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My hometown Zhu Hai has changed dramatically. If you read my previous post you may know that I left my home

11 years ago and it was the first time I return to visit. The city’s population has been more than double to 1.2 million. That was the most recent official statistic. I feel its population is actually a lot more if including the transit populations. Zhu Hai is one of the most popular tourist cities. It advanced to the number six in China in term of tourist popularity. It is also the entrance to Macau on land. Macau is the eastern Las Vegas. After Macau was returned to China on 1999, the Chinese government made easy the procedure for the Chinese people to get traveling permits to Macau. Tourist from mainland to Macau increased dramatically and Zhu Hai as the only gate to Macau on land benefited from this boom of tourism economically.

The city expended a lot and you can see high rise buildings everywhere. Cars running on the road are probably quadruple compared to 11 years ago. Car used to be a symbol of luxury and wealth now goes into average family. I remember bicycle was my primary transportation. I remember my friends and I rode bicycle to go to a bar to have beer every night for a period of time after we graduated from University. Now almost all of my friends own a car. Zhu Hai had no university before. The city government realized that to attract foreign as well as domestic corporations to settle in the city it had to provide the corporations with educated work force and the best way to do so was to build university to attract students from all over the country to the city and hope that they would join the intellectual work force after they graduate. The city offer free land to famous universities to build campus in Zhu Hai. Now there are four universities that have campus in Zhu Hai including the very famous ZhongShan University and the university that I went to, Jinan University. All of them have big campus and modernized facilities.

Real State is doing very well in Zhu Hai the recent years.

Macau is one factor contributing to that. I called it the Macau effect. Macau is the only city in China that gambling is legal. The gambling industry in Macau used to be monopolized by one company owned by the billionaire, Stanley Ho. The Chinese government opened up the gambling industry to foreign players after Macau was returned to China. LAS VEGAS SANDS CORP and the WYNN RESORTS LTD are among those who get concession to operate casinos in Macau. They build five star hotels and casino resorts and provide high class services. The open up of the gambling industry brought in competitions and force Stanley Ho to improve the service his company provides. In fact, Lisboa, the new Hotel Casino his company built in order to match up with foreign competition just opened for business not long ago. The new hotels and casinos provided a lot of jobs and attracted a lot of tourists hence stimulated the real estate market. The real estate price was more then double in two years and Zhu Hai’s real restate price also went up a lot especially for those places that are close to the Zhu Hai and Macau custom. Macau is a very small city. A lot of people live in Zhu Hai and work in Macau so the closer the place to the custom the more expensive it become. People live in Zhu Hai hope that the custom can be open 24 hours so that it can be more convenient to them. Zhu Hai has no problem to open it up because it will actually benefit Zhu Hai. But the Macau government worry that the open up of the custom will drive down real estate price in Macau because real state price in Zhu Hai is still a lot cheaper than Macau even though the two places are next to each other. There is still a lot of debating.

A deal is being negotiated between the Chinese government and Sheldon Adelson, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp and the third richest individual in the US. He is seeking permission to build a $13 billion development with golf courses and hotels on Hengqin Island. Hegqin is an island under Zhu Hai district. My brother told me the Zhu Hai municipal government imposed strict control on the land of the island and doesn’t allowed them being traded. There is rumor that the Chinese government is considering hand over the right of governing the island to Macau to facilitate the deal. That deal if settled will certainly bring exciting opportunities for business of all kind.

I couldn’t recognize the roads expect for those close to my home because my home was located in the oldest district in the City. Another thing I notice was there were a lot more businesses than before. Advertising billboards were everywhere. My father told me there were major reorganization going on for state owned enterprises in the past several years. Many of them were sold to private investors at under market value. I think that is something inevitable when a socialist economy is going through the transition to capitalist. Under state ownership enterprises were not efficiently run because the people who run the enterprises have no incentive to do so even though they know the enterprise inside out. When enterprises were privatized they were usually sold to the people who originally run the enterprises. Outsider wouldn’t know the enterprise well and wouldn’t understand how much they worth. The transition made a lot of millionaires and even billionaires. That’s probably another factor contributing the real estate price appreciation.

What I saw in Zhu Hai is probably a small snapshot of China. China has achieved great economic success in the past 10 years. The changes I saw could be happening in just every cities in China. 10 yeares ago I thought America was the land of oppotunities. 10 years later after I came to the U.S. I start to feel that China is becoming the land of opportunites.

Here is an article about Macau, “Casino Kings Wager Carefully on Macau”. It really help if you are interested in knowing the development of the region.

Here are some pictures I took while I was in Zhu Hai. You may want to see my another post,“Pinpoint My China Home in Goolge Satellite Map”

The island you see here is the island in the following google map. Zhu Hai is located on sea shore and is at the entrance of the pearl river. It has a very long cost line. It is close to Guang Zhou, Shen Zhen and Hong Kong.

Standing on the bridge to the island. The name of the island is actually “island of wild beaver”. The red boat behind me is a famous restaurant. It was built after I left zhu Hai 11 years ago, so was the bridge.

High rise buildings are every where

Picture of the roof of my home

The roof of my home in google satellite map

A view on the roof. The pond is without water right now because of reconstruction

The following is the pond in google satellite map

I stayed there for only two weeks and busy meeting friends and relatives all the time. That is all the pictures I have. Next time when I return I will definitely take more.

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