Reading up on feng shui could improve your financial skills. (CFP)

By Li Tao (China Daily) – HONG KONG: While financial analysts read all sorts of indexes to form a picture of the economy, feng shui experts in Hong Kong are applying their art to a similar end.

Peter So, a popular local feng shui master, is trying to convince undecided investors not to purchase property in Hong Kong until 2015.

So said past experience showed the city’s property prices rising continuously for five years and then falling over the next six. He said prices peaked in 2009, the final year of the last cycle, and were now due to tumble.

“The theory has never been wrong in the past,” said So. “Apartment prices fell in value almost 50 percent between 1986 and 1991 and then rebounded to another high in 1997. They slumped again in 2003 because of the breakout of SARS, and it is acknowledged that property prices have been way up over the past few years, even though the city’s economy was damaged severely by the global financial crisis.”

So said the next bottoming of the property market would occur in 2015 and he had now started saving money ahead of the eventuality.

As to stocks, So eschewed predicting whether it would be a lucrative market or not this year, but advised investors to differentiate odd years from even ones when buying, a tactic he said was effective eight times of 10.

“Though the stock market is volatile, rough fluctuations still can be determined. Generally, the market rises high initially but ends low in odd years. The trend reverses in even years. This is an even year, so investors should consider buying stocks in May or June, when the market will be at the year’s bottom,” said So.

However, just like the mercurial markets, predictions from different feng shui masters vary, sometimes considerably.

Edwin Ma, another local feng shui master, disagrees with So about the city’s property market.

“If I am to make a suggestion to my clients, I will definitely advise them to pour money into the property market this year,” Ma said.

Ma anticipates a flat year in housing prices, but he said it was still worth investing since “in comparison with stocks, property prices are de facto guaranteed to make a fortune, while most stocks were not”.

He added: “The stock market seemed exuberant last year, but it has become the playground only for rich people because profitable stocks were no longer affordable to most ordinary investors.” – 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)

Chen is one of the China’s rapidly expanding “rich class”. He has several properties in Beijing, including a grand courtyard house he uses solely to entertain friends and business associates.

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…

Hong Kong clothing retailers threaten to quit Taiwan over tax issue: Taipei – Four Hong Kong clothing retailers are threatening to quit Taiwan over a tax dispute with Taiwan authorities, a press report said Monday. The four Hong Kong retailers – Hang Ten, Giordano, Bossini and BaLeNo – made the threat in a petition to President Ma Ying-jeou, demanding that their names be cleared, or they might withdraw from Taiwan, the United Daily News quoted Lai Shih-pao as saying. (Via China News.)

Hainan to curb ‘whopping housing price’: As of the phenomena that the ‘whopping prices’ for living in hotels in Hainan Province ‘bluff off’ the tourists during the Spring Festival, the government would takes efforts to regulate the market, Wu Kunxiong, deputy director general of the tourism department of Hainan Province said Saturday. The government will strictly crack down on the house speculators and formulate tourism standards to cope with the high prices, according to Wu. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Revenue From Beijing’s Five-star Hotels Beijing Down 16.9% In 2009: According to data provided by Bureau of Statistics of Beijing, the revenue of star-grade hotels in the city decreased by 9.7% year-on-year in 2009. During the entire year of 2009, star hotels in Beijing made total revenues of CNY21.94 billion, including CNY9.98 billion from guest rooms. (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

APEC seeking pathways to Asia-Pacific free trade area: Senior officials from Pacific Rim economies accelerated their efforts Monday to seek ”possible pathways” to a region-wide free trade zone, but fell short of reaching any consensus except to continue necessary work. After a meeting in Hiroshima, where Japan formally took up its chairmanship of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum for 2010, a Japanese official said, ”We already have very sensible analytical studies but also have lots of issues that require further discussions.” (Via Kyodo News (Business).)

Asia leads global march away from easy credit: (HONG KONG) The US Federal Reserve has just kick- started its cautious exit from unprecedented emergency lending measures – but the process has been going on for months in the Asia-Pacific region, underscoring the two-speed path of the global recovery. (Via Business Times Online – All The Headlines.)

50% of sneak preview tickets for Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa casino & theme park snapped up: SINGAPORE: Fifty per cent of the sneak preview tickets to check out Singapore’s first casino and theme park were snapped up when they went on sale on Friday, despite the fact that none of the 20 rides and shows at Universal Studios will be ready. (Via Channel NewsAsia Singapore News.)

McDonald’s To Open Hamburger University In Shanghai: As a celebration of the 20th anniversary of McDonald’s entry into the Chinese market, the international fast food giant has announced plans to launch a new hamburger university in Shanghai, the company’s seventh worldwide, making the city a new human resources training base for McDonald’s in Asia Pacific.(Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

Shanghai Watch Looks To Join Ranks Of Elite Brands: Although most of the world’s top watchmakers remain cozily ensconced within the borders of Switzerland, as with most luxury industries ‘the Chinese are coming’…in this case, to reinvent a brand better known for gracing the wrists of Mao Zedong and Zhou En’lai than Donald Trump or Warren Buffett. (Though the latter might be more open to it than we might assume.) This brand, Shanghai Watch (上海手表厂), started producing watches in the mid-1950s, amid a flurry of activity in the Shanghai wristwatch industry, and quickly established itself as the country’s top watchmaker. (Via Jing Daily :.)

Toyota president to testify before U.S. congressional panels: Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda would testify before U.S. congressional committees on massive recalls of Toyota vehicles if he is formally asked to do so, Toyota officials said Friday. The automaker is hoping that if Toyoda appears in person at congressional hearings, it would help to revive trust in Toyota’s vehicles amid growing criticism of the automaker in the United States, they said. (Via Kyodo News (Business).)

Chinese snapping up real estate in Japan: Japan’s real estate market may be in a slump, but that is not deterring the Chinese from scooping up properties. Chinese money – that is, from ethnic Chinese living in Japan – is making its presence felt in a big way. A growing number of Chinese residents are turning to real estate investments in major cities as well as rural areas. (AsiaOne) (Via News On Japan.)

Bottega Veneta Opens First Second-Tier Location In Nanjing: Bottega Veneta recently announced the grand opening of their first Nanjing location, the Italian brand’s eighth store on the Chinese mainland. The new store, designed by creative director Tomas Maier, is specially outfitted to showcase what the company calls its ‘dedication to artistry and excellence.’ Though the opening of a new location generally isn’t terribly newsworthy in itself, one interesting facet to this story is that it shows how major luxury brands like Bottega Veneta are becoming more confident about venturing into more second-tier cities. Currently, Bottega Veneta has stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Shenzhen — all of which are among the five richest cities in China. The Nanjing store, as the brand’s first foray out of the relative safety of top-tier markets, then is likely a sort of ‘experiment’ before Bottega moves on to other interior cities. Although Nanjing as a city is far from poor, compared to more cosmopolitan markets like Shanghai it is relatively untested as far as luxury retailing is concerned. (Via Jing Daily.)

Li Ka-shing is HK’s richest: Forbes: Li Ka-shing, chairman of Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd, is Hong Kong’s richest person with a net worth of $21.3 billion, Forbes Asia Magazine reported, after his wealth gained $5 billion in the past year. The total net worth of Hong Kong’s 40 richest people swelled to $135 billion, up from $82 billion a year ago, the magazine said. Not one list member is poorer, it said. Still, the list members’ combined wealth remains below its 2008 high of $179 billion. Li Ka-shing’s fortune is less than the magazine’s $32 billion estimate of his wealth in 2008. (Via China – People’s Daily Online.)

First High-end food supermarket opens in Guangzhou: Guangzhou’s first high-end food supermarket named TASTE opened in the China Plaza February 2. Imported apples, pumpkins and baskets filled with various goodies costing 100, 1,000 and 10,000 yuan each respectively attracted attention from numerous customers. Covering an area of 4,300 square meters, the Guangzhou-based TASTE outlet is a fashionable, modern and high-end food supermarket providing a wide range of Chinese and western-style food products. (Via China – People’s Daily Online.)

Guthy-Renker Sets Up China Distribution Agreement: The Chinese marketing company Acorn International Inc. and U.S.-based Guthy-Renker have entered into an exclusive agreement for Acorn to market Sheer Cover cosmetics in China. Under the agreement, Acorn will be Guthy-Renker’s exclusive agent to market and distribute Sheer Cover in China. (Via China Sourcing News.)

Real estate bubble likely in Taipei: expert: (ChinaPost.com.tw) – A housing bubble may plague Taipei City’s real estate sector, which has seen a compound annual average growth of 11 percent, an official with Fitch Ratings warned yesterday. (Via Taiwan Headlines – Business.)

Nathan Road, Hong Kong (photo: Randal Rayborn)

HK retail sales value grows 16%: The city’s total retail sales value for December has been provisionally estimated to be 29.4 billion HK dollars, up 16 percent on the same month last year, the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong said Monday. After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales grew 11.3 percent. The sales volume of jewelry, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts increased the most, by 30.4 percent, followed by motor vehicles and parts at 29.8 percent. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Kodak Enhances Its Manufacturing Facilities In China: Kodak is opening a second production line for its Xiamen printing plate manufacturing facility to enhance the company’s manufacturing capacity for offset products. The manufacturing line in the southern Chinese city will produce CTP plates for sale in Asia and support the development of current and new products. (Via China Sourcing News.)

HSBC Report: Men Key To Luxury Spending In China Today; Women Tomorrow: In the new book ‘Luxury China: Market Opportunities and Potential’ (Jing Daily review), Chevalier and Lu note that the Chinese luxury business is still very much dominated by middle-aged men, most of whom splash out on high-priced luxury goods with the intention of giving them as gifts. However, as the authors point out, over time we can expect to see a gradual shift in power from male to female consumers. (Via Jing Daily.)

Parcel south of Bund sets realty records: A 57,000-square-meter plot sitting south of the historic stretch of the Bund finally fetched 9.22 billion yuan (US$1.35 billion) yesterday and became the most expensive parcel in Shanghai by both total and average price. Privately owned Shanghai Zendai Property Ltd emerged as the winner of the plot after beating three domestic rivals. The plot, with a starting price of 9 billion yuan, was sold for an average price of 34,148 yuan per square meter, also the highest on the Chinese mainland so far. An entity consisting of China Enterprise, China Pacific Life Insurance and Taikang Life Insurance; Shanghai New Huangpu (Group) Co Ltd; and another entity led by Shanghai Forte Land and Shanghai Fosun were the three other participants in yesterday’s competition. The site is in an area of the Bund that the city wants to turn into a center dominated by financial institutions – part of a city master plan to turn Shanghai into a global financial center by 2020.(Via Shanghai Daily: Business.)

Asia-Pacific biggest air travel market: The Asia-Pacific region has overtaken North America as the world’s largest air travel market. The International Air Transport Association said 647 million passengers flew in the region last year, compared with 638 million in North America. Within Asia, China has eclipsed Japan over the past decade as the largest domestic market. And IATA says the Asia-Pacific market will continue to grow rapidly. (Via RTHK On Internet – Finance News.)

Potential buyers in Qionghai, Hainan province, look at a display model of sold-out residential buildings. (China Daily)

By Jin Zhu in Beijing and Huang Yiming in Haikou (China Daily/Xinhua) – The plan to turn China’s tropical southern island of Hainan into an international tourist resort by 2020 has already started nudging property prices skywards, according to media reports.

More than 200 potential property buyers have been pouring into the island every day since the end of last year, when the government unveiled its tourism plan, local media reported.

Prices are rising by about 1,000 yuan ($164) per sq m every day for some properties. Those properties that were priced at 15,000 yuan per sq m at the start of the year now cost 20,000 yuan, reports said.

Prices of some of the properties have already hit 70,000 yuan per sq m, with figures constantly fluctuating as real estate hunters flock to the island.

Ye Ning, a professional real estate speculator in Sanya, a popular coastal city in Hainan, said the sudden rise in prices is troubling.

“The average price of new apartments in Sanya’s Fenghuangdao International Port were already as high as 60,000 yuan to 70,000 yuan per sq m as of Jan 11.

Now, the figure has risen to 100,000 yuan,” said Ye, who started his business just two years ago.

“Compared with Haikou (the capital) and Sanya, where prices are already too high for most people, real estate in Qionghai, Wenchang and Boao are still better for the attractive locales and relatively low prices,”he said.

Potential buyers from Zhejiang province and the northeast, such as Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces, are said to be the main force behind the skyrocketing prices. — read more at ChinaDaily.com…

BMW sees fastest growth, best potentials in China: CEO: China has become BMW’s fourth largest market, where the German luxury car maker saw the fastest growth in auto sales in 2009, and great market potentials, a senior company official told Xinhua Wednesday. The company saw a 38 percent growth in sales last year in China against a 10 percent decline worldwide due to the international financial crisis, said Christoph Stark, president and CEO of the BMW Group in China. Stark said the company sold a total of 90,536 cars in China last year. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

E-Mart To Open Shanghai Mall In Time For 2010 World Expo: According to E-Mart’s Chinese headquarters, the South Korean supermarket retailer plans to open its first shopping mall on Shanghai’s Caobao road. This project, with a total area of 50,000 square meters, is reported to be in progress and is expected to be opened before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

Coach CEO Banking On China Growth In 2010: Although Coach reported better-than-expected sales figures in its top two markets (North America and Japan) in its latest fiscal statement, the company has made clear that it is strongly committed to building more market share in the increasingly lucrative Chinese market. Over the last year, Coach has invested heavily both in the mainland and Hong Kong markets, announcing last spring that the company intends to open add nearly 50 retail outlets to the 37 it currently operates in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, appointing luxury veteran Andre Cohen as China Region President, and launching a large-scale Chinese-language online promotional campaign. (Via Jing Daily :.)

Suzuki head touts VW parts tieup: Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki stressed Thursday the importance of making common auto parts with its new alliance partner Volkswagen AG in emerging Asian markets. Suzuki also suggested he would not accept any future offer by the German auto giant to increase its share in Suzuki. (Via The Japan Times: News & Business.)

Data collection begins in Taipei for luxury home tax: (ChinaPost.com.tw) – The Taipei City Government has begun collecting data on the city’s luxury residential buildings in preparation for imposing a tax on such buildings in the future, the United Evening News reported, yesterday. (Via Taiwan Headlines – Business.)

Office Buildings near the Singapore River (photo: Randal Rayborn)

Singapore gains advantage from surplus office demand in Hong Kong: A 20 to 25 per cent fall in Grade A office rents in Singapore this year will emerge as a reason for widening the gap between rents in Singapore and in Hong Kong, and will give Singapore a competitive advantage with firms looking to expand in Asia, property firm Savills said yesterday. Rents are speculated to fall to $5 per square foot (psf) per month in 2011, accounting to a massive new supply comes on-stream, the firm’s research shows. Grade A office rents stood at $8.80 psf per month at the end of 2009, reported Savills. (Via TopNews Singapore.)

Hainan to halt land development approval on speculation concerns: China’s southern island province of Hainan will suspend land leasing and development approval in a move to curb property speculation, the province’s Party chief has said. Following a tourism promotion policy document issued by the central government earlier this month, real estate developers have flocked into the island, causing new property bubble concerns, Wei Liucheng, secretary of the Communist Party of China Hainan provincial committee, said at a meeting in Haikou Friday. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Taipei direct flights to Shanghai may begin: (ChinaPost.com.tw) – Direct flights between the Taipei Songshan Airport and the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport are likely to be launched before World Expo 2010 Shanghai opens on May 1, as Deputy Shanghai Mayor Tang Dengjie said Friday that both sides have completed various technical preparations and are working hard to kick off direct flights as early as possible. (Via Taiwan Headlines – Business.)

Tensions bubble over gas project: Japan warned China on Sunday that it would take action if Beijing starts gas production in a disputed field in the East China Sea, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. Although the two countries reached a broad agreement in 2008 on principles intended to solve the dispute by jointly developing gas fields, progress has been slow and Japan has accused China of drilling for gas in violation of the agreement. (Via RTHK On Internet – Finance News.)

Mazda eyes dissolving joint car production with Ford in China: Mazda Motor Corp. is considering dissolving its partnership with Ford Motor Co. for the joint production of cars in China to increase its flexibility in meeting growing demand for Mazda-brand cars in the country, company sources said Sunday. Mazda plans to withdraw from Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. in Chongqing, a joint venture of Mazda, Ford and a Chinese automaker, after production of Mazda cars at the plant is transferred to another joint venture of the three automakers in Nanjing in May, the sources said. (Via Kyodo News (Business).)