China Property Bubble: Ghost Town of Kangbashi in Ordos

All Quiet
The Kangbashi district began as a public-works project in Ordos, a wealthy coal-mining town in Inner Mongolia, China. A public-works project worthy of Kubla Khan’s “stately pleasure-dome,” The area  is filled with office towers, administrative centers, government buildings, museums, theaters and sports fields—not to mention acre on acre of subdivisions overflowing with middle-class duplexes and bungalows. The only problem: the district was originally designed to house, support and entertain 1 million people, yet hardly anyone lives there.

Empty
Six years ago, Ordos county officials decided to move their headquarters out of old, cramped Dongsheng and into land that was then occupied by two small villages inhabited by about 1,400 people. By the end of 2008, the new district of Kangbashi was crisscrossed with 2.4 billion yuan ($352 million) worth of roads.  Though many of the properties in Kangbashi have been sold and a million people were projected to be living in Kangbashi by 2010, the city is still empty.

Vacant
Mostly empty apartment buildings in Kangbashi, a half hour down the road is Dongsheng, where most of Ordos’ 1.5 million resident call home.

Wealth and Knowledge
A pair of workers tidy up outside the public library. The city boasts the second highest per-capita income, behind to Shanghai but ahead of Beijing.

Treasure Palace
Workers carry pieces of foam up the stairs of the Ordos Museum, which is still under construction.

Monument
A pedestrian walks behind a giant sculpture of two horses in Kangbashi’s Linyinlu Square.

Light Traffic
Mostly empty apartment buildings stand in the distance.

No Sale
A pedestrian walks past a mostly unoccupied commercial area. Almost no businesses have moved into the new district.

Eerie Quiet
Empty streets remain empty even during the morning commute.

In Medias Res
An old man pushes a cart across a road segregating finished apartments and apartments still under construction.

Unfinished
Workers construct a plaza for un-present residents of an apartment complex.

On the Rise
Construction projects in Kangbashi continue despite the lack of occupancy.

From a Distance
Kangbashi awaits residents to bring the district, meant for a population the size of San Diego, California, to life.

Market Defies Fear of Real Estate Bubble in China

Luxury riverfront apartments are selling fast in the financial district of Shanghai

The spacious duplex comes with crocodile-skin bedposts, hand-carved bronze doors inlaid with Swarovski crystals — and a $45 million price tag.

It is still on the market, but Charles Tong, the developer of Tomson Riviera, a luxury riverfront complex in the heart of the financial district here, says he is having no trouble finding takers for similarly priced units.

Charles Tong, the developer of Tomson Riviera.

“We’re selling three to four apartments every month,” said Mr. Tong, seated in a white Versace easy chair. “Now, people here want something more luxurious; they’d like a new lifestyle.”

Everyone agrees China is in the middle of a spectacular real estate boom. The question is whether it is in the middle of a rapidly growing real estate bubble.

When other recent booms collapsed — in the United States, for instance — they depressed entire economies. In China’s case, a bursting bubble could affect much of the world. China is the fastest-growing large economy and, so far, a main engine pulling the world out of recession.

Beijing is clearly concerned. Authorities have recently moved to rein in the easy credit that has helped finance China’s hyperdevelopment, including making it more difficult for home buyers to take out a second mortgage.

Last year, a record $560 billion of residential property was sold in China, an increase of 80 percent from the year before, according to government statistics that are widely considered reliable. And with prices soaring, developers are scrambling to build more mansions, villas and high-rise apartments with names like Rich Gate, Park Avenue and Palais de Fortune.

Signs of exuberance are everywhere. An investor in Shanghai recently bought 54 apartments in a single day; a villa sold for $30 million last year; and in December a consortium of developers paid more than $3.5 billion for a huge tract of land in Guangzhou, one of the highest prices paid for any property, anywhere. In the city of Tianjin, in north China, developers have created a $3 billion “floating city,” a series of islands built on a natural reservoir, featuring villas, shopping malls, a water amusement park and what they say will be the world’s largest indoor ski resort.

“This is wild,” said Andy Xie, a former Morgan Stanley economist who is now an independent analyst. “By all the traditional measures, like rental yield, this is a bubble.”

Speculators are snapping up properties on the expectation that prices will continue to rise, as prices have nearly every year for more than a decade. And powerful developers are working with local governments to transform old cities into urban dreamscapes.

But Shanghai, China’s wealthiest and most dazzling city, is the epicenter of the boom. Prices here have risen more than 150 percent since 2003, pushing the price of a typical 1,100-square-foot apartment up to $200,000, according to real estate experts. (Shanghai residents typically earn less than $5,000 a year.)

A buying frenzy has gripped the city, leading to billion-dollar land auctions and long waiting lists.

“The speed you buy a house here is faster than you buy vegetables,” said Andy Xiang, an advertising executive who recently put down a large cash down payment to get the right to pay $1.3 million for an apartment in the city’s exclusive Xintiandi area.

Tomson Riviera, China's most exclusive residence

Few residences, though, are as upscale as Tomson Riviera, which consists of four golden-hued towers overlooking the Huangpu River, with a central garden mapped out in the shape of a dragon. The apartment complex’s entrance has original artworks by Salvador Dalí and well-known Chinese artists. The apartments, a few of which have been decorated by Armani and Fendi, as well as Versace, lease for $7,000 to $17,000 a month — to high-level executives from companies like General Motors.

Tomson Riviera, a luxury apartment complex that features designs by Versace and bronze doors inlaid with Swarovski crystals.

Those who buy an apartment here tend to be extremely wealthy, like Liu Yiqian, an eccentric Shanghai entrepreneur whom Forbes magazine says is worth about $540 million.

Mr. Liu, 47, got his start driving a taxicab in Shanghai but eventually made a fortune investing in the stock market. In an interview this week, he acknowledged owning hundreds of apartments in Shanghai (he said he could not remember exactly how many), including a 6,000-square-foot apartment in Tomson Riviera, which he bought in 2008 for about $11.5 million.

“I invest in properties,” Mr. Liu said, noting that he also collects art, antiques and jade. “I think in Shanghai in five to seven years the real estate prices will be even higher.”

As they try to modulate the market, local and central governments here are walking a thin line. Land sales were a major source of government revenue, raising about $234 billion last year, an amount equal to over a third of the cost of China’s half-trillion-dollar stimulus program.

Whether the country is in the middle of a bubble has become the subject of a debate. Some economists, like Nicholas R. Lardy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, say the housing boom is being propelled by a huge urbanization push that is creating premium-priced houses.

Other analysts say prices are being propped up by greedy developers and government policies that are making housing increasingly unaffordable for the masses migrating to big cities.

Despite the fear of a bubble here, Mr. Tong said his prices were just right, particularly because of so much hidden wealth in China. The publicly listed company is controlled by his family.

“I have a friend,” he said. “She makes maternity clothes. Her company has 20 percent of the world’s market share, and they’re not even a listed company.”

Still, Tomson’s prices are soaring. The most recent apartment sold for about $2,300 a square foot. The average luxury apartment in Manhattan sold for just under $1,900 a square foot in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman real estate.

Indeed, for the price of a Tomson apartment in Shanghai, a buyer could easily purchase a 6,000-square-foot home in Los Angeles built by Frank Lloyd Wright and now for sale ($10.5 million), or a 52-acre site with a 22-room residence in New Canaan, Conn. ($24 million).

But a sales agent at Tomson Riviera says this is the future financial capital of the world, not the dying one.

“Look at this bronze door,” said Wang Yaodong. “That costs $50,000! Look at these Gaggenau appliances. They were made in Germany.” The glasses were imported from Belgium, the Jacuzzi from Italy. And don’t worry about losing your key, he said, “This lock can read the palm of your hand.”

“Ant Tribe”: Struggling college graduates in China

On a freezing cold day with a temperature of 3°F, a member of the “Ant Tribe” boarded a bus in Tangjialing on her way to work in central Beijing

They sleep in boxy rooms crammed into dingy low-rises and spend hours commuting to work on crowded buses as part of a trend of poorer white-collar workers being forced to the fringes of China’s wealthiest cities.

Some say these struggling college graduates who swarm out of their cramped accommodations and head to work in the urban sprawl each morning are reminiscent of worker insects in a colony. Not surprisingly, they are often referred to as China’s Ant Tribe (Chinese pronunciation: yǐ zú, Chinese: 蚁族), after the title of a recent book by sociologist Lian Si.

Lian Si's "Ant Tribe", a book documenting struggles of jobless or underemployed college graduates in China

The growing ranks of ‘worker ants’ poses a policy challenge for Beijing’s city leaders as high property prices and dim career prospects thwart the ambitions of many graduates for a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.

In Tangjialing, a dusty suburban Beijing village laced with dirt roads, college-educated software technician Kong Chao typifies the spartan existence of many such graduates.

Muddy road from Tangjialing to work

“This is hard, but there’s no other way,” said Kong, 24, who is relatively fortunate as he has a toilet and cooking area in his cramped room and doesn’t have to share with other tenants.

Kong pays 550 yuan ($81) a month in rent, about 10 percent of his monthly wage. A similar room in a central area of Beijing would eat up most of his salary.

“You see what a crowded city Beijing is,” he said. “We younger people all come to seek work. But we can take it.”

Di Qun, one of the "ants" in Tangjialing, rests in his cramped room.

The rising number of graduates living on the edge of poverty in China’s biggest cities could become a socio-economic challenge for the Chinese government.

“When they’re 26, 27 or 28, they’ll say ‘I need to buy a house’, because that means eligibility for marriage,” said Tom Doctoroff, a Shanghai-based consumer trends author. “If the time comes to get married and you can’t buy, that causes anxiety.”

The population of 20-something jobless or underemployed college graduates struggling to live on the cheap has been estimated by the state-run China Daily newspaper to reach about a million, with 10 percent in Beijing.

Early Morning Breakfast in Tangjialing, Beijing

PROPERTY CONUNDRUM

Surging property prices have been at the crux of the problem.

Over the past 12 months, cheap lending has ramped up real estate demand by families and speculators, causing prices to rise by around a third in some cities and turning the possibility of owning their own home into a distant dream for many young couples.

With China’s property sector crucial for the broader Chinese economy, accounting for nearly a quarter of fixed asset investment, authorities have been at pains to balance the needs of economic stability with those of ordinary citizens.

Provincial and municipal governments are being urged to provide more land for affordable housing, and recent indicators suggest China will tighten its monetary policies after opening the taps during the financial crisis, which could alleviate the country’s property market bubble.

In January, property prices in 70 cities across China rose 9.5 percent from a year earlier. The eighth consecutive year-on-year rise added to worries of a real estate bubble.

Crowds waiting for the bus to work

GLUT OF STUDENTS

The ants’ story began a little over a decade ago, in 1999, when the Chinese government launched an ambitious plan to boost university enrollment by 30% annually. At the time, the country’s factories were suffering from the Asian financial crisis. Planners believed a rise in college rolls would help China transition from a largely export-driven, low-wage manufacturing economy to a more balanced one populated by upwardly mobile white-collar workers.

Undergraduate enrollment quintupled to 20 million students by 2008; last year 6.1 million Chinese earned diplomas, up from 1 million in 1999. But it soon became clear there weren’t enough suitable jobs for these freshly minted graduates. Beijing has slashed college enrollment growth to 5% annually.

Due to the glut of job seekers and the financial crisis, companies in popular cities such as Beijing have slashed monthly wages from between 50 to 100 percent to below 2,000 yuan in some cases, workers say.

Some experts suggest the government should divert young professionals into second-tier cities such as Chengdu and Xiamen to take pressure off Beijing and Shanghai.

LIVING IN FARM HOUSES

For now, educated workers live in tiny rooms carved out of lean-to farm houses or in low-rise flats outside urban job centers because they cannot afford to rent a private flat.

In the evenings in Tangjialing, whose population has swelled to 50,000 from 3,000 before the rise of “ants” about two years ago, tenants hang laundry, socialize at greasy diners and use cheap Internet cafes.

“They’re mostly from other parts of China, so their parents aren’t at their side to help,” noted Mou Jianmin, who follows the trend as head of a cultural promotion firm in Beijing.

Room-sharing by struggling graduates is common

In Wuhan, home to a cluster of universities, recent graduates live eight to 10 in a flat in low-rise apartment buildings without heat or hot water, said Swedish-born Maria Troein, who studies and teaches in the central China city.

“I wouldn’t call it desperation, but there’s definitely some anxiety,” she said.

“There’s a dream. (But) the ant people really can’t afford to have it,” Troelin added, referring to the goal of middle-class prosperity many “ants” pursue amid the squalor.

With millions of migrant workers having been laid off from coastal manufacturing hubs during the financial crisis, Chinese authorities have been trying to create more jobs in China’s less developed interior to absorb this surplus labor, with increasing numbers of workers choosing to stay at home.

One pressure valve, however, may be to encourage graduates to move to cities in China’s hinterland where they would have a better chance of buying their own home and could contribute to the government’s efforts to stimulate these local economies.

For now, though, in Tangjialing, many residents such as high-tech company salesman Li Xingshen, want to stay and claw their way up. Li recently traded a 200-yuan room for a more comfortable 500-yuan one with a private toilet.

But this modest step up is all he can afford for now.

“If I lived in an actual flat, that would cost 1,000 yuan, then I’m out of money,” Li said.

China plans to build world’s highest airport in Tibet

China has announced plans to build the world’s highest airport at an altitude of 4,436 meters (14,553ft) in Tibet.

The new airport, to be named as Nagqu Dagring Airport, will be located at Nagqu (also Naqu, Nagchu; Tibetan: ནག་ཆུ་ས་ཁུལ་; Wylie: Nag-chu Sa-khul; Chinese: 那曲) located 300 kilometers north of Lhasa at the center of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Nagqu is connected to Highway 109 which spans north to Golmud and another Highway 317 which links east into Sichuan Province.

The airport will be another feat of engineering just 764 meters lower than the Mount Everest base camp on the Chinese side already located 5,200 meters above sea level. The Nagqu airport is the sixth one in Tibet and upon completion will give the region one airport per prefecture.

The new airport will be 102 meters higher than Bamda (Tibetan: Pomda) Airport in Qamdo (Tibetan: Chamdo) Prefecture, which has been the world’s highest airport since its completion in 1994. “With the airport, Nagqu, which is also on the Qinghai-Tibet railway line, is expected to become the center of an economic hub in the plateau region,” Tan Yongshou, commissioner of the prefecture.

Qamdo Bangda Airport in Tibet is the hightest airport since 1994

Construction of the new airport, which is likely to cost $260 million (yuan 1.8 billion), will start in 2011.

Xu Bo, director of the Tibetan branch of the China civil aviation administration commented: “The objective for the next stage of development is to open direct air routes from Tibet to South Asian countries.”

An extraordinary railway line connecting Tibet to the rest of China opened four years ago, and the government is constructing six new rail lines in and around the vast region, which is rich in natural resources.

Beijing argues that such changes are needed to boost growth and raise living standards.

But opponents claim that the developments are eroding the Tibetan way of life and damaging a fragile environment. They also believe that the economic benefits of the changes have been overstated.

But the railway itself has been a feat of engineering. At its highest point, the Qinghai-Tibet line hits 5,072 metres – a height that is above the peak of any European mountain.

西藏那曲将建世界海拔最高机场 2011年动工

西藏将在那曲地区建设世界上海拔最高的机场，这个机场海拔为4436米，比目前世界上海拔最高的昌都邦达机场要高出102米。占地面积约为3500亩至4000亩的4D级机场，机场的地址初步选定在那曲地区达萨乡达仁区，因此取名为“那曲达仁机场”。该机场计划于2011年动工，用3年建成。

海拔最高　挑战飞机极限

今年要完成在那曲地区机场的选址、飞行程序和导航台站的确认，如果一切顺利，预计在“十二五”期间开工建设。目前预选址海拔 4436米，是世界上海拔最高的机场。民航西藏管理局局长徐波说，这个高度，是飞机制造商提供的民用飞机发动机中，所能承受的极限高度。不过，经过前期周密调研，飞行不会有问题。

那曲地区新建机场项目已被列入“十二五”规划，初步确定建设一个占地面积约3500至4000亩的4D级机场，估计投资将达到18个亿。目前还在进行可研性报告和选址工作，计划2011年动工，在3年时间内建成。初步将机场的地址定在那曲地区那曲县达萨乡达仁区，机场的名字为“那曲达仁机场”。

速度快　40分钟从拉萨到那曲

“从拉萨到那曲，我个人开车的话，4个半小时能到那曲镇，那曲地区有机场后，从拉萨飞那曲只需要40分钟左右。”徐波认为，那曲建机场将大大方便两地公务和商务往来。

西藏自治区目前拥有拉萨贡嘎机场、林芝米林机场和改扩建工程完成的昌都邦达机场。于2007年动工建设的阿里地区昆莎机场目前工程进展也很顺利，计划在今年7月1日正式通航。日喀则和平机场正在紧张进行改扩建，有望在今年10月1日投入使用，将成为我区第5个民用机场。

建设中的阿里昆莎机场候机楼

今年自治区还将投资8亿元对拉萨贡嘎飞行区进行改造，贡嘎机场旅客量已经恢复到了2007年的火爆状态，而跑道因为老化缘故，已经无法满足旅客出行要求。跑道改造主要实行“盖被”工程，即加一层沥青混凝土，建成柔性跑道。此外还将改造7.7万平方米的停机坪，徐波说，如果条件允许，将争取大型空中客机起降，提高效率。

Google最后一游 探秘谷歌中国办公室奇景

Google北京大楼在2006年9月落成搬入，初期70~80%都是以搜寻工程为主，这是理所当然的核心业务。

Google北京办公室和台北的101办公室相比，北京办公室除了是「整栋」的以外，办公室的风格其实相差不大，包括人人流口水的餐厅、有趣的办公室和会议室命名、不同区块办公室的布置，都有相当的巧心思！

谷歌北京办公室地址：北京市海淀区中关村东路1号院8号楼科技大厦C座16层

这是李开复(Kai-Fu Lee, 李開復)之前的办公室，比想象中还要小很多呢，感受非常好，而且有种历史感。

这个Google Logo 是北京办公室自制，象征冬至的Google。

这个舒服的沙发空间，是北京办公室的四楼，其中三、四、十楼都是以工程师为主，二楼则是寒暑假实习生。Google 应征实习生的严格不下于平日的工程师应征，因为希望这些实习生毕业后就能成为Google的一员。

瑜伽和卡啦OK共享的地方，听说Google工程师都在半夜唱卡啦OK解压。

游戏间里的撞球桌和足球桌都算是标准设备了吧

这些是请小学生画的Google标志，很可爱吧～～哪天也会出现在Google首页喔！

这也是台北办公室没有的健身房，有专属体适能教练。另外也有泰式按摩，不过要收费的喔～一个小时人民币30元。

虽然把办公室装扮成有如婚礼场地般浪漫，但销售排还榜还是透露出业务部的理性与竞争。

销售光荣榜

涂鸦版不是应该画满方程式和流程图吗？

Rare Chinese map goes on display in the US

A rarely seen 400-year-old map that identified Florida as “the Land of Flowers” and put China at the centre of the world went on display Tuesday at the Library of Congress in the US.

Rare: The 17th Century map shows China at the centre of the world

The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was among the first westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s. Known for introducing western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.

Ricci’s map includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa was noted to have the world’s highest mountain and longest river. The brief description of North America mentions “humped oxen” or bison, wild horses and a region named “Ka-na-ta.”

Several Central and South American places are named, including “Wa-ti-ma-la” (Guatemala), “Yu-ho-t’ang” (Yucatan) and “Chih-Li” (Chile).

The document, printed on six rolls of delicate rice paper, is one of only two copies in existence in good condition. It is on show alongside the Waldseemuller world map – the first to use the name ‘America’

“In olden days, nobody had ever known that there were such places as North and South America or Magellanica,” he wrote, using a label that early mapmakers gave to Australia and Antarctica. “But a hundred years ago, Europeans came sailing in their ships to parts of the sea coast, and so discovered them.”

The Ricci map gained the nickname the “Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography” because it was so hard to find.

This map – one of only two in good condition – was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust in October for $1 million, making it the second most expensive rare map ever sold. The library bought another of the world’s rarest maps, the Waldseemuller world map, which was the first to name “America,” for $10 million in 2003.

The Ricci map going on display had been held for years by a private collector in Japan and will eventually be housed at the Bell Library at the University of Minnesota. It map symbolizes the first connection between Eastern and Western thinking and commerce, said Ford W. Bell, co-trustee of the fund started by his grandfather, General Mills founder James Ford Bell.

Custodians at the Bell Library focus “on the development of trade and how that drove civilization – how that constant desire to find new markets to sell new products led to exchanges of knowledge, science, technology and really drove civilization,” said Bell, who is also president of the American Association of Museums. “So (the map) fits in beautifully.”

The map was being shown publicly for the first time in North America. It measures about 3.7 by 1.5 metres and is printed on six rolls of rice paper.

The Library of Congress rarely exhibits artifacts it does not own because its holdings are so vast, but curators made an exception for the Ricci map. It will be on view through April alongside the Waldseemuller map and later will be shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

The library also will create a digital image of the map to be posted online for researchers and students.

Ti Bin Zhang, first secretary for cultural affairs at the Chinese Embassy, said the map represents “the momentous first meeting of East and West” and was the “catalyst for commerce.”

No examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci was revered and buried. Only a few original copies are known to exist, held by the Vatican’s libraries and collectors in France and Japan.

China overtakes US as world’s No. 1 auto market

China’s auto market, which overtook the United States as the world’s largest earlier this year thanks to a raft of policy incentives, has been a major bright spot amid a global industry downturn.

Following are some key facts about China’s car industry:

TOTAL SALES

In the first 11 months, a total of 9.23 million passenger cars were sold in the country, up 49.70 percent from a year earlier, data provided by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.

Sales of branded domestic models accounted for 30 percent of total passenger vehicle sales during the period. The remainder are either made by joint ventures between foreign firms and their Chinese partners or imported from overseas.

MARKET LEADERS

SAIC-GM-Wuling led the market with 902,507 vehicles sold during the Jan-Nov period. The firm is a joint venture between General Motors, SAIC Motor Corp, China’s largest car maker, and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile.

Shanghai Volkswagen, a joint venture between Volkswagen AG and SAIC, followed with total sales of 640,620 units.

FAW Volkswagen, the German automaker’s tie-up with state-owned FAW Group, sold 616,509 units in the first 11 months of 2009, ranking third.

BEST SELLING MODELS

BYD’s F3 sedan was the best selling car in China in the first 11 months of 2009. The Shenzhen-based battery and car maker, backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffet, sold 21,853 units of F3 in the period.

Among foreign brands, Hyundai Motor Co’s Elantra sold 21,857 units. The Korean firm produces Elantra in China through a production partnership with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Group (BAIC), China’s fifth-largest automaker.

THE CHEAPEST MODEL

QQ, a compact sedan made by Chery Automobile, China’s largest indigenous car maker, sells for 33,800 yuan ($4,951) for its basic 0.8-Liter model.

2010 OUTLOOK

BYD

BYD, which is 10 percent owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, aims to sell 800,000 vehicles next year, up from a previous target of 700,000 units. It sold 400,000 vehicles in 2009.

NISSAN

Nissan Motor aims to sell 600,000 cars in China in 2010, up from expected sales of 517,000 in 2009. Its joint venture in China aims to sell 1 million cars, trucks and buses this year, up 10.5 percent from 2009 and well ahead of a plan to reach that milestone by 2012.

TOYOTA

Toyota Motor’s China sales growth is expected to slow down to about 14 percent this year from 17 percent in 2009, with a target of selling 800,000 vehicles in China. It sold 700,000 units in 2009.

FORD

Ford Motors expects to outperform the industry-wide sales growth in 2010, which is seen at 8 percent. The U.S. automaker sold 440,619 units in China last year, up 44 percent from the previous year.

OVERSEAS M&A

GEELY-VOLVO

Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, China’s largest private automaker, said in December it is nearing an agreement to buy Ford Motor’s Volvo Swedish cars unit. The value of the deal has been estimated at $1.8 billion.

BAIC-SAAB

BAIC bought the intellectual property for several Saab models from General Motors for $200 million. The acquisition is believed to cut short BAIC’s vehicle development plan by four to five years.

TENGZHONG-HUMMER

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co, a little-known Chinese machinery maker, surprised investors and industry executives alike by unveiling a tentative plan in June to take over Hummer from General Motors.

($1=6.827 Yuan)

中国跃居世界第一大汽车市场

受益于政府刺激政策，中国汽车市场在今年年初超越美国，成为全球第一大汽车市场。在全球各行业一片黯淡中，中国汽车市场一直是一道亮丽的风景。

以下是中国汽车行业的一些关键事实。

销售总量

根据中国汽车工业协会数据，去年1-11月，国内乘用车累计销量达到923万辆，同比增长49.70%。

同期，乘用车自主品牌销量占销售总量的30%，其馀为中外合资或从进口乘用车。

2009年的完全统计数据最早能在本周公布。

市场领头羊

2009年1-11月份期间，上汽通用五菱汽车股份有限公司以902,507辆的汽车销量拔下头筹。该公司为通用[GM.UL]、上海汽车与柳州五菱汽车的合资企业。

大众汽车(Volkswagen)与上汽的合资企业–上海大众位居第二，汽车销量640,620辆。

排名第三的是一汽-大众，销量达616,509辆。

最畅销车型

2009年1-11月期间，比亚迪F3是国内最畅销的车型。比亚迪F3在1-11月的销量达到了21,853辆。美国亿万富翁巴菲特的伯克希尔哈撒韦公司（Berkshire Hathaway）拥有比亚迪10%的股权。

在海外品牌中，现代汽车集团的悦动卖出了21,857辆。悦动由现代与北京汽车制造厂有限公司（BAIC）合作生产。

最便宜车型

奇瑞汽车公司生产的QQ是最廉价的车型，基础款型奇瑞QQ 0.8L售价仅为3.38万元（4,951美元）。

展望2010

比亚迪

比亚迪计划明年销售80万辆车，较之前提出的目标高出约10万辆。2009年比亚迪的销量为40万辆。

尼桑

尼桑汽车2010计划在中国销售汽车60万辆，而其2009年的销售量预计为51.7万辆。该公司在华的合资企业计划今年销售100万辆汽车、卡车与巴士，较2009年提高10.5%，比之前2012年实现百万大关的目标大幅提前。

丰田

丰田汽车2010年在华汽车销量增速可能从2009年的17%降至14%左右，该公司2010年在华销售目标为80万辆。2009年丰田在华共售出70万辆。

福特

福特预期2010在华销售业绩可能超出行业平均水平。去年该公司在中国售出了440,619万辆车，同比增长44%。

海外并购

吉利–沃尔沃

中国最大私营汽车制造商–吉利汽车股份有限公司去年12月份称，即将达成收购福特旗下瑞典沃尔沃汽车部门的协议。协议价值估计达18亿美元。

北汽–萨博

北汽以2亿美元价格购买通用汽车旗下萨博的相关技术。

腾中–悍马

四川腾中重工机械有限公司2009年6月份宣布了收购通用汽车旗下悍马品牌的计划，令投资者与行业高管倍感意外。

Top 10 stories of China sports in 2009

We take a look back at the big ten of China sports in 2009 as well as the year’s leading sports movers and shakers.

(1)Swimming: Historymaker

Zhang Lin became China’s first male swimming world champ in Rome this summer

Freestyle swimmer Zhang Lin made an historic breakthrough for China when he won the 800m freestyle at the World Championships in Rome in July, demolishing Australian great Grant Hackett’s world record in the process.

His victory made him the first Chinese male swimmer to win a World Championships title.

“My biggest goal is the 2012 London Games. I hope I won’t miss the gold by another 0.58 seconds,” said Zhang, who settled for silver in Beijing last August, beaten by Park Tae-hwan of South Korea by that slim margin.

“I hope through my years of effort I can make up for my regrets at the Beijing Games.”

Zhang was not the only Chinese swimmer to stir up the pool this year. Women’s butterfly swimmer Liu Zige, the Beijing Olympic champion, set a world record of 2:01.81 at China’s National Games in October and broke the short-course record with 2:00.78 in Berlin, Germany, a month later.

(2)Athletics: What a comeback

Liu Xiang reclaimed the spotlight with a strong comeback

After being absent from competition for 13 months, China’s star hurdler, Liu Xiang, reclaimed the spotlight with a strong comeback.

The country’s biggest track-and-field star racked up three victories and a runners-up finish in the four events he participated in over the past three months.

A surprising time of 13.15 started Liu’s comeback run at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in September, where he was narrowly beaten by US veteran Terrence Trammell.

A month later, he clocked 13.34 to win his third China Games title and continued his good form at the Asian Championships last month with a victory in 13.50. The former Olympic and world champion capped his return with an easy victory at the East Asian Games in Hong Kong in December.

“After undergoing surgery in December last year, I didn’t think this year could be so smooth I didn’t know what kind of results I could gain,” Liu said.

What’s was just as pleasing to China’s track-and-field fans this year was that even without Liu, the country performed well at the Berlin World Championships in August. Spearheaded by a gold medal from women’s marathoner Bai Xue, the Chinese team exceeded expectations, earning one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

(3)Diving: Falling angel

China’s diving diva, Guo Jingjing, consolidated her status as the most successful woman in the sport’s history by claiming two titles at the World Swimming Championships in Rome.

She won the double on the 3m springboard in the individual and synchronized events. It was the fifth straight time she had accomplished the feat at the Worlds and took her world title tally to 10.

Her Rome deeds added another chapter to a glorious career. At the Beijing Games, Guo claimed her third and fourth gold medals, making her the most decorated diver, along with Fu Mingxia, in Olympic history.

Guo has surpassed Fu in terms of records at major international tournaments. She is likely to compete at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where one more gold would be enough to make her the undisputed No 1 diver of all time.

(4)Basketball: Shanghai surprise

China’s NBA All-star Yao Ming has a new title in his hometown of Shanghai – Boss Yao.

After buying the Shanghai Sharks for 20 million yuan ($2.93 million) in July, Yao became the new head of the basketball team and has vowed to help it back to the top. “In the coming years our team will work hard to win more games. Looking into the eyes of our young players, I feel Shanghai will soon rise to the top again, ” Yao said..

Before heading off to the NBA in 2002, Yao led the club to its only CBA championship that season. Since then, the Sharks have struggled and even lost their main sponsor at the beginning of this year due to poor results which saw the side finish second last in the league.

Yao is not the only prominent person interested in the rapidly-developing CBA. China-born businessman Huang Jianhua took over the Jilin team in October.

(5)Doping: Cheating or cheated

Sprinter Wang Jing tested positive for epitestosterone and testosterone after winning the women’s 100m final at the National Games in October in Shandong province, becoming the highest-profile Chinese athlete to fail a test this year.

Wang and her coach, Chen Hua, could face lifetime bans although they claim they don’t know how the drugs got into her system.

Wang, 21, is among China’s brightest sprint prospects. She finished fourth at the 2006 Junior World Championships in the 200m and was a key component of the 4x100m relay team which claimed gold at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

Wang’s doping case was one of three at the Games in Shandong. Guo Linna, a rower from Henan province, and Li Jie, a shooter from Inner Mongolia, were also found to have taken banned substances.

They were both kicked out of the meet.

(6)Volleyball: ‘Hammer’ strikes again

The “Iron Hammer” Lang Ping continued her legendary career by signing on to coach Guangdong Evergrande Women’s Volleyball Club, the sport’s first privately-funded club in China.

Within two months, Lang put together a star-studded cast for the newly-established team, including Feng Kun, an ex-captain of the national team and setter, current US national team libero Nicole Davis and Christa Harmotto.

Not surprisingly, the team has claimed seven straight victories in the women’s second division.

“Lang has always been my idol as a player and a coach,” said Feng.

“I wanted to learn more from her and accumulate more experience, so I joined her club. I believe what I can learn here will benefit my future career and life.”

(7)Figure skating: Gold the goal

Winning the Grand Prix finals title for the sixth time in Tokyo early this month topped a fine comeback for China’s veteran figure skating pair of Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo. Now, the Olympic gold medal is the only thing on their minds.

After more than two years in retirement, the three-time world champion pair burst back on to the skating scene this year in a bid to claim Olympic gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in February.

The pair has won all three competitions it has participated in this season and upped its personal best scores each time. At the GP Finals in Tokyo, Shen and Zhao won gold with a record 214.25 points.

“The Olympic gold medal has always been our dream and we will strive for it step by step,” said 36-year-old Zhao.

Led by Shen/Zhao, the other two top Chinese pairs, Pang Qing/Tong Jian, the 2006 world champions and runners-up at the Grand Prix final this season, and Zhang Dan/Zhang Hao, will also strive for glory in Vancouver.

(8)Match fixing: Finally …

Match fixing has been an open secret in China’s professionsal soccer leagues but it was not until March this year that the nation’s cabinet started to take is seriously.

For the first time, a high-profile committee was set up by 12 ministry-level organs to clean Chinese soccer of its evils. So far, at least seven executives, including two from China’s only English-backed soccer club Chengdu Blades, have been arrested and detained for match-fixing and gambling, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Meanwhile, dozens of former players and officials have been questioned with some of them being accused of gambling through foreign websites.

Nan Yong, deputy chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), said the association would cooperate with the security bureau.

(9)Cue sports: World in pocket

It was a superb year for China’s cue sports.

Star snooker player Ding Junhui announced his comeback by winning his second UK Championship title on Dec 13. It was also the 22-year-old’s first major tournament victory since claiming the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy.

On the women’s side, 16-year-old Liu Shasha became the youngest player to win the World Women’s 9-ball Championships in Shangyang, Liaoning province, in November, the second Chinese winner of the event after Pan Xiaoting in 2007.

Also, Liang Wenbo reached the quarterfinals at the UK Championship. He was also only the second Chinese player and fourth Asian man to reach a ranking final at September’s Shanghai Masters.

(10)National fitness: Sports for all

After topping the gold medal tally at last year’s Beijing Olympic Games for the first time, China has expanded its focus from competitive sports to mass sports, calling on and helping more and more people to take part in and benefit from daily exercise.

August 8, the opening date of the 2008 Beijing Games, has been named National Fitness Day and various activities were held all over the country to mark the anniversary, including fitness lectures, table tennis competitions and a chance to seek help from sports scientists.

“The Olympics were not only the show of elite athletes but also the embodiment of sport’s general values, which inspired more and more Chinese people to join sports enthusiastically,” said Liu Peng, China’s sports minister.

National Fitness Regulations came into effect on Oct 1. The regulations emphasize the rights of students to practise sports and encourage the opening of sports facilities to the public after school and on holidays.

While the athletes fought for medals at the 11th National Games in October, the organizers chose “Harmonious China, People’s Games” as the motto to promote physical fitness nationwide rather than the Games being a mere a demonstration of the country’s sports strength.

2009年中国体育十大新闻：
一、8月8日，我国首个全民健身日启动；8月30日，国务院颁布《全民健身条例》；10月1日，《全民健身条例》施行。
二、7月30日，张琳在罗马游泳世锦赛男子800米自由泳决赛中以7分32秒12夺冠并打破世界纪录，实现中国男子游泳历史性突破。
三、10月16日至28日，第十一届全运会在山东举行。刘子歌创造女子200米蝶泳世界纪录。
四、中国足球打假行动引起社会高度关注，打击赌球、假球的风暴波及国内部分省市。
五、8月12日，郎平签约恒大女排，执教国内第一家真正由企业出资、实行企业化管理的排球俱乐部。
六、中国田径频传利好，9月20日，刘翔以13秒15完美复出，随后蝉联全运会三连冠。 8月23日，白雪在柏林田径世锦赛以2小时25分15秒夺得中国马拉松世锦赛历史首金。
七、2月18日至28日，第二十四届世界大学生冬季运动会在中国哈尔滨举行。中国代表团以18金、18银、12铜的佳绩笑傲群雄。
八、3月29日，中国队在2009年女子冰壶世锦赛上首夺世界冠军。
九、7月15日，姚之队正式签约收购上海东方男篮，姚明成为昔日母队的老板。
十、11月13日至23日，首届全国智力运动会在四川举行。

Google vs. Baidu: Faceoff in China!

Google vs Baidu, Who will win China?

Google (GOOG), she says, lost share in China, dropping to 17% in the third quarter, from about 19% in the second quarter.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt (L) and ex-President of Google China Kai-Fu Lee

Lee scurried to set up an office for his incubator, raise a fund and assemble a team from thousands of job seekers. Lee’s PR reps in China and the Valley hyped his new project as his fulfillment of a dream to coach young Chinese entrepreneurs and support their best start-up ideas.

DangDang - Amazon of China!

It shouldn’t be all that surprising to see a big American brand being one-upped by a local competitor. Indeed, the story of a home-grown Chinese start-up triumphing over an iconic Internet rival is by now a familiar theme.

Just like Chinese search engine Baidu trumped Google, online bookseller Dangdang (当当网) outsmarted Amazon in China (卓越亚马逊) with better merchandising skills while Alibaba-owned Chinese auction site Taobao (淘宝网) took the lead from eBay by giving sellers a free listing of their goods and charging only for premium accounts.

Taobao, eBay of China!

What helped was being on site to respond to China’s fast-moving marketplace rather than in a faraway office on the other side of the Pacific.

And Baidu is trying to extend its search dominance on mobile phones, an area where Google has done well in China, thanks to a search deal with China Mobile, the nation’s largest carrier. In October Baidu announced a deal to provide mobile search to customers of China Unicom‘s (CHU) 3G services, and it also is testing a mobile app that features Baidu’s some most popular online tools, including a message board service. China Unicom—the country’s second largest mobile carrier—signed a three-year deal with Apple this summer to bring the iPhone to China.

Baidu to Provide Wireless Search for China Unicom's 3G Subscribers

Tech analaysts in China have said Google has done a good job understanding the nuances of the Chinese language. (Google hasn’t fared as well in Russia, where rival Yandex dominates thanks, in part, to its ability to accommodate the peculiarities of the Russian language.) Some users also say Google delivers a better search experience: Baidu had been criticized for mixing ads and organic search results on the same confusing page.

Baidu benefits from incumbent status (it formed in 2000, while Google China didn’t get going until 2006 –after Google sold a modest share in Baidu) and, its executives say, a set of tools that help Chinese users get information – not just search results. A tool called Baidu Post Bar it a bit like a social-networking application that allows users to tap other folks online for advice or comments as they are searching for, say, the best appliance to buy.

But no one, least of all Baidu executives, assumes Google is content with its position in China today. “We don’t underestimate their technology or their ability,” says Baidu CFO Li.

And while Baidu, for now, seems content to focus on search (CEO Robin Li likes to point out that the company’s other services – maps, mail, Baidu Post – all help enhance the search experience) Google’s ambitions in China go well beyond traditional online advertising and search. The company is widely believed to be looking for multiple ways to introduce its Android mobile operating platform in China, and recent reports suggest it may look to open an Android application marketplace in China.

Google to Launch Chinese Android Market?

For now, though, Google must live with its second-banana status in China. According to various Chinese news outlets, Google China issued a news release listing the most popular searches in China in 2008. The most searched term among Google users in mainland China? Baidu.

“Baidu” tops most searched terms on Google China
Baidu tops the most searched terms on google in China, according to a report-”Hottest Words by Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan 2009″ -Google China released Wednesday. Among stocks, Vanke A share, China Unicom and Ping An of China were the most searched for. Shanghai Composite Index, fund, exchange rate Growth Enterprise Board, and paper gold were among the top economic search terms. Google users were also curious about the prices of gold, airplane flights, steel and petrol.

Internet expert Xiewen said the report reflected Google’s generosity as well as its own flaws in China.

The report also released the most searched “economic search terms”. Shanghai Composite Index, fund, exchange rate Growth Enterprise Board, and paper gold were on the list.

In addition, it is noteworthy that Internet companies occupy the top ten “hottest searched words by mainland users” and three of them are Chinese online video sites. The emerging social website “kaixin001.com“,”xiaonei.com (now renren.com)” are also on the list, according to the report.

China launches world’s fastest train

China Unveils 'Fastest Train' in World

The Harmony express raced 1,100km in less than three hours on Saturday, travelling from Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, to the central city of Wuhan. The journey previously took at least 11 hours.

The improvement illustrates how China’s huge investment in infrastructure is dramatically shrinking the country, yet the economics of the new service, which runs 56 times a day, remain unproven amid a build-it-and-they-will-come approach to transport.

“China has focused on building expressways but that is an American method,” said Zheng Tianxiang, a Guangzhou-based infrastructure expert and government adviser.

“Expressways are not suited for China, which has large numbers of people but little space to spare. China should learn from Japan and Europe.”

The Harmony express, which reached a top speed of 394km per hour in pre-launch trials, travelled at an average rate of 350km per hour on its debut. This compared with a maximum service speed of 300km per hour for Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains and France’s TGV service. In America, Amtrak’s Acela “Express” service takes 3½ hours to trundle between Boston and New York, a distance of only 300km.

According to state media reports, the government spent $17bn (€12bn, £11bn) on the Harmony express line’s construction over 4½ years. Wuhan invested $2.4bn in a new French-designed train station, which boasts 20 tracks and 11 platforms. Officials this weekend declined to confirm project costs.

Ticket prices have been set at Rmb780 ($115, €80, £72) for first class and Rmb490 for second. The country’s airlines, which like the railway are mostly state-owned, have responded by slashing fares to undercut those for the new train, with China Southern Airlines, based in Guangzhou, offering tickets for advance purchase starting at Rmb250 and introducing hourly flights.

Huang Xin, head of passenger services for Guangzhou Railway Group, said on the inaugural ride that pricing might have to be adjusted.

Even the second-class fares may prove too rich for the biggest pool of potential passengers for the line, the estimated 20m workers in the Pearl river delta manufacturing belt around Guangzhou who hail from inland provinces. About half of them usually return home during the Chinese new year holiday in the world’s biggest human migration. The round-trip express fare is priced at about two-thirds of an average factory worker’s monthly wage.

Most passengers on the sold-out debut run were middle-class joy-riders drawn by the journey’s novelty value. “We are not staying in Wuhan,” said Qiu Chaoyue, a Guangzhou resident who tried out the new rail link with a group of friends. “We’re going to take the next train back to Guangzhou.”

Another disadvantage of the new service is that the stations at each end of the line are at least an hour’s drive from their respective city centres.

In total, the railways ministry intends to complete 18,000km of high-speed rail lines by 2012, allowing passengers to travel between most Chinese provincial capitals in eight hours or less.

One reason for the enormous construction outlay for the Harmony express was difficult terrain, especially in the poor mountainous areas of Guangdong and Hunan provinces. The train travels along 713km of elevated tracks and tunnels, accounting for about 70 per cent of its length.

Police were posted along the route to guard potential sabotage points, while burly railway security personnel monitored each passenger car. The police outside were often joined by farmers, who stopped to watch the Harmony express rush by their rural homes.

In spring and summer, the train will travel through a lush agricultural breadbasket, especially in the rice-growing areas of southern Hunan province. But in the dead of winter, it traverses a bleak, monochrome landscape of fallow fields and dirt roads that turn to mud in the rain.

The technology for the new train link has been developed in co-operation with Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.

武广高铁时速350公里 世界惊叹中国速度

号称全世界最长、最快的武广高速铁路昨日正式投入运营，平均350公里的时速比西方最为著名的高速火车“欧洲之星”的平均时速还快了50多公里。

中途停靠15个车站

开工于2005年6月，全长1068.6公里的武广高铁，是迄今为止世界上一次建成里程最长、运营速度最快的高速铁路，是世界上第一条时速350公里的长大客运专线。它纵贯湖北、湖南、广东三省，北起武汉站，途经咸宁、岳阳、长沙、株洲、衡阳、郴州、韶关、清远等市，南到广州南站，全线共15个车站，是建设中京广高铁的重要组成部分。

根据测试记录，列车从武汉开出，20分钟后抵咸宁，43分钟后抵岳阳，1小时零8分后抵长沙，1小时16分钟后抵株洲，1小时36分钟后抵衡阳，2小时后抵郴州，2小时24分钟后到达韶关，2小时47分钟后抵清远，3小时后到广州。

英国《每日邮报》今晨报道用“比欧洲之星更让你嫉妒”来描述武广高铁，称“中国速度”让世界惊叹。报道称，武广高铁期望最终通至香港。港府此前已经通过了造价537亿港元的港段高铁计划，目前尚待香港立法会批准。

无法在速度上跟中国较劲儿，不少外媒将焦点放到了票价和对高铁未来的发展上。媒体报道称，高铁的高价令普通老百姓 “心凉了半截儿”，甚至引发外媒对中国经济或将受高铁“绑架”的质疑。

民众质疑

高铁票价堪比机票价

英国广播公司BBC的报道说，武广高铁运行的同一天，武广铁路沿线停运13对普通列车，而武广高铁票价是普通硬座价格的3.5倍，这引起了不少民众的不满。

新加坡《联合早报》昨日文章分析称，打工者和学生是火车的主要乘客，对于他们来说，车票可能就是他们一个月的生活费。有网友称：“高铁再怎么说也是火车，凭什么比机票价钱还贵啊？”

媒体称，高速铁路网是中国一揽子刺激计划的象征，太注重对基础设施投资而忽略了提高人民生活水平。中国城市工人去年平均收入2.8898万元，是美国工人平均工资3.9653万美元的十分之一。

对此铁道部回应称，目前的票价只属于“试运营价”，日后正式定价时将考虑高铁的运营情况。而在列车方面，被停运的班次可以在春运期间加开临客补充。

国产CRH3型和谐号高速列车正在驶进新武汉站

高度发展铁路可能拖累经济

美媒称，高铁的高价令百姓们望而生畏，然而民众“被高速”的呼声背后还有一种担心——高铁恐怕将成为中国未来经济发展的隐忧之一。“顾客的犹豫意味着高速铁路如果仍以现在的速度扩张，可能达不到足够多的载客量去还债。”《纽约时报》23日“中国经济是否会脱轨？”的报道援引北京交通大学经济学教授赵坚的话说，“铁道部发行了3830亿元债券，如果说美国有次贷危机，那么在中国我们也有铁路债务危机”。“这条正在建设的高速铁路线预计耗资2210亿元人民币，目前有雇员12.7万人，是中国历史上最昂贵的工程项目，耗资超过了世界最大的水力发电项目长江三峡大坝。”美媒称，高铁投资巨大，可能会阻碍中国经济增长。

还有美国媒体援引摩根士丹利亚洲区董事长斯蒂芬·罗奇的话说，诸如工厂和铁路系统这样的固定资产投资在中国2009年头三个季度7.7%的GDP增长中所占比例超过了95%，占GDP的45%。

他认为，如果消费开支不能大幅增长，出口增长又陷入停滞，那么投资必须进一步增长才能刺激经济。“对任何经济而言，这都是不可持续的数字。”罗奇此前在10月份的一份报告中还表示，随着明年投资主导的扩张逐渐消失，对美国这一传统增长来源的出口不能增长，中国明年或许遭遇增速延缓。

专家反驳

推动经济高铁一样有票房

对外经济贸易大学国际经济研究院国际投资研究室主任、中国资本运营研究中心主任冯鹏程今晨接受本报记者采访时表示，对中国经济的数量增长来说，高铁的建成肯定是有益的。“花一块钱建设高铁，GDP总量就多一块钱。”冯鹏程说，但对更为重要的经济质量增长来说，目前看来没有产生太多的有利影响，因为票价贵，没有给予老百姓实实在在的好处。

不过，冯鹏程补充说，从长远来看，高铁使中国的基础设施建设有了很大提高，未来能够吸引更多外资，如果政府将来的政策得当，中国经济同样能靠高铁在质量上实现增长，赢得票房。

武广数据

　　路线：北起武汉站，南到广州站

　　车型：和谐号高速列车

　　票价：一等票价780元、二等490元

　　距离：1069公里

　　时间：3小时

　　时速：350公里

　　世界速度

　　（单位:公里/小时）

　　西班牙高速铁道 约300

　　中国京津城际铁路 约350

　　法国高速火车 约349.2

　　日本新干线 约320