Dr. Mark Nan Tu

I went to Suzie Wong night club on Wednesday night, the first night for the May holiday. I have been to Suzie Wong many times in 2004 and 2005. It was one of the coolest club in town. It was named the editor

I came back from a business trip to GuangZhou. Instead of the Beijing international airport, I landed in the Nan Yuan airport. The Beijing international airport is located on the Northeast of the city and connected to the ring roads by the airport expresses way. The Nan Yuan airport however, is located on the south of the city only 15km from the

ZhongLian Used Car Mall

The lucky number licence plate A78818 is offered at 88,000RMB

Our company www.1bib.com is an online used car market place for dealers and individual buyers alike. The used car market in China is set to explode in the next few years as the new car sell grow by 30% in 2007. There are more than 1000 new cars registered in Beijing every day which resulted in one of the worst traffic jam in the world.
The used car market in China is still in the very early stage. Most of the used car dealers are family owned small business men. About 80% of the used cars are sold by these dealers and the rest 20% are sold by 4s trade-ins and person to person trade. Unlike most of the developed countries such as the US and EU, Chinese used car dealers stay in the Used Car Malls where as many as 300 dealers rent parking and office spaces from the used car mall. The high contrentration of the cars in big cities such as Beijing, GuangZhou and Shanghai resulted in this unique phenomenon. The dealers pay a fixed rent for the used car mall. There is no printed ads for the dealers which may be an opportunity for online printed ads such as what our company offers.
The largest used car mall in Beijing is called HuaXiang automall. It is located in the southwest corner of the city and just inside the 4th ring road. The mall has around 300 used car dealers and on an average day, it has 3000 used cars on display. HuaXiang automall is partially owned by the government. The second largest used car mall in Beijing is the ZhongLian used car mall. It is located on the northwest of the city in SiJiQing exit of the 4th ring road. It has around 100 used car dealers and about 1000 used cars on display.
The competition of the used car dealers is stiff and with so many cars on display on the same lot, the price is very transparent. The average mark up for a used car is 7% meaning that the trading margin for a used car is 7%. The average turn over time is 1 month. The most popular brand for the used car market is Jetta. The most popular sells are those valued at around 50,000RMB or 7,000USD.

One of the large used car dealer in the HuaXiang used car mall: ReallyCar

HuaXiang used car mall also offers low end new cars with a goal to be the market place for cars.

When I had dinner with a friend yesterday, I was told that the models in the 2008 Beijing Auto show could make as much as 10,000RMB/day.

What? My first reaction was: Are you kidding me? This is a ridiculous price to pay. I was thinking that some of the models may even do it for free if they are just started in modeling career. Beijing auto show attracts at least 200,000 people. That is 200,000 people look at the model. Another 10 million people will look at the model from the pictures posted online and on news paper. I would think that it is a perfect opportunity to show the world. Plus, the resume of a Mercedes Benz model in 2008 Beijing Auto show will open a lot of doors for future career development.

My educated guess is that an average car model will make around 500RMB/day. An international model (mostly are Russian) will make around 1,000RMBday. Nothing is close to 10,000RMB/day.

I saw a California licensed car in the Beijing 798 (renowned art distinct in Beijing) today. It is an ISUZU SUV with 3.3 liter engine. The car is painted bright yellow, a perfect California car. The front wind shield displays a Chinese (Tian Jing) license plate, hard to verify if it is real.
It is known that China charges a hefty duty on imported new cars and does not allow imports of used cars. How did this car get into China? How is it driven in Beijing with a California license plate?
It just goes to show that in China today, any thing is possible.

I went hiking in the Fragrance Hill this weekend. The trees are turning green. The best time to hike the hill is April (to see the blossom flowers), May (to see the green trees), September (to see the red leaves) or October (to see the autumn sky).

The Ming Tombs Reservoir and behind is the Chinese Valley of Kings (Ming Tombs)

The Large Reservoir on the top of the MangShan Mountain is said to supply water to the Ming Tombs Reservoir