Heard around China...

- A well known real estate agency has closed it store in Pudong. This store at the height of Shanghai real estate boom was doing about RMB100-200 millons business monthly. Now, door closed. Nothing.

- Sand's, the Les Vegas casino company has stopped work in Macau putting 11,000 people out of work. Among the workers, the break down is: 2,000 from Macau, 4,000 from Hong Kong and the rest from mainland China. Sand's has requested the developer to keep workers in payroll for the Macanese workers. Right.... First to suffer is the mainland Chinese workers; they will be sent back to China. Where would they go? Home villages. Another headache for the Chinese gov't.

- The mini-bond saga at Hong Kong, the banks there have agreed in principle to compensate; but the most will be about 60% of the initially invested. If you can get that. The Hong Kong banks have a way to phrase things to not compensate. Screw you whichever way they want. The first group to be compensated is seniors that have no investment knowledge.

- Chinese airlines have not been paying landing fees since June to Chinese airports. Total came to RMB 400 Millions. This has caused a deficit to airport operations around the country. The Civil Aviation for the Chinese airports are listing all the airlines with the amount owed. Top of the list is China East, Hainan Airlines... Some measures to force the airlines to pay up are coming. Suspect will attempt to delay or ban aircrafts from landing or taking off without notice.

- Beijing gov't is banning students from carrying knives to schools. Since January, 6 students have been killed after arguments.

- This the hairy crab season in Shanghai; no one is paying big money eating the little things. I walked by a Sichuan restaurant and it is promoting free hairy crab if you come in to eat at the restaurant.

- Does the global economy downturn affecting Shanghai? You bet. Talked to a friend of mine this afternoon over coffee. His law firm, Lovells LLP, the sixth biggest in the world is estimating lower revenue and profit. This was due to less M&A and Financing deals. However, its restructuring and bankruptcy department has seen workload increased by 200%.

- Some of the stricter Chinese Labour Code that kicked in in January of this year, really hurt the manufacturing. Thanks to WTO membership. Since June, many Hong Kong invested or Shanghai invested factories along the Guangdong province and outside of Shanghai proper were closed. Most could handle the fallout. But one from Hong Kong could not and had to apply for a security guard posting in Hong Kong yesterday in order to meet his financial obligation. He used to own a factory employing over 100 people, making about RMB50,000 for himself. Overnight, he's lost his factory. And had to compete with thousands of people looking for work. A security guard normally pays about HK4,000 to HK5,000 or so.

- Layoff in Chinese real estate agency is not down yet and has not reach the peak according to an analyst. Yikes. And here's the kicker, if a company is to layoff 20 people or 10% of its work force, it needs to notify the Chinese workforce department.

- Chinese gov't has start building low income housing similar to Hong Kong. If it start building now, wonder how long before it is ready to move in. Since all paints are toxic, need to leave it vent out for at least 6 months.

- Shanghai tax department has reported a 40% jump in back taxes from companies this quarter compared to last quarter. This indicates the real estate business in decline.

- Airline tickets before taxes are cheaper than train tickets (3rd class seat). Some air tickets are as low as RMB99 one way. With taxes added, same cost as a train ticket, averaging RMB200. International airfare, compared to same period last year, dropped by 20%.

- And in Shanghai, I still don't see things dropping in price!!!! The same instant noodles I bought since Jan 2007 December has gone from RMB2.1 to RMB4.6 to RMB5.8 at the same store! Go figure!

Keep reading stuff like this I am going to jump off a roof somewhere or take some California red.