Bentley, the top auto marque from Gods own country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, seems to be doing quite well out of newly minted Chinese businessmen (or woman)
On the first day of the Chengdu Auto Show (opened last weekend), Bentley managed to flog five motors and Rolls Royce sold a Phantom. So far this year, Bentley sales have overtaken the entire sales figures for 2006, in 2007 Bentley sold 60 motors in Shanghai, 70 motors in Guangzhou, 60 in Beijing and 7 in Shenzhen - thats a lot of motors and even an insaner amount of money once you figure in the Bentley cost plus personalization that every rich one wants to make their Bentley ‘unique’ PLUS the governments share of it on import tax.
There is some expensive metal on the streets in China these days. Far cry from a few years ago when even a humble Beemer was a rare sight. According to government statistics, still only 20% of the Chinese population own cars. Judging by the amount of premium luxury cars on the streets some of that 20% have got some serious disposable income to play with.
The funniest thing is some of this luxurious cars are in hands of people working or with a very close contact with the government. That is a kind of communism I dont understand! But that is something you CAN’T mention here in china.
I always used to wonder about how the factory workers felt seeing their boss in a brand new luxury car when they would be earning maybe 6-800/month. Maybe the regular normal folk are oblivious to what is happening around them.
If I paid tax here I might care more… LOL. (n.b)tax laws are weird here and easily bypassed by a good accountant.
That is true, the salary of an average chinese worker is a real misery when they have to see their bosses spending amounts of money in luxurious pleasures (because the new rich chinese is very show off and flamboyant) Ive seen it with my own eyes, sometimes the show off its so excessive that reach the levels of really bad taste.
I dont want to become this a forum of political discussion, Im not communist at all, but I really despise the way the worker is treated here in China, I see it everyday with my boss how abuse of the chinese staff, I just cant stand that.
China has been this way for a quadrillion years.
Dont you listen to what anybody tells you? ‘China has 5000 years of continuous history.’
Chinese Laobans will always be laobans and the peasants will always be peasants. There is hardly any rags to riches stories in China (with the exception of Wahaha)
What is this about Wahaha? I already know my kids love to drink it.
About the laobans, it is the element of fate and luck that is still so much a part of the people I work with. They don’t talk about is like it used to be talked about here, but rather the resignation. None of the pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, gung ho, can do that I am used to back home.
The guy that started Wahaha was a peasant that made flavored ice on a stick (kind of like a basic ice lollipop thing) He rode around on a bicycle selling his own home made iced lollipops, he expanded and expanded and expanded some more and before he knew it he was in a JV with Danone that was going down the toilet for funny accounting methods.
Probably the only true (not true as real or not, but true to the definition of rags to riches) rags to riches story Ive heard in China to date