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Chinese Property News
There are many slang terms for money but their etymology are often uncertain. For instance, the word “bucks” became a substitute for “dollars” probably in the 1700s when deerskins were a popular currency in North America. The term a ...
When Shenzhen developer Shum Yip first purchased the land Sky Park now sits on, it envisaged a high-end residential development that would be anchored by a five-star hotel and retail space. It had reasons to be optimistic. The project is located ...
Since the days of the Ming Dynasty, Wangfujing has been home to royal family members. During the Qing, the Manchu offered residences there to crown princes and elder statesmen, making the Beijing street a prominent address. Helping the area’s ...
After Britain took control of Hong Kong in 1841, the authorities in London weren’t pleased to be bearing the new colony’s public expenses. They made clear they wanted the territory to pay its own way as soon as possible. The colonial ...
In 1986 Yeung Kwok-keung ran a construction firm in Shunde in Guangdong province. For some time, its commercial prospects were overshadowed by fears that Shunde’s developers would go under and fail to pay him. The nightmare came true in 1993 ...
Like most of Hong Kong’s billionaires, Li Ka-shing is a believer in feng shui. He reportedly rescheduled his mother’s funeral after a feng shui expert suggested a more appropriate time and he consulted with feng shui masters in the design of ...
Seventeen years ago, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto coined the phrase “ dead capital” – land and property that could never be used as collateral because ownership had never been legally formalised. He had in mind the farmers of ...
Some would say marriages are built on trust. Few say the same about divorces. But a rumour last September that Shanghai would change property purchase laws to give less favourable terms to new divorcees sparked a rush of separations, as devoted ...
Arguably the first masterplan for the city of Beijing came as a result of the Yongle Emperor’s decision to move his capital there from Nanjing. In 1406 he began construction of the Forbidden City, a project that would ...
In the 1970s Jardine Matheson’s then-taipan Henry Keswick was asked for his advice on Hong Kong property. His pithy reply was “never sell”. Over the decades his recommendation has largely been respected by his successors (Keswick remains ...