zhu Yuande, economists at Morgan Stanley, say: “The unprecedented construction volume, political intensity and determination to deliver indicate that the authorities consider social housing vital to sustainable development.

“It is not only an issue related to economic growth but also a timely effort to alleviate social tension
that had built up.”

In theory, the boom in subsidised housing will pick up the slack from slowing real estate investment while allowing rapid urbanisation to continue by providing affordable homes for new migrants from rural areas.

In 1998, when the government first decided to privatise the housing market, it launched a plan to ensure up to 70 per cent of urban people had access to public rental or other low-cost housing. In practice, local governments across the country largely ignored the directive.

Andrew Rothman, chief China economist for CLSA, the investment bank, says: “The problem with social housing in past years was a lack of political support from the top. That is no longer the case.

“In his annual address to the legislature in March, [Wen Jiabao, premier] clearly put local officials on notice that building too few low-income flats would be a firing offence.”

While Beijing seems determined to pick up the pace of investment, it is not entirely clear how the ambitious building targets will be financed.

Beijing has set a target of building 10m subsidised apartments at a cost of Rmb1,300bn this year alone but only Rmb103bn from the central government budget has been allocated to the project.

Officials say a further Rmb400bn-500bn will come from local governments, although their revenues are already under pressure from falling land prices, while the remaining Rmb800bn-900bn is expected to come from commercial developers.

Stephen Green, chief China economist for Standard Chartered Bank, says: “There are huge question marks over how this will all be funded. The quiet message to developers is clear: you’ve made your money, now it is time to serve the country.

“We believe the silent message to the banks is: developers and local government investment vehicles will be looking to borrow, so support them.”

China’s state-owned banking sector was called on to fund most of the post-financial crisis stimulus package and now it is being asked to finance the country’s social housing experiment, a task it can probably achieve but at the risk of deterioration in asset quality over the long term.

If the government can meet its targets then roughly half of all apartments built in China this year will be reserved for low-income households like Ms Guo’s.

That would represent the transformation of the Chinese real estate market from a purely commercial to a semi-subsidised system.

But for now at least, most ordinary people in China seem to think Ms Guo is a rare exception and that truly affordable housing is little more than a Communist propaganda myth.

 

Biggest consumer opportunity in history

(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)

 

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/female-entrepreneur/20110527-biggest-consumer-opportunity-in-history.html

 

By Naomi Simson

 

I am in Beijing this week for an educational event. It is great to see first-hand what we hear so much about in the media. The last time I visited Beijing was in 1986, only a decade after the Cultural Revolution, when tourists used a different currency – and there was no hot showers. It is almost unrecognisable as the Beijing I visited 25 years ago.

Yesterday we attended an insightful presentation at the local Neilsen office – the largest consumer research company in China. They gave us a fascinating insight into the 14 distinct geographical markets. We see China as one country, however there are massive differences between the north, south, east and west in terms of consumerism and lifestyle.

Neilsen described the impact of the one child policy after 30 years – the creation of the “little emperor” culture, where effectively six adults are caring for one child, but as the population ages, that one child will need to take care of those six adults in their old age.

This is the fastest growing consumer economy in the world. Never, in the history of time has an economy changed, grown and developed so quickly. I am amazed that every luxury brand is represented – Rolls Royce apparently sells more vehicles in Beijing in a month than they do in the rest of the world.

We had lunch with a local family – in their Hutong. They got electricity just prior to the Olympics – until that time they used coal for heating. People tell us how serious the Government now is about the environment.

The pollution has definitely improved since I was last here. The infrastructure to allow the 19 million Beijing people to move around is phenomenal. They have built 220kms of subway under Beijing and there is another 180kms to go until it is finished. The city was putrid when I was last here – now the streets are spotless. Our local host told me that was because of SARS and the Government decided to clean the streets… and keep them clean.

No wonder Australian businesses get so excited doing business with China. The shear opportunity in size is overwhelming.

What an exciting place.

 

Skirmish shuts down Beijing Apple store

(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The site’s blog section aims to introducing expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Blogger who does not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories. )

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/09/china.apple.iPad.fight/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Skirmish shuts down Beijing Apple store

By Jo Ling Kent, CNN
May 9, 2011 — Updated 0624 GMT (1424 HKT)

Beijing, China (CNN) — In China, Apple products are hot. Long lines of eager customers and swarms of lurking scalpers are typical each time Apple launches a new product here.

The release of the iPad 2 and white iPhone 4 last weekend was no exception. However, sales on Saturday hit a speed bump when foreign Apple employees and Chinese customers were caught in a scuffle outside one of Apple’s Beijing stores.

According to witnesses, a Chinese man thought to be a scalper — a buyer who makes multiple purchases to resell at higher prices — tried three times to cut into a long line of customers waiting to buy the newly-released white iPhone 4 in Beijing. Three Apple security guards and an Apple manager attempted to escort the individual away from the store. Two of the employees were foreigners.

As the man was taken away, witnesses said a shoving match erupted, involving an Apple employee and a member of the alleged scalpers’ family. When the situation escalated, Apple security guards shut and locked the front door of the store.

In protest, a group rushed the entrance and shook the glass door until it shattered. A metal hinge was seen falling from the door, hitting a security guard on the head. Two men and two women suffered minor injuries in the clash, state media reported.

The store, which is located in Beijing’s high-end Sanlitun Village shopping and dining center, was closed to the public on Saturday afternoon for repairs. The confrontation was resolved peacefully, according to a police source who spoke with the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

“The Apple store in Sanlitun closed for several hours on Saturday after a group outside the store became unruly. The store team acted to protect themselves and our customers by closing the doors and preventing the group from entering. The safety of our customers and employees is our top priority,” Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu told CNN.

Local police declined to comment on the situation. By Sunday, Apple resumed normal business hours. Lines for the iPad 2 and white iPhone 4 were visibly shorter than the previous two days.

Just a few steps away from this Apple store, the gray market for iPads and iPhones continued to thrive on Sunday, with scalpers hawking freshly-purchased products for sale, still packaged in shrink-wrapped boxes and Apple’s signature white shopping bags. Some scalpers offered passersby receipts indicating same-day purchase.

Apple declined to comment on the scalpers and reselling industry in China.

“Demand on the next generation iPad 2 has been amazing,” Wu said. “We are working hard to get the iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible.”

Despite only having four retail stores in China, Apple dominates the tablet market in China, harnessing more than three-quarters of the market, according to analysts. When the first edition of the iPad launched in September, customers in Beijing camped out for more than 65 hours to be among the first to purchase the tablet.

The American electronics-maker has enjoyed rapid growth and overwhelming demand since it opened its first store in China in 2008. Apple now has four stores in China — two in both Beijing and Shanghai.

Migrant population booms in Beijing

(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)

 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/video/2011-05/06/c_13861814.htm

 

BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhuanet) –The migrant population share in Beijing has reached 36 percent. The latest national census figures suggest that, over the past decade, more people than ever are flowing into the capital city.

“Old Beijing” is changing, as immigrants continue pouring in.

One out of every three current Beijing residents arrived from other parts of the country in the last 10 years.

Among these new city dwellers are both top talents and service industry workers.

Demographically speaking, they help slow down the metropolitan area’s aging trend, and balance the gender ratio.

But their contributions are even more substantial.

From managing companies to building construction projects, they’ve supported the city’s economic development in every possible way.

The census also shows that Beijing is booming.

According to statistics, the capital’s population increased at a 3.8 percent annual clip over the past 10 years. The growth rate of the entire Chinese Mainland, during the same period, was just 0.6 percent.

Scientists caution this many people could eventually place a huge amount of stress on already scarce resources.