flu, your comments echo what I heard from a friend just back from a visit a month ago. High living standards for many Chinese now.

Patient renter in OC

flu, your comments echo what I heard from a friend just back from a visit a month ago. High living standards for many Chinese now.

Patient renter in OC

Yes for a communist country they do take to capitalistic ways like fish to water.

I recently took my 4th trip there. My first trips were to the big cities and my impressions were the same as yours: consumerism is on the rise; however, now I’ve started visiting outlying areas and much of the country still lives without many of the things we take for granted. It would be interesting to see the wealth and income gap between the rich and the poor.

Recently I went to the Guanxi region in the southwest, bordering Vietnam. Although there are major tourist areas (Guilin being the biggest tourist attraction to Chinese) most of the areas are dirt poor.

Didn’t you find that, even though the price tags were high, the cost of everything is negotiable?

Of course they were nicer to you: you’ve got beaucoup tourist bucks! The most important phrase I learned was: bu yao la! (I don’t want it) used to fend off the peddlers of kitschy trinkets and crap.

Very true. I go to Asia once a year (going for new year). Hotels there are more expensive than in LA. Shanghai and Beijing are changing fast. The Shanghai Urban Planning Museum is simply amazing. Public transport is great. The Mag Lev train is awesome! China is a lot more dynamic than America as everyone is running around looking to make money.

Sure, China is still poor but out of the total population, you have at least 200 million middle and upper income earners. Think of how America was to Europe in the late 1800s.

My good friends who are Chinese and retired sold their home and moved to Beijing to be near their two sons who work there. The sons say that LA is too laid back and when they lived in LA, they didn’t feel driven. BTW, they sold their LA house at the peak and moved all their money to Hong Kong. If they tire of China they’ll be able to move back and buy at 1/2 price. But I doubt they’ll ever come back.

Americans and Europeans are everywhere looking for business opportunities in China.

Read Tom Friedman and be very worried. As America is bogged down in Iraq, China is extending it’s business tentacles around the globe. If you want a good future for your children, make sure they learn Chinese and go on exchange programs in China.

Very true. I go to Asia once a year (going for new year). Hotels there are more expensive than in LA. Shanghai and Beijing are changing fast. The Shanghai Urban Planning Museum is simply amazing. Public transport is great. The Mag Lev train is awesome! China is a lot more dynamic than America as everyone is running around looking to make money.

Sure, China is still poor but out of the total population, you have at least 200 million middle and upper income earners. Think of how America was to Europe in the late 1800s.

My good friends who are Chinese and retired sold their home and moved to Beijing to be near their two sons who work there. The sons say that LA is too laid back and when they lived in LA, they didn’t feel driven. BTW, they sold their LA house at the peak and moved all their money to Hong Kong. If they tire of China they’ll be able to move back and buy at 1/2 price. But I doubt they’ll ever come back.

Americans and Europeans are everywhere looking for business opportunities in China.

Read Tom Friedman and be very worried. As America is bogged down in Iraq, China is extending it’s business tentacles around the globe. If you want a good future for your children, make sure they learn Chinese and go on exchange programs in China.

Notradamus, have you been to Vietnam? I want to go check it out. Here’s an interesting article in BW.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_43/b4055060.htm?chan=search

I am a Chinese American, pro-China, and I just got back from Shanghai last weekend. Yes, there are growing middle class – I have never seen so many VW in my life. However, majority of China’s wealth is still in the control of its government (land tenure for example). Average joel make less than 10,000 US dollars even in Shanghai, and that’s consider good pay (there is a saying in Shanghai that an ideal husband should make 7000 rmb a month). The stock market is so over-priced especially after last week’s run on HK stock exchange. And don’t forget the constant gray-haze air pollution in Shanghai; plus the 2nd hand smokes in-door. I think we have our troubles and China has its. Who will come up on top? I think US still will because we are in a far better position from the beginning. Of course, we maybe at the beginning of the end of the American Empire.

These been said. I did enjoy my trip to China. The services and goods were cheap if you knew your way. The hotel room you could get at least 25% off. I brought most of my gifts there for a minimum of 50% off, and I still felt that I was getting ripped off. I like the massage places (I went to the top one), and I got an hour massage for less than 10 US dollars. The food is about half of US price at a good restaruant. However, there are also very expansive places, I ate at a Japanese buffet place that cost 288 rmb (~35 dollars), and I went to a night club that cost way too much (but an eye opening experience). China is growthing fast but I will suggest it take its time to solve its problems first before they blow up in its face.