Money - money - money.

Abba wrote a song called 'Money money money'. There are lots of sayings and songs to impress on us that it is money that makes the world go round. Well there are some places in the world that go round faster than others.

In the China Daily, I found this little snippet of information.

"China has had more billionaires created by its stock markets this year than in the United States - 212 compared with 211 - a new survey revealed on Thursday.

According to the latest Hurun Global Rich List 2013, there were 1,453 people in the world with personal wealth of $1 billion or more at the end of January.

Another significant sign of more wealth being created in the East came with figures showing Asia was home to the highest number of billionaires, with 608, followed by 440 from North America and 324 from Europe, said Hurun researchers.

Among individual countries, the US and the Greater China area dominated with 408 and 357 respectively, followed by Russia, Germany and India.

Between them, the US and China now have half of all billionaires on the planet.

Moscow, with 76 billionaires, is the billionaire capital of the world, followed by New York, Hong Kong, Beijing and London, according to the report.

Mexican telecom czar Carlos Slim, 73, was ranked as the "Richest Man on the Planet" with a personal fortune of $66 billion, followed by US investor Warren Buffet."

Many westerners still have the perception that Chinese people live in little shantys dotted around the country. If you have been there or read about it you will know that China has become a very modern country, and they certainly know how to earn a dollar and save it.

A mall that opened when I lived in Suzhou.

 

The entrance to one of the nicer restaurants in a small city in China.

 

Another article in the China Daily talked about how the Chinese save money.

 

"China's personal savings rose to a record 14 trillion yuan (US$1.7 trillion) at the end of last year, mainly because people put aside more money to pay for education, health care and housing, analysts said yesterday.

China's personal savings rose to a record 14 trillion yuan (US$1.7 trillion) at the end of last year, mainly because people put aside more money to pay for education, health care and housing, analysts said yesterday.

A resident counts RMB banknotes at a branch of Agriculture Bank of China in Liaocheng, East China's Shandong Province January 16, 2006. [newsphoto]

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said on Sunday that savings reached 14.1 trillion yuan (US$1.74 trillion), or more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) per capita.

The figure was 12.6 trillion yuan (US$1.56 trillion) for 2004.

Yet, even as people get richer, they have become more cautious in their spending."

Remember the old saying, 'take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves'? Well this certainly applies in China. Although people will spend money on themselves when necessary, generally buying good quality clothes and household items, even if they have plenty in the bank they will still take into account the extra one or two Yuan when they spend. 

Let's face it, practically everything in every shop in the west is full of stuff 'Made in China'. That's where all our money goes.