stlplaceLast Updated on July 16, 2007 by stlplace
To a large extent, the Chinese economy growth in recent years is attributed to the growth in the real estate market. Ten years ago, when I left Shanghai for graduate study in US, I remember most people still live in the apartment assigned by their “Danwei”.
Last Updated on March 12, 2007 by stlplace
There are lots of discussions about living cost in Shanghai, such as this one from Wang Jianshuo. I am not going to do a comprehensive study here, but I want to share my findings after spending one week in Shanghai.
I rent a one bedroom apartment near Zhongshan park, it cost me CNY 2,300. Because I stay for short term, they charge me a little higher. I think for a one year lease it will be 2,000 Yuan a month. A comparable apartment in St. Louis will cost about $500. So 2000 Yuan vs. 500 dollars. We can say one dollar is really worth 4 Yuan, not the offical rate of 7.75?
Last Updated on March 8, 2007 by stlplace
Chinese like the number NINE. This is the office building I work these days, the Chinese name is Long Zhi Meng (dream of dragon). The office building is attached to the shopping mall, which has food, coffee, fitness, department stores and Carrefour, the super market. So essentially once you are in the building, you can spend the whole day there without leaving the building (smart bosses, huh?).
The following is the building external view and the noodle place.
Last Updated on March 12, 2007 by stlplace
I mean the stock for the short term, not the hotel. They reported the Q4 2006 and full year results today. Here is the result. It’s good number, but again the current stock price is way ahead of curve. Going forward they are “going to beep up franchise hotels in Beijing and China”, translated in plain English: franchise hotel does not generate much revenue, the profit margin may not be as good as leased/operated hotel too. They expect a 60% to 70% top line growth for 2007, which is reasonable. But that may not satisfy the lofty expectation from the Street.
Last Updated on March 11, 2007 by stlplace
As an old saying goes (I hope mine could worth 100 words). I took this one at Beijing Airport. Did you notice the “retiring room”?
Last Updated on March 7, 2007 by stlplace
Listened to Heelys first conference call over the Internet because I got waked up by the luggage delivery people at 5 AM. Now I got both luggages from the United Airline. I am happy despite they deliver it on strange time such as 12 AM or 5 AM. I do appreciate the delivery team’s hard work though.
Back to conference and Heelys earning report. The Q4 result is as good as I expected. You can see the number here. Although they did not give the guidance but in Q&A session they gave out the backlog as of Dec 31 06 is $ 50 m, which we could assume will be filled in Q1 07. So the Q1 07 result will also be good. Going forward they only say 20 to 25% in next few years. It’s probablly a very safe number for them.
Last Updated on March 6, 2007 by stlplace
Heard about this Kai’en English from a colleague, they offer spoken English, Youth English, Business English, test preparation, etc.
Why English training is so hot? According to the S1 prospectus of Xinhua Finance Media, page 108 (under Radio section), “the average wages of Chinese employees with advanced and intermediate levels of English are 72.5% and 24.3% higher than those with basic levels of English, respectively”. By the way, I listened its “Easy FM” here in Shanghai, and I think it’s a good source to learn English.
One year training cost at WallStreet English is CNY 15,000, my colleague joked it’s CNY 50 per day. It’s mostly spoken English. It’s not small amount for average workers in China.
Last Updated on March 6, 2007 by stlplace
(Update 07Mar07) I saw an updated F1 prospectus at SEC web site. So I would assume the IPO is still on?
Just heard from a friend in the States, this is not offical, but the rumor is the IPO is called off. I assume the reason is the recent sell off of Chinese stocks inside and outside China scared lots of potential foreign buyers.
IPO is a very interesting game for issuing companies, underwriters and buying institutions. Companies do the road show and get people excited. They also talked to underwriter to determine the issuing prices. The underwriters bought all these shares from companies at the issuing price and sell those shares to institutions (a.k.a, their buddies). They receive a fee from this transaction.
Last Updated on March 7, 2007 by stlplace
These days you need some faith to hold those relatively new Chinese IPOs. I only have Mindray (MR) at this time, but I have traded HMIN and EDU before. All three stocks dropped a lot from it highs in a week. I just want to summerize my observation after spending 2 days in Shanghai, this is in no ways a comprehensive study.
Home Inns: it faces more competition. I went to Jinjiang Inn on Sunday with a friend, we need to book a room for another friend. It’s fairly easy. Maybe this is not a busy season. But I remember one or two years ago it’s not easy to book a room one day in advance. Also Marriot (the American hotel giant) bought a Chinese economy hotel chain “Xingyu Star” and renamed it as “Wan Jia Wan Hao”. It plans to open 300 hotels in a few years.
Last Updated on November 2, 2025 by stlplace
I have taken United Arlines (UA) flights from St. Louis to Shanghai couple times. This one is probablly most adventurous. The main problem was caused by the weather in Chicago. I thought this newly created ORD to PVG routes by UA and AA would benifit people in the Midwest: save one stop, for instance, if we take Northwest, we will have to stop twice, at Detroit/Minneapolis and Tokyo. But on March 2nd Chicago got wind and light snow. The flight from STL to ORD got delayed for about 3 hours. When I looked at the TV screen after I got to Chicago at 10:30, I could not find the 10:15 ORD PVG flight. So I waited patiently in a “200 miles long” line at the United customer service. This “200 miles” is quoting a lady lined after me. I also called the United hot line on the phone, all I got was the computer response. I guess there were so many delays and cancellations, and UA don’t have enough people to take the calls.