Archive for the ‘China’ Category
Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport
The 360,000 square meter terminal with a new runway has 45 plane parking bays and an annual transport capacity of 40 million people, said Shen Xiaosu, deputy director of Shanghai’s Urban, Rural Development and Traffic Committee.
As of March 16, a total of 11 domestic carriers including Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, Air China and China Southern Airlines had moved their operations to the new terminal. The old terminal will be primarily used by some budget airlines and chartered flights to Japan and the Republic of Korea, according to the airport’s website.
Together with the opening of the new terminal on Tuesday, the extension of Shanghai’s subway line 2 linking with the new terminal also started operation, the airport’s website said. – read more at People’s Daily Online…
An artist's rendering of Waitanyuan in Shanghai
The area, sited along the northern stretch of the Bund and mainly surrounded by the Huangpu River to the east, Suzhou Creek to the north, Sichuan Road M. to the west and Dianchi Road to the south, will have up to 100,000 square meters of retail space in operation by the end of next year, compared with the existing 63,000 square meters in the Bund area, according to a research released yesterday by Jones Lang LaSalle Shanghai.
“The Waitanyuan project, whose first phase mainly consists of Rock Bund, Park 33, Yi Feng Building, Bund 27 as well as the Peninsula Shanghai, will emerge as the sixth major retail clout in Shanghai by the end of 2011 following Nanjing Road E., Nanjing Road W., Xujiahui, Huaihai Road in Puxi and Lujiazui in Pudong,” said Joseph Tang, head of retail for central China operations at Jones Lang LaSalle.
“With unique architectural and historic elements rooted in the Bund area, retailers from around the world have shown keen interest to expand in the future stylish zone,” Tang said.
Giorgio Armani, Prada, Chanel, Piaget, Berluti, Chaumet, Ralph Lauren and Shanghai Tang are some of the retail brands in the Waitanyuan area. – read more at ShanghaiDaily.com…
A Volkswagen China ad for the new Beetle. The company is considering a new Guangdong plant to meet demand in South China.
More than 4 billion euros (US$5.5 billion) will be invested in the new facility, due to be completed in 2013, which will make models under Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda brands, The Beijing Times said, citing Winfried Vahland, president of Volkswagen China Group.
Two factories with output capacity of 200,000 units each will be set up by VW’s domestic ventures, the report added.
Since VW entered the Chinese market in 1984, it has performed sluggishly in south China, where Japanese rivals, including Toyota, Nissan and Honda, are dominant.
Last year, VW announced plans to boost sales and raise market share in south China, including the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and provinces of Hainan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian. – read more at ShanghaiDaily.com…
The LG GW880 Android Phone is now sold in China
Motorola this week announced a global alliance with Microsoft to deploy Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android. This new offering, launching in China on smartphones before the end of March, will provide consumers a choice when using search and map functions on their Android-based devices. Search and Maps capabilities through Microsoft will initially be available in China, starting this month, through either pre-load or over-the-air updates for devices already in market.
With this collaboration, consumers will enjoy a pre-loaded Bing bookmark on their mobile browser and an enhanced search widget with Bing integration. By enabling users to customize their devices and select their own Search provider, Motorola, with help from Microsoft, is expanding the capabilities and range of services currently offered in the marketplace and opening the doors for increased personalization.
When Microsoft unveiled Bing last year, the name drew snickers in China, as it sounds like either “illness” or “ice” in Mandarin Chinese. The company hopes to now use that name to give searchers a healthy dose of warm searchability via the Motorola phones. – read more at ChinaTechNews.com…
A model poses in front of a car produced by Shanghai GM at an auto show in Shanghai. Am Xin / China Daily
The number of car models in China’s showrooms quadrupled in the past six years, forcing companies to fight for attention by unveiling vehicles at the Imperial Ancestral Temple in Beijing and the Great Wall outside the capital – and by paying Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps millions of dollars.
“It is clear that brands are still in the forming process,” said Joerg Mull, chief financial officer for Volkswagen AG’s China unit. “One of the keys for success in China in the long run is brand building and brand establishment.”
About 83 percent of Chinese buyers last year purchased their first vehicle, said the State Information Center, a research arm of the government’s National Development and Reform Commission.
At stake for China’s more than 130 carmakers is winning loyal customers in world’s largest automobile market.
Sales in the country surged 46 percent to 13.6 million last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. In the US, sales slumped 21 percent to 10.4 million, the fewest since 1982, according to Autodata Corp.
This year, sales in China may rise more than 10 percent to about 15 million vehicles, Chang Xiaocun, head of the Ministry of Commerce’s market construction department, said. Customers choose from 221 models, more than double the total of 2008 and more than quadruple that of 2004, the manufacturers association said.
“You’ve got to create the right image, you’ve got to market it aggressively,” General Motors’ China President Kevin Wale said after the company and Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp launched their Buick Excelle XT in Shanghai.
Car buyers in China tend to be younger than those in the US, Wale said, so the Internet is a key part of an automaker’s marketing strategy. The average Buick customer in China is 28, married and a college graduate. His US counterpart is 66 and doesn’t have a degree, General Motors China said.
The JW Marriott hotel, Shanghai
A report by the China Economic Weekly says the room rates of five-star hotels like the Shangri-la, Grant Hyatt and Hilton during the Shanghai Expo is about 1,500 yuan ($219.74) to 1,800 yuan, an increase of more than 20 percent compared with the end of 2009. The demand for rooms this year was greater than that at the end of 2009.
Statistics from Ctrip.com, a leading online travel service company in China say that the demand for rooms from economy hotels was more than four times than that at the end of last year and the prices also increased at different levels.
Meanwhile, the person in charge of rooms at the five-star JW Marriott Hotel in Shanghai said that prices may grow further as the expo draws nearer.
Currently, Shanghai has 550,000 beds, or 340,000 rooms; this is enough accommodation during normal periods, but not enough during the holidays, according to Han Zheng, mayor of Shanghai.
The upcoming World Expo is expected to bring in an estimated 70 million visitors and 58.5 million may from the other provinces or overseas, with the People’s Daily online report estimating an additional 400,000 beds are needed a day on average.
A row of Carrefour shopping trolleys at the entrance to a Beijing outlet of the French retailer. (XU YIN / CHINA FOTO PRESS)
Retailer embarks on strategic expansion on the back of high sales
The night time craze was symbolic of the retail giant’s strong performance in China. Claudio Gouveia, vice-president of Carrefour China and also general manager of the North Territory of Carrefour China, said the country has become one of the most significant and also fastest-growing markets for the retailer.
Carrefour last year pulled out of Russia and southern Italy amid the economic meltdown following decisions to quit Japanese, South Korean and Mexican markets in 2005 and 2006, because of “unsmooth operations”. It sold its stores to local enterprises.
However, the retailer maintained steady expansion in China. Gouveia said that Carrefour opened 22 new stores in 2009, boosting the total number of outlets to 157 across the country. It plans to open 20 to 25 new outlets this year.
He added that the company was satisfied and very optimistic about its business in China because the country’s household consumption rates have been high.
In the past year, Carrefour benefited a lot from the stimulus measures, introduced by the Chinese government. For example, the authorities subsidized energy-saving household appliances in an effort to encourage their purchase.
Gouveia said Carrefour had a very clear strategic plan for the Chinese market and would be focusing on constructing hypermarkets with an average size from 6,000 sq m to 11,000 sq m.
The company was making great efforts to balance its presence in big cities and also second and third tier cities. It has been operating its retail business in 45 cities across China.
“Currently, Carrefour has a good presence in big cities while more new stores will be in second and third tier cities,” said Gouveia.
The French company will be the first international retailer to enter the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, where it plans to build a new outlet in 2011.
The retailer plans to develop its China-based outlets alongside the construction of local infrastructure and arrival of new businesses. “For instance, there will be a new airport in the Daxing district of Beijing’s southern suburb and there may be a new outlet nearby. I believe we have many opportunities in this area,” said Gouveia.
In response to its rival Wal-Mart, which is planning to build about 50 new stores each year, adding to its current total of 160 outlets, Gouveia said the focus of Carrefour was to keep a good balance between the rhythm of expansion and the quality of the stores.
Gary Wang, founder and CEO of Tudou.com, describes himself as a "world citizen", having studied in the United States and France. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Even when his company endured a government-led online crackdown on copyrighted video content last year and had to face a group of new giant competitors such as CCTV and Baidu, the 36-year-old chief executive still maintained his calm and confidence rather than submitting to worry or panic, something many had expected.
Wang dropped out from China’s rigid education system in the 1990s, but later managed to get his bachelor, master and MBA degrees at the world’s best educational institutions. He enjoys hiking and reading and describes himself as a “world citizen”. He is also the author of a popular Chinese fiction book that some believe to have described his early days of studying in the United States and France.
As a man who comfortably mixes his work and free time, Wang is happy dealing with business emails while camping during a hike and allows flexible working hour for his employees. As an interviewee he is relaxed to the point of resting his legs on the office table while excitably discussing his favorite books.
Surprisingly, these characteristics, regarded by some as perhaps conceited and arrogant, helped Wang win approval from many investors, one of whom once said he felt “assured” by Wang’s attitude towards work and life.
“Doing business is like playing games: You grow up by passing each level and fight with bigger bosses each time,” Wang said, sitting in his office in Beijing soon after CCTV and Baidu announced they were establishing their own video websites. “I believe we can survive and thrive.” – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
Wuxi is attempting a transformation from a manufacturing hub to a high-tech city.
As a major city in the Yangtze River Delta, Wuxi, Jiangsu province, landed 12 new projects last month including those in electronic information, biopharmaceutics, new energy and materials and outsourcing, totaling 715.7 million yuan.
Wuxi’s development district has already inked an agreement with consumer electronics maker Beijing Huaqi Information Digital Technology Co Ltd, to invest 30 million yuan in a hi-tech manufacturing base.
Beijing Huaqi, maker of Aigo branded electronics, plans to locate its MP6 wireless technology unit in Wuxi.
“Wuxi is one of China’s bases for the ‘Internet of Things’ industry. This is one of the major reasons we chose to locate here,” said Frank Zhou, general manager of Beijing Huaqi’s MP6 business unit.
The “Internet of Things” is a network of web-enabled objects linked together with online services that interact with these objects. Underlying the Internet of Things are technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), sensors and smart phones.
The Internet fridge is probably the most often-quoted example of what the Internet of Things will enable.
Zhou said Beijing Huaqi hopes to leverage Internet of Things technologies in association with its closely related MP6 business.
Beijing Huaqi expects its MP6 business – focused on the firm’s Internet music player – to generate revenue of 2 billion yuan over the next three years. Zhou said the company is eying both Hong Kong and New York as possible future locations for an initial public offering.
Just last year, Wuxi formed new alliances with telecom carriers China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to cooperate in research and development, project incubation and other commercial applications. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
The rise and rise of the 'rich class' A woman takes a look at a model of a property development in Haikou, Hainan province yesterday. Properties on the island province have become hot targets for the newly-rich Chinese. (China Daily)
The large siheyuan, a traditional house found in the capital’s sprawling hutongs, cost Chen 12 million yuan ($1.75 million), suggesting he is far removed from those who sweat and struggle for years to afford small, humble homes.
China has seen a massive expansion in the rich class in the past five years, according to analysts.
“The country’s fortune is increasing at a skyrocketing speed and is converging toward the rich class,” Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Hurun Rich List, told Outlook Weekly.
“The number of people with a personal wealth of more than 1 billion yuan has rapidly risen since 2004. Then, there were 100. In 2009, we discovered that 1,000 people are now in the club.”
A spokesman for the Forbes China Rich List also said the threshold for being among the 400 richest people on the Chinese mainland had risen from 1.22 billion yuan in 2008 to 2.05 billion yuan last year.
The growth in Chinese millionaires alone has attracted interest for multinational companies, including Deutsche Bank AG, which is planning to target more services to China’s rich class, reported the German press.
According to other experts, the rich class is a group with only one thing on their mind: property.
A recent poll of wealthy people in Beijing and Shanghai by the Beijing Youth Daily found most owned at least three properties, while many subscribe to the traditional belief that, if you have money, you should invest in property. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…
