Entire New 13-Story Building Tips Over in Shanghai

This is pretty crazy - picked up from a friends Facebook timeline:

One fatality reported.

The world's largest mall

99% empty. This is one of those China stories you need to see:


The World's Largest Shopping Mall from Kontent Films on Vimeo.

Are all those Shanghai skyscrapers really full?

I was just wondering about this - and came upon this story:

Mori Building Sells Five Stories of China’s Tallest Property

April 20, 2011, 10:12 PM EDT

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Mori Building Co., owner of China’s tallest building, said it sold five floors of the property and may offer more in the tower following demand from investors.

Japan’s biggest privately held developer said it sold the 68th to 72nd floors of the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center. The 16,248-square-meter (174,828-square-foot) space was sold at an average price of 82,142 yuan ($12,588) per square meter, according to information from government-run Shanghai Real Estate Trading Center, which tracks property transactions.

So they are selling the floors, but it still doesn't talk about occupancy... I just can't imagine who is in all these building...

A Shanghai Apartment’s Art Deco Splendor Restored

Cool story in the NY Times:

GREAT HOMES AND DESTINATIONS

A Shanghai Apartment’s Art Deco Splendor Restored

By JUSTIN BERGMAN

Published: March 9, 2011

Spencer Dodington, a Texan, had already spent years studying the Art Deco style when he embarked on renovating his 1,420-square-foot apartment in Shanghai’s old French Concession.

Does China really have a real estate bubble?

Does anyone really ever know what is going on inside China? I think that "China" as a whole is a bubble of some kind - and real estate seems the most obvious. But can a bubble burst in a communist country? I think the world is going to find out eventually as evidence like this just screams of over building and risky lending.

Ristorante Sawauchi

My main reason in going to Japan (and one of the reasons I signed on to the Shanghai project) was to see my friend Aki and his wife and their new baby. Aki is one of the most interesting people I have ever met, and one of the busiest.  Of course that did not stop him from taking the time to treat me like a king, even with a new baby and two restaurants to run, and while making a movie on his iPhone, watching TVwhile driving, taking up golf, and running several kilometers every morning, etc. (you get the picture - this is one busy guy).

The highlight of the whole visit was the meal I had at Aki's new fine dining Italian restaurant, "Ristorante Sawauchi". I have some more written about the restaurant here, with a full set of pictures here. If you are ever in the north of Japan, please give it try!

Shanghai Taxi Experience

There really was no excuse for this...