Chinese 'wasting' new-found wealth

SHANGHAI – While travelling through China, one can be forgiven for thinking the entire country has won a lottery.

Money is being spent by everyone faster than China’s central bank can print it and luxury European goods are flying off the shelves faster than Gucci and Prada can make them.

It’s all reflective of China’s runaway economy, of course, but one wonders if the Chinese really appreciate their new-found wealth and the treasures it can buy.

Case in point: A waiter at an upscale resort in the southern town of Sanya on Hainan Island told me during my visit last week about the Chinese millionaire who ordered a bottle of $2,000 French wine, poured himself half a glass and topped it up with 7-Up.

Another time the waiter said he witnessed a wealthy Chinese businessman buy a $1,500 bottle of French red and he left after finishing just half the bottle. What a waste!

Money can buy anything in China, except sophistication.

Taiwan's Kinmen a treasured island

Student soldiers put on a show for the
tourists each day by firing blanks from
the big guns that protected Taiwan
from China's mighty army a few kilometres away.

DATELINE KINMEN ISLAND - Travelling through Taiwan is like peeling an onion - every layer exposes new wonders.

Like this incredible island that once stood as the first defence against China's mighty communist army but today is being transformed into a vacation wonderland where local officials like Kinmen Magistrate Wo-Shih Li is hoping that his tiny piece of paradise will soon be overrun by tourists from China's mainland.

In anticipation of that day, Kinmen has cleaned up its beaches - that means they've rid 80 per cent of their beaches of the land minds placed on them to try and halt a Chinese advance had one ever come.

China and Taiwan have been feuding ever since Chinese came here in the 1940s to escape communist rule. Bombs rained down on Kinmen from China - only a few kilometres away - during that period but now, thanks to diplomatic efforts, the two countries are much friendlier - Taiwan is even the biggest foreign investor in China now.

Now efforts are under way to have a 6 kilometre bridge built between Kinmen and China's Xiamen, a popular resort town that I can see from where I'm standing on the Taiwanese island. Xiamen gets 30 million tourists a year and with a bridge, Magistrate Li anticipates a lot of those tourists will be drawn to his island. Already, Kinmen gets 360,000 Chinese visitors a year - they come by ferry.

Of  course, linking Taiwan to the mainland is always a sensitive issue among the Taiwanese thanks to Chinese insistence that Taiwan still belongs to it.
 

When the day finally does come and the bridge is complete, the Chinese will be thrilled to find an island lush with vegetation, a dramatic coastline and some of the loveliest people in Asia.

They'll also find a local liqueur known as Kaoliang that packs a punch sans hangover; peanut candies that are crunchy and sweet; thousands of bird species which migrate here each year; quaint villages that were built during China's earliest dynasties; and a culture that dates back 6,000 years when Kinmen was first settled.

The Chinese have been denied passage to this island for too long - it's time to bridge the gap because Kinmen is a treasure that more people should see.

My China trip was a great success

I took this photo a intersection chaos in downtown Beijing from
my hotel window. Traffic in the capital is out of control.

 Now, where were we before I was interrupted by the Chinese ...

Just got back last night from an incredible 10-day tour of China, which included stops in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai, and must apologize for not staying in touch through this blog. However, it wasn't my fault. The Chinese block all access to western-based blogs like mine and while I was able to "smuggle" some posts out - thanks to Hayson Chu for posting them - I was pretty much cut off.

I love travelling in China - the Chinese are some of the most pleasant people on the planet - but I wish their government would get over their paranoia about bloggers.

Enough said.

Some thoughts about the trip:

Beijing has to do something about its traffic gridlock and air quality control. Both are now becoming a deterrent to travelling to the capital, where the summer smog and heat are becoming a health hazard, even for short visits. There will be about 300 million cars on China's roads by next year and while the country has done an amazing job adding new super highways, officials have done little to control inner-city chaos. Red lights are regularly ignored by drivers, especially cabbies, and you literally risk getting hit just walking across a street, even though you have the green light.

Hangzhou was such a relief after four days in Beijing. The air in that eastern province city of six million is sweet thanks to beautiful West Lake and the botanical splendour that surrounds it. The lotus blossoms were in full bloom while I was visiting and that's a spectacular site. I also made my first visit to the new Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake and have one word to describe the Canadian brand's new China property - WOW! The Four Seasons at West Lake is now my favourite hotel in China and it's jumped into my Top 10 worldwide. It's actually built on the shores of West Lake and the staff there are the best in the Chinese hotel business.

Shanghai is my favourite city in China - the traffic isn't quite as bad as Beijing and I actually got three straight days of sunshine; a first after my many visits to China's biggest and most exciting city. Shanghai's nightlife is right up there with Hong Kong's and again I stayed at the Fairmont Peace Hotel on the historic Bund - just love that Art Deco beauty. I also visited a new chic hotel on the Bund called Indigo - InterContinental's new high-end brand - and the meal I had there and the nightime view I got of the Huangpu River and futuristic Pudong on the opposite side of the busy waterway from the hotel's observation deck was simply spectacular. Rooms at the Indigo are going for about $200 a night - a real bargain! I also ate at a restaurant called Ye in the city's Xin Tian Di district - the old colonial quarter which has been renovated and now features some of the city's finest dining rooms.

I can't wait to go back to China because it's the most exciting country on the planet to travel in these days - I just wish I could report back to you when I'm there.