China's Rich Get Even Richer

The poor might be less poor, but still not catching up to the rich

A quick follow-up to yesterday's blog post about Ted Hui Chi-fung's financial predicament -- suddenly -- on a Sunday -- HSBC unfroze his bank account and that of his family and the latest report is that they have moved their money elsewhere.

However, as many have pointed out on social media, the trust in the bank has broken, making them wonder how safe their money is.

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China announced late last month that it has eradicated extreme poverty, a goal President Xi Jinping had pledged in 2015, to complete this year.

832 counties are not in extreme poverty anymore

He made it in the nick of time on November 23, with the 832 counties that were identified as extremely poor are not in dire straits.

However, Caixin reports this does not mean these counties are completely poverty-free. 

"Because the policies are based on raising average incomes, the results often smooth over the circumstances of individual families or communities that continue to live in penury."

Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum, China's rich have gotten much richer thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, according to lists compiled by Forbes and Hurun Report.

"The world has never seen wealth created at this speed before," said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of Hurun Report that tracks China's richest.

Nongfu owner Zhong is US$52billion richer

Forbes reports China's 400 richest people now have a total wealth of US$2.11 trillion, a 64 percent surge from US$1.29 trillion last year.

By comparison, America's 400 richest are now worth US$3.2 trillion, only 8.2 percent more than a year ago, according to Forbes numbers.

How China's rich became many times more richer is thanks to IPOs and stock market jumps. Other factors are post-epidemic economic recovery, and fast-booming digital and technology industries. 

One company that profited from its IPO is Nongfu, the water bottle brand. When it went public in Hong Kong in September, founder Zhong Shanhan became US$52 billion richer, which made him the third richest in the country.

The pandemic resulted in a surge in sales in the e-commerce and healthcare industries. Wang Xing, founder of food delivery company Meituan, quadrupled his wealth to US$25 billion. 

Meanwhile Chongqing-based vaccine producer Zhifei saw the wealth of its chairman Jiang Rensheng almost triple, after Chinese regulators approved human trials of the company's Covid-19 vaccine.

Li of Winner Medical prospered during pandemic

And Li Jianquan, the head of Winner Medical that makes PPE and face masks, saw his wealth grow a staggering 11-fold to US$5.6 billion.

Not only those areas are doing well, but also the automotive industry, such as electric vehicles and autonomous driving companies.

Electric vehicle or EV startup Xpeng's IPO in New York this summer helped its founder He Xiaopeng grow his wealth by 80 percent to US$6.6 billion.

And China's biggest lithium battery producer CATL's head, Zeng Yuqun, tripled his wealth to US$17.6 billion this year.

So while Xi met his goal to lift 832 counties out of extreme poverty, that doesn't mean the wealth gap has narrowed significantly...

Munich's Pride and Joy: BMW

The BMW headquarters (left) and the museum (right)

You can't go to Munich and not go to the BMW Museum! We got there via a hop on, hop off bus and everyone gets off at this stop. Anyone who is a fan of the German "ultimate driving machine" comes here to make a pilgrimage. And if you really want, you can buy a BMW as a souvenir of your trip too.

This is the showroom across the street with a sleek bridge

The showroom is a massive building that includes the Mini, and you can buy not only the cars, but also lifestyle products, from jackets to baseball hats to suitcases and toy cars. Some people were trying on the cars for size, getting in and out of them, while others were there to pick up their cars and drive them off in a special exit driveway for them that looks space age (from what we could see from the outside).

Meanwhile across the street via a sleek elevated walkway, is the BMW headquarters, a distinctive building that looks like four vertical cylinders in a car engine, while the museum looks like the cylinder head, both designed by Austrian architect Karl Schwanzer.

They were built between 1968 and 1972, finished in time for the 1972 Summer Olympics and the BMW headquarters is very close to the Olympic Village, giving the company greater exposure.

Inside the showroom, many were eager to look at BMWs

One good tip is that because we took the hop on, hop off bus, the BMW Museum also gave us a few euros off on admission! Bonus!

The museum is laid out in a linear way and goes through the entire history of BMW. Its origins go back to World War I when an unknown aircraft engine manufacturer called Rapp Motorenwerke GmbH presented a newly and innovative aircraft engine to the Prussian military authorities, the company was renamed Bayerische Moteren Werke (BMW) in 1917.

This is also when BMW's logo was developed -- the company name in a black circle, with blue and white panels from the Bavarian national flag.

One of the early motorcycles BMW produced

From there the company designed engines for motorcycles and then cars in 1929. Up until World War II, BMW's main products were aircraft engines, motorcycles and cars. Then during the war the company focused on aircraft engines, and motorcycles were a sideline business, while car production was stopped altogether.

But during this time, the BMW factory in Eisenach, in central Germany, was in the Soviet-occupied zone, and so the Soviets produced pre-war BMW motorcycles and cars there until 1955. However, its Munich plant was completely destroyed and it took time for the company to not only rebuild but also find another means of business because BMW was banned from producing motor vehicles the Allies.

One of BMWs first Formula 1 cars in a beautiful shade of blue

As a result, BMW made pots and pans, other kitchen equipment and bicycles, and finally got permission from the United States to restart motor production, in particular motorcycles in 1947. BMW started manufacturing cars in the early 1950s which was good timing because by this point the market for motorcycles was saturated and people were starting to demand cars.

The company started making mini cars called Isetta, but it couldn't compete against the Volkwagen Beetle. But by the early 1960s BMW was back on its feet with investors showing faith in the company and not wanting to merge with Daimler-Benz, and new cars that had powerful engines.

The BMW 1600, my father's first BMW!

We got to see those motorcycles and early Formula 1 cars contrasting against today's models. You had to be a petite driver -- practically the size of a horse jockey -- to fit into the old school racing car. Even back in the late 1920s they already knew about aerodynamics, with one racer who broke time records with BMW-designed motorcycles with an aerodynamic body like a fish.

There are a lot of consumer cars on display -- the 1600 from 1966 was there -- my father's first BMW which was fun for him to reminisce about as well as other models. The Z3 was also there, which 007 drove in Goldeneye -- the first time James Bond drove a non-British car.

For design fans, there are 1:1 clay models and videos of how the engineers, designers and modellers need to work together to figure out how every detail of the car is going to look like. Another section of the museum also explains the need to transfer from fossil fuels to electricity, and shows off its BEVs or battery electric vehicles.

Contrast it with this futuristic car powered by fuel cells

If that visit to the museum doesn't inspire you to go buy a BMW I don't know what will. It definitely emits those aspiration vibes for those who want to buy their first car, or their next...! Fantastic marketing tool that BMW has done tastefully and not overtly.

And if you want a bite to eat, their cafeteria does pretty good food too!

Performance Etiquette in Macau

Car enthusiasts enjoyed Elekron, but many were late stragglers

In Macau I was there on assignment to cover two shows, one is the well known House of Dancing Water that has been around for 10 years at City of Dreams, and a new show that debuted last month in Studio City called Elekron, featuring stunts done by electric vehicles in an indoor arena.

The latter show started on time, but the seats were just half full. To get the audience settled in, two clowns entertained the crowd for about 10 to 15 minutes, though people are still streaming in.

And even when the actual show has started with cars and motorbikes zooming around, there are still lots of people going to their seats. These latecomers are all mainlanders.

I was told these late stragglers is a very common occurrence for these shows in Macau.

And then there is the perennial problem of people whipping out their smartphones and trying to record the show. Ushers are constantly racing up and down the stairs telling people they are not allowed to take videos of the performance, let alone take pictures with flash.

And then three-quarters through the show, a group of men got up en masse and walked out. They chose a point in the show where the two clowns showed up on stage again and one of them waved goodbye to one of the last men who were walking out. Like seriously? You're just going to leave like that?

But then again in Beijing I have seen people walk out as classical musicians are performing a solo section in a concert.

House of Dancing Water was a very similar situation, though not as many people coming in late. However, before the show started, a mother with her two year old son and grandmother sat two rows down from us and the child was wailing uncontrollably.

He kept saying "我不要! Wo bu yao!" I don't want [it]! I don't want [it]! but I didn't know what "it" was. His mother would threaten to hit him and he would cry even harder. His grandmother cradled him for a while and then his mother would grab him back forcefully and then his grandmother would hold him, passed around like a hot potato.

It got to the point where an usher came down to suggest perhaps they should take the child out to calm him down first, but the mother refused to budge. Eventually she did and after a while returned with the child. But as soon as they sat down, he started wailing again. Luckily we didn't hear from him again after the show started...

What do you do when the main audience base is from China? Do you tell them they're not allowed in after the show starts? Or do you just let them be and hope they will learn next time? And what about parents who can't control their children?

It's an uphill battle trying to educate mainland audiences about basic performance etiquette...

A Cool(er) Ride

Look out for tram number 88 that has air conditioning!

Just in time to help beat the heat, there will be one tram going around Hong Kong Island that will be air conditioned. Yes -- one trial tram is being further modernized to see if it can lure more people to get back on the ding ding.

From Monday, the tram car with the lucky number 88 will be riding the rails for three months, and fares will be the same as non air-conditioned ones. Temperatures will be set at 23, 25 and 27 degrees Celsius and passengers will be surveyed on which setting should be adopted.

Senior engineering manager Steven Chan Si-yiu explained it cost HK$250,000 (US$32,170) to retrofit air conditioning in the car, and did not rule out fare hikes if there were more air-conditioned cars in the future.

He did not reveal how much electricity the car uses for air conditioning; however, if there are more air-conditioned cars on the track, they have to be separated from each other, otherwise they may draw too much electricity at one spot and could bring down the grid.

The MTR extension has affected ridership on trams

Chan said that if the current fleet of 163 cars were fitted with air-conditioning, then Hong Kong Tramways would have to install power substations along the track to boost power voltage.

The company hopes having air conditioning will bring riders back to the tram. Since the MTR extended its Island line to Kennedy Town in December 2014, the number of daily riders has dropped to 180,000 from 200,000.

It'll be interesting to see how people react to having air-con in the tram -- probably a positive thing. But people are also price-sensitive these days, so it'll have to depend on how much the price hike is...

Taxpayer Dollars go up in Flames -- Literally

A prototype electric bus that had a short circuit and burst into flames yesterday

Hong Kong is finally getting on the electric bus bandwagon, but it had a slight setback when a prototype that was designed in the city but built across the border burst into flames yesterday.

The fire department believes it had a short circuit which overheated the battery.

The Hong Kong Productivity Council designed the bus and reported it had passed several tests on the mainland before it was delivered to Hong Kong.

Are we sure the bus was properly tested in China? One wonders what kind of "vigorous testing" it went through...

The HK$40 million project began in August 2013, funded by the government's Innovation and Technology Fund. The electric bus was built at HK$3.8 million -- twice the price of a diesel bus.

While it was designed in Hong Kong, the electric bus was manufactured in China because of the lack of manpower and space to build one in the city.

Ironically the council's chairman, Stanley Lau Chin-ho, vouched for the bus's safety back in October for a promotional event.

"Although the coach was assembled on the mainland, it underwent nine months of tests in Chongqing and Dongguan to ensure its safety. I am sure there would not be any problems," he said.

Uh huh.

The single-decker bus was supposed to be able to cover 380km on a four-hour charge and travel up to 70km/h with 75 passengers.

Did Hong Kong really have to design its own bus? Could it not have bought one from other companies who already have the expertise in doing this? Why try to reinvent the wheel?

And another thing: last year Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in his policy address that the government would promote the use of electric vehicles and would fund the purchase of 36 single-deck electric buses by franchised bus companies.

Wait -- why would the government pay for 36 electric buses to be on the road? Why not mandate them to have X number of electric buses by a certain year, and Y number in subsequent years?

Why do taxpayers have to shell out for bus companies where we pay bus fare already?

It's completely illogical.

And now a prototype has burst into flames and is now a charred skeleton.

Oops there goes HK$3.8 million...