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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: Beijing more expensive than Paris

Beijing is the most expensive city on the Chinese mainland for expatriates, ranking the 20th highest in the world for costs of living, according to an annual report released by Mercer, a US-based consulting company […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: Shanghai now more expensive than New York

Tokyo is still the world’s most expensive city to live in and Oslo and Osaka still make the top five, but the Worldwide Cost of Living 2011 survey just released from the Economist Intelligence Unit also revealed some dramatic changes in the last year […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: China to cut tax on luxury goods

China, already the world’s second-largest luxury goods market, will soon slash import duties on “opulent items” to encourage wealthy local shoppers to buy more pricey cosmetics, watches and liquor […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Education in China: Overseas education no longer paying off

Graduates who invested in an overseas education are having to lower their salary expectations once they return home to Shanghai […]

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Design Economics Innovation Trend Watching

Watch Eric Berlow’s “How complexity leads to simplicity” talk at TED

Ecologist Eric Berlow doesn’t feel overwhelmed when faced with complex systems. He knows that more information can lead to a better, simpler solution. Illustrating the tips and tricks for breaking down big issues, he distills an overwhelming infographic on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan to a few elementary points […]

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Design Trend Watching

Watch Frank Gehry’s “young rebel” talk at TED

Before he was a legend, architect Frank Gehry takes a whistlestop tour of his early work, from his house in Venice Beach to the American Center in Paris, which was under construction (and much on his mind) when he gave this talk […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Education in China: First graders early adopters of e-book in Shanghai

In the e-book era, local students will soon be reading digital textbooks: the Shanghai Education Commission has set an ambitious plan to make all primary school grade one pupils use e-textbooks within five years […]

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China Consumer Behavior Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: U.S. destinations target affluent Chinese tourists

Hawaii, California and Las Vegas are among American tourist destinations vying fiercely for a vast and largely untapped new market segment: the Chinese tourist […]

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China Innovation Readings Trend Watching

China, Technology, Innovation and the Environment: energy security pushes China into Wind Power

The Chinese government recently upgraded its wind installation capacity target for 2020 to 150 gigawatts from 100 gigawatts, representing a compound annual growth rate of 20% for accumulated wind-generation capacity, according to analysts Min Li and Wendy Wang at Yuanta Research {…]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics

China Approves Disney Theme Park in Shanghai

After a courtship of about 20 years, the Walt Disney Company has won approval from the central government of China to build a Disneyland-style theme park in Shanghai, Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said recently […]