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Real Estate websites in ChinaComments Off Real Estate websites in China
At first sight, the websites about renting an apartmet in China can appear messy. Let’s try to have a quick insight about what kind of actual site and services you can find there. Fist of all, the online Chinese real estate websites can be divided in two categories. The websites aimed at the Chinese public and the websites for expatriates. These two categories have quite distinct characteristics.
Real Estate Websites targeting the Chinese customers
Within the first category, you find the websites of the large real estate companies in China, like Century 21, or Wo Ai Wo Jia « 525j », that was successful and extended its internet site to home supplies. These are the standards websites advertising properties for a specific real estate company.
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Apart from these websites, a couple of specialized webportals have been very successful advertising real estate in China. The most important of them are Soufun (), 58.com (58.com ) and Ganji (www.ganji.com). These websites have the largest selection of apartments available in China.
The general problem of real estate in China is that the market is wild and many frauds do occur. The general information is inaccurate since the agency’s target is to attract customers. The classifieds advertise appartements that are not available, some of them might even have never been available at all since the agencies actually collect pictures of any kind of apartment just to give the feeling of a large choice.
Often the agents masquerade as owners just to maximize their commission and get a supplementary commission from the tenant. Actually, if the monthly rent is over 4.000 RMB, only the landlord usually pays a commisionn if the price is under 4.000 RMB, they try to get the commission both from the landlord and the tenant. Overall, this is a market which is very poorly regulated, with very little means for the administration to control anything, so that anything can happen.
Actually, most of these websites are never used by foreigners since almost none of them are translated in english. This is one of the simple main reasons why the foreign customers/domestic customers are separated.
The situation is a little bit specific for the expatriate real estate.
Real Estate websites targeting foreigners
Just as it is the case for Chinese citizens, there is two kinds of websites, the general websites with classifieds and the websites specialized in real estate. The most popular classified websites for foreigners are sites such as City Weekend, (http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/) , the Beijinger (http://www.thebeijinger.com/). The trouble on these websites are exactly the same than for the Chinese websites : everything is possible since there is very little control. Real Estate agents just try to get into contact with customers and rent them any apartment they actually have at their disposal.
This would have no tragic consequences if the agents you might get in touch with had a real sense of service. The trouble is that in China, many of them are unable to actually understand the expectations of customers, even less the expectations of a foreigb customer. Nevertheless, you can find very good renting opportunities and very professional agents on the general expat classifieds websites, but be aware that there might be diapointments.
Some agencies are specialized in real estate for foreigners, among those, there is Scout Real Estate (http://www.beijingrelocation.com/), Lihong … among others.
The big advantage of these agencies is that since they are targeting the specific market of expatriates, they have foreign staff, some of them are even foreign managed (Scout Real Estate) and they understand better the expectations of foreigners in China and are more service oriented.
However, this type of agency has very few low budget apartments and have almost no rental under 6.000 a month, and many of them are not interrested by rentals under 10.000 RMB a month. Be aware that if you are looking for this type of budget, they can be a real best choice, for they negociate the rent and commission in accordance with the actual market and are less likely to advertise apartments that actually do not exist, and you are more likely to deal with the legitimate landlord. One another thinbg can be noted is that these site benefit from a real large choice of apartments since the Chinese landlords appreciate to rent to foreigners that they perceive as more careful than Chinese tenants that can sometime turn apartments in a mess.
Whatever the solution or classified you answer on the internet, you should be careful enough to check the credentials of the person who is introduced as a landlord and compare the prices online, with some prudence you can avoid most scams and enter a truthful relationship with the agent or the landlord.
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Beijing Auto Firms IPO(0)President Wang Dazong said on Friday the company plans to announce a grouping of its passenger vehicle businesses within two months — a crucial preparatory step before floating the unit.
The firm, which produces vehicles in partnerships with Daimler and Hyundai Motor, aims to raise capital to help it expand and quickly move up the ladder, less than half a year since it paid $200 million to buy technologies from General Motors’s GM.UL Saab unit.
Wang said BAIC was in “serious talks” with firms in the automobile industry, both at home and abroad.
Acquisition is always a tool to help a company grow, Wang said, without identifying targets.
BAIC has said it will invest 33 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in research and development over three years by integrating Saab’s technology to produce self-developed cars with an aim to sell 100,000 such vehicles in 2011.
With the integration of Saab’s technology proceeding as planned, BAIC now expects its sales to climb 21 percent to 1.5 million vehicles this year.
To solve its production constraint, BAIC is building six plants with annual capacity of 1.3 million vehicles that will be made with Saab’s technology, said Wang.
Source : Konaxis
(0)Beijing?s airport had canceled 254 flights Monday as of 11:00 a.m. local time, China Central Television reported. About 90 percent of the airport?s more than 13,000 flights Sunday were withdrawn or delayed, the state broadcaster reported.
Beijing Sunday had the heaviest daily snowfall since 1951, Xinhua reported today.
At least four airports in Shandong province were closed Monday due to the snow, CCTV reported. More than 15,000 people were dispatched to remove snow that had forced the closure of 30 highways in northern China, the Ministry of Transportation said on its Web site.
More snow and freezing rain are expected Monday in the Chinese provinces of Shandong, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jilin and Heilongjiang, according to the China Meteorological Administration. Parts of Hunan and Jiangxi province may be hit by heavy snow Tuesday, the weather bureau said.
Temperatures in Beijing are forecast to be as low as minus 14 degrees Celsius Monday and may drop to minus 16 degrees Celsius Tuesday, according to the administration.
Elementary and middle schools in Beijing and Tianjin were suspended Monday because of the snow and low temperatures, the city governments said.
The Ministry of Agriculture dispatched seven teams to help farmers in northern China ensure agricultural production, Xinhua reported late Sunday. The teams sent to the provinces of Hebei, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Shandong and Anhui will help repair damaged greenhouses and improve the use of water and fertilizer, according to the report.
Source : Konaxis
10 gaming companies gained 3.1 billion in six months(0)In the first half of this year, top 10 online games businesses at Beijing has a revenue of approximately 3.1 billion yuan.
At the seventh annual meeting of the Chinese game industry, vice minister of Municipal Propaganda Department of the Beijing municipal government – Dong Chen said government vigorously promoted cultural and creative industries. Seen from the statistics of first three quarters of this year, the city’s cultural and creative value added 96.5 billion yuan, with a price growth rate of 9.7%, accounting for 16.1% of the 3rd industry, accounting for 11.8% of the city’s GDP, a record high.
Animation game industry is an important component of the cultural and creative industries in Beijing, according to statistics, from 2006 to 2009 there were 47 priority projects directly supported by special Beijing’s cultural and creative industries development funds alone, with a fund of 196 million and social capital investment of nearly 2 billion yuan invested. Good origninal works such as “Jian Xia Qing Yuan”, “Zhu Xian”, “Perfect World” were launched in Beijing and well received, and “Perfect World” were exported to 40 countries and regions, with the actual sales of more than 20 million U.S. dollars. Beijing’s original PC games, online games and mobile games accounted for 70%, 50% and 60% of the overall share of the country.
Demand Beijing CBD(0)Currently, 80 percent of office space in the CBD’s 77 buildings is rented out and more than 90 percent of space in high-end buildings is occupied, said Liu Chuncheng, executive deputy director of Beijing CBD Administration Committee.
Liu added that rents had not fallen in the CBD, which occupies 3.99 sq km near the city’s East 3rd Ring Road.
The area is home to much of the city’s finance, media and business services sector and was established by the government eight years ago.
The Beijing CBD Administration Committee said that in the first half of the year, more than 1,000 companies were registered in the area. Seven Fortune 500 companies, including Luxembourg-based steel giant ArcelorMittal, had set up offices there.
Source : Konaxis
Investment in R&D online games(0)Giant Interactive Group Inc will add more to its initial RMB 100 million investment budget, said Giant’s President Liu Wei yesterday at the 7th China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference. Liu added that with the acquisition of a fifth independent game research team, the company will soon launch a game product called ZT Online.
Meanwhile, the “18 Funds” project of China’s leading online gaming operator, Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd, has paid RMB 500 million to fund nearly 40 game research teams, said the firm’s CEO, Li Yu.
Chinese game firms’ investment increase is in accordance with China’s goal of revitalizing cultural industries, and was approved by the State Council last week, sources said.
While China is encouraging joint R&D activities between Chinese firms and foreign firms for online games, foreign firms are not allowed to operate online games in China independently or jointly with domestic firms, said Sun Shoushan, vice director of the General Administration of Press and Publications.
China has also prohibited Web sites from advertising or linking to games that glamorize violence. A notice posted on the Culture Ministry Web site said games that promote drug use, obscenities, gambling, or crimes such as rape, vandalism and theft are “against public morality and the nation’s fine cultural traditions.”The ban on the Web sites starts immediately.
Without going into details, the notice called for law enforcement bodies to ensure Web sites adhere to the new law. China has the world’s most extensive system of Web monitoring and censorship.
China’s online game industry earned RMB 18.38 billion in sales revenue in 2008, up 76.6% from a year earlier.
Source : Konaxis
Beijing China(0)It is also the capital of China. This beautiful city covers an area of 16,640 square kilometers or 6,336 square miles and has a population of roughly 15 million people.
Beijing history dates back to more than 3,000 years and has survived such things as invasions from warlords and foreign powers, devastating fires, and the rise and fall of powerful imperial dynasties but has come out of it all to be, today, a strong, vibrant city.
This rich history has left Beijing with rich cultural treasures. The great wall for one and the most well known is a man made structure that winds for several kilometers. Next is the Summer Palace which has beautiful ancient Royal Gardens. Forbidden City is another of Beijing’s beautiful treasures. It is the largest Royal Palace in the world. Finally there is Tiantan. This is where the Chinese in ancient times would defeat their ancestors, and is also the soul of ancient construction.
The best representations of Beijing though would be the vanishing Hutongs and Square Courtyards. They have become a symbol of Beijing’s life for hundreds of years. One of the best examples is Tian’anmen square. This beautiful site contains clover leaf junctions and has tall amazing skyscrapers all over. The old time feel and modern culture together make Tian’anmen Square a brand new visage for Beijing.
Beijing may now be a modern and fashionable city but you can still experience authentic Beijing life in a variety of different ways. You can do this by visiting the various teahouses, temple fairs, the Hutong and Courtyard and by attending the Beijing Opera Houses.
Beijing is also a city with four distinct seasons. The best time to visit though would be in the late spring and autumn. During these seasons you will be able to experience bright sunshine and blue skies. May is especially a great time to visit because there is a lot of international class performances presented where you can enjoy different types of art from all over the globe. In the winter months you can enjoy skiing in Beihai and view the awesome snowy views on West Hill.
It is not good to dwell too much on the historical past of Beijing though as it will give way to a false impression that it is just another ancient city in its style. This is far from true as you stroll through Beijing you will find that it has just as much in common as let?s say New York.
So yes Beijing does have a vast and awesome history. It has been over 3,000 years in the making which shows through in the cultural designs. There are a variety of places to see and visit in Beijing as you have seen here. The different seasons and sites available make it an ideal tourism spot. Why don’t you book a flight and experience the beauty and culture yourself.
China food-grade recycled PET(0)The company will produce PET (polyethylene terephthalate ) bottles from original PET chips and recycle waste PET bottles to make bottle-grade flakes, said Zou Zuye, federation vice-president. Zou added that this points out the direction for the recycling of China’s PET packaging.
China consumes an estimated 18m tons of crude oil to produce 3m tons of plastic bottles each year, said CPF.Many developed countries have began to use recycle PET flakes for food packaging, while in China it was not resolved.
In other developed countries, new processes restore the properties of recycled PET bottle flakes to produce new food-grade flakes and pellets. The recycled PET is sometimes called modified PET and is claimed to have better elasticity and better oxygen barrier property.
China’s annual plastic bottle output of 3 million tons not only consumes more than 18 million tons of crude oil, but also brings large pressure for the fragile ecological environment in terms of being a burden on landfills. .
Yao Yaxiong, a director of Incom, explained that through systematical recycling, deep cleansing, and deep purification, the company’s food-grade recycled polyester flake production has passed a total of 6 sections and 17 steps of tests set out by the Ministry of Health and State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Source : Konaxis
5.89 million net users visit the web pages containing Trojan everyday(0)Rising believes that large-scale Web site, browsers, and popular software has become the targets of hackers. In the first quarter there were 24,202 large-scale sites trojaned, it has become one of the most important security threat factors to the Internet in China. Rising reminded Internet users not to believe the Internet “secure browser” “as long as it is based on the IE core, it will be exploited by hackers.”
CN domain name web sites have become the places with most Trojans.
Rising pointed out that hackers Trojaned large sites which makes an upward trend in the number of Internet users for a single attack Trojan site, according to statistics, the top two Trojans websites in the first quarter are gg6781.cn and sb3589.cn, These two sites attacked more than 860,000 Internet users. According to the statistics of the types of Trojan domain, CN domain is the most popular place for hackers to Trojan. In the first quarter, 85.5 percent Trojan sites have used the CN domain name.
According to Rising, “clouds security” system of statistical data, Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang three provinces have the largest number of malicious sites, of which 34% of the Trojan sites servers are located in Beijing. Guangdong, Beijing, Hunan has the largest population of net users, so they are most seriously affected by the Trojan.
To remind users not to believe “secure browser”
Rising statistical analysis pointed out that the browser has become the main channel for Trojan to penetrate computer users, including some known as “secure browser” products, as long as it is based on the IE core, it will be exploited by hackers, but these companies’ so-called “secure Anti-Trojan browser”false propaganda, further seriously mislead Internet users to reduce the safety measures brought about a huge security risk.
Rising security experts said that, technically speaking, the so-called “secure browser” does not exist, users should install mainstream security software with “anti-Trojan” function to avoid being invaded.
According to security experts from Rising, this security statistics report for the first time count the “Trojan site longevity” which means the Trojan site survival time on the Internet. Traditionally, people think that “the longer the existence of the Trojan site, the more fierce it is” In fact, according to statistics, of the top ten Trojan sites in the first quarter, the longest life expectancy is 5 days, the shortest is 1 day only. Hacker Group has a strong ability to Trojan, they can implantate in a day Trojan website URL to a number of sites, Internet users will be penetrated when visit these sites. ”Rising security report” pointed out that the current various popular websites, client software and browsers, have many security loopholes and weak points, enabling users of the channels for increased attacks; with “hackers – the virus” industry rounded development chain, those supporting the development of a variety of Internet business models have been Trojanend, Trojan’s clicks attack decreased users’ confidence to the security of online shopping, online payment and online games. Moreover, since the majority of run-time Trojan has no obvious abnormal features, It is very difficult for users to discover their own poisoning.
Overview : Beijing and the north east 2006(0)Beijing will, as it has already started to do, become more of the focal point for China during 2006. Preparations (and indeed most tenders) for the Olympics are now mostly all underway, and with many schemes linked in any event to city planning and infrastructure developments, the steady rumble of construction will continue apace. New metro lines, airport runways and inner city road developments will all start to come to fruition.
We can expect another minor shift in the RMB/ USD position, probably sometime late spring, and the usual on-going political argy-bargy concerning trade deficits, but otherwise it?ll be pretty much holding the ship steady politically and business-wise for the year, a case of ??steady as she goes?. We do not believe the much hyped bird flu will pose any significant threat.
More interestingly, the re-discovery of North-East China will be the main highlight of the year, as foreign companies, looking for large semi-skilled and skilled workforces look further at sizing up the region for investments, especially those involved with heavy industry. Steel, shipbuilding, automotive, timber and the construction industries and sub-industries are of particular note here. Cities such as Tianjin, and Dalian, already well known to foreign investors, may face increasing competition from Changchun, Jilin and Shenyang as labour costs and rising costs of living force canny accountants to weigh up the expenses of relocating or moving further north. Expatriate life in China has already meant being prepared to move to the second tier cities and this trend will certainly continue further North and West in China?s hinterland.
Of course, it is not all plain sailing. Foreign investors we spoke to during 2005 report continuing difficulties with bureaucracy and approvals ? the local governments and development zones are simply not as internationally experienced in the North-East as they are in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian or Shanghai. They seem to sit and wait for you to go to them, rather than reaching out and selling their facilities. This will change, but it will take time. That said, there are plenty of US and European investors in the north east who making a go of it, with GM, BMW and Michelin being some of the high-profile examples. Additionally, the central government?s policy on revitalizing the northeast means there are some additional incentives not available elsewhere ? VAT exemption in someindustries, mortgage extensions, additional infrastructure support, and so on ? as well as the chance to take majority stakes in some SOEs and infrastructure sectors previously closed to FDI. It?s worth investigating the detail here, and key to note that the current Minister of Commerce, Bo Xi Lai, is from the region (Dalian, Liaoning Province).
Next :Overview : Shanghai and the Yangtze river delta 2006
To know more, the whole issue is available (after a free subscription) on China Briefing website with others archivesFor more information on China’s legal and tax issues or to ask for professional advices in related matters, please write to [email protected]
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