China bubble mitosis - was: is AG blowing a China bubble

[jjlassen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Thanks for posting the Bloomberg artice, Ian. What a huge story it is.

Beijing rolls out red carpet for the stars
?Capital offers incentives to lure talent to the city
SCMP | 12 feb
by Alice Yan and Alex Lo

Eager to compete with glamorous cousin Shanghai, Beijing is rolling out the red
carpet for foreign celebrities with the promise of streamlined visa access and
incentives to buy big-ticket items such as property and cars.

The capital has long been where the mainland's famous people make their names,
but Shanghai has become the destination of choice for entertainers from Taiwan,
Hong Kong and elsewhere.

>From next month, the capital will fast-track the granting of residential
status, financial assistance - where appropriate - and tax breaks on big
purchases such as homes or cars.

"Shanghai is the city where many stars like to live and spend their money. The
policy will give Beijing more charm for stars," said Dong Meiqi, editor of the
monthly magazine Star Times.

The initiative targets talent from abroad, as well as from Taiwan, Hong Kong
and Macau. Foreigners engaged in Beijing's cultural and sports sectors will be
able to come and go as they please on five-year multiple-entry visas, said
Huang Qiang, vice-director of the city's Personnel Bureau. Currently, they are
required to renew their visas annually.

Yang Heqing, a professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business,
said: "Beijing is ambitious to become one of the world's cultural hot spots. A
flood of overseas visitors will come for the Olympic Games in 2008 eager to see
cultural things, not skyscrapers."

Andrew Lau Wai-keung, director of the blockbuster Hong Kong film trilogy
Infernal Affairs, said he would love to live in Beijing - or at least own a
house there.

"It's a great city; a national city. Hong Kong is a very small city. Beijing
represents a whole culture.


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