Sanya Expat

What does Dubai have in common with Hainan Island, China?

Answer: China's infamous millionaire real estate speculators of Wenzhou. I was recently pointed to a juicy background story at India Times of global property speculation leading from Wenzhou across the globe to Dubai and then back to Hainan Island where just one month earlier, the Wenzhou gang descended upon this tropical island paradise in a well-timed frenzy of property speculation, even by fast-rising Chinese property market standards.

From the India Times Article:

Millionaires from the isolated coastal city of Wenzhou, a centre of Chinese private enterprise, have fanned out across China and overseas over the last decade in search of property that they buy, and often quickly resell at a profit.

They may collectively face about 1 billion yuan ($146.5 million) in losses as the Dubai real estate market contracts, the head of the Wenzhou SME Business Development and Promotion Association said on Wednesday.

This story broke back in December revealing that in fact it was Wenzhou native Hu Bin, chairman of Shanghai Zhong Zhou Group, who laid out $28 million to purchase one island of the World Islands project set for luxury development and now looking more like a desert mirage. Post Dubai crash, Wenzhou investors are looking for the bargains there once again. "Since the recession on real estate in Dubai, I've led three groups of investors to Dubai to investigate properties," said Chen Zhiyuan, the president of Wenzhou Chamber of Commerce in the United Arab Emirates. According to a February report in China Daily, "Wenzhou, China's private capital powerhouse in the southern province of Zhejiang, is among the richest areas in the country and the birthplace of self-made billionaires who are manufacturing clothes, shoes, and other small commodities like lighters."

Chart from a related article at Business Insider

In an effort to identify where else the Wenzhou investment groups may be targeting for their investment hoards, we dig deeper to find a recent yet poorly translated article at www.kinablog.com , where we find the following:

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Congratulations to Luke McKenzie of Australia who won the grueling Ironman event in Haikou. More so, Luke was indeed the master of the universe as he crossed the finish line breaking the old Ironman record by 12 minutes with the second place runner not showing up for an additional 20 minutes. An awesome, inspiring feat of endurance!

And on a more local note, congrats to our very own Brendan Sheridan, owner of Surfing Hainan who competed in and finished his very first Ironman 70.3 competition.

Photos coming...Cheers all, Mario

Iron Man China is back to Hainan Island for this year's annual big event in Haikou. They call it "Asia's Ultimate Endurance Experience" and I understand that our local boy Brendan, founder of Surfing Hainan will be competing; sans surfboard we assume

On Thursday evening, Coffee World is hosting a mixer for the athletes and fans. Please do join us. Hope to see you there!

Cheers, M

Let's tell a story about how to utterly destroy the holiday plans of good, hard-working families. Your family holidays are a welcome and needed break from the daily hustle and bustle of life's routine. Memorial Day. Fourth of July. Labor Day. The Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year Season. All an important part of your life.

Now imagine waking up one morning to find that the $150 per night rate at the 5 star Newport Beach Hyatt or San Diego Sea World Marriott or the Hilton Resort Sanya was specifically priced during your family's main holiday week at an outrageous, price-gouging, insulting $1100 per night. An American would say "Whoa dude." A Chinese would utter, "Ai Ya!" The difference is: its real in China, where the spirit of a country's most important national holiday seems no more than rich man's game benefiting few, rather than building and supporting a proud, national spirit.

Back in the West, if it happened, how to comprehend and explain it? Immediately your brain cells start firing off, your mind sweeps for answers. Perhaps financial Armageddon has finally arrived. The Euro has collapsed? Another Asian currency crisis? Another 911 attack, but worse? Maybe you run to check downstairs at the grocery store and find the prices of everything went up triple and all bank accounts have been frozen. How else can you explain such a disproportionate price increase? If we wake up to news on the TV that suddenly a hotel room rate is multiplied not just by double or triple, but six to ten times the normal daily rate, we wonder on the edge of panic, "What the heck else is going on with prices of other things? It must have some other meaning too!"

Indeed, our family holiday plan is utterly destroyed. In our budget, we knew airfares would be high. We knew there won't be any discounts to snatch up.

But we didn't expect to be raped in the name of national holiday spirit.

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