Chongqing

Now we spend unexpected but welcome time in China's and the world's largest municipality. Chongqing's mayor rules (under the central government) a city state roughly the size of Austria with roughly 4 times the people of Austria. It has been broken out from the province of Sichuan a couple of years ago and used to be its easternmost part on the Yangzi (Huang Jiang).

Like Austria it once had an automobile industry and it's got one again. Most of the cars here are small because on one hand instead of partnering with Canadian Magna and BMW they they have got a joint venture with Nipponese Suzuki. On the other hand smaller cars also make more sense for everybody but the toppest brass. It is said they are in the train to changing partners, and that most likely it is going to be Ford Europe soon.

As the 4^th city in mainland China Chongqing is building a subway now which is a bit of a feat, because, like Manhattan, the city core is built between two large rivers. But very much unlike Manhattan this is not an island but a set of very steep hills and mountains. So in and out many tunnels the subway goes.

They also have trolley and diesel buses here. The bicycle is ab bit rarer in the core than elsewhere in China, and understandably so.

Where no river view attracts real estate sharks you can find old parts of the city with fantastic traditional teahouses and markets.

As these teahouses they have no higher confucianist beauraucracy to cater to anymore they mostly cater to Taiwanese, American and European tourists which is a shame. These teahouses have fantastic bands with a large repertoire but the tourists talk so loudly and in such a barbarian way that even the best brain can't compute out the noise after a short while.

Practically all people save newly immigrated and longterm unemployed ones need to have their own apartments as a property. Standard apartment size used to be 36m² in the seventies and early eighties and is now 90m² we are told.

As people seem to do the interior furnishing of their flats themselves, good quality material and good quality furniture at affordable prizes is a tremendous business opportunity. Ikea is in Shanghai and soon to be expected here. Their catalogue already is.