State of Affairs

Ai Wan , seems to wield the Midas touch. Ai a Shanghai born film actress, returned to China after leaving moving to the US at age 10. Ai Wan lived every actresses dream by working in the entertainment industry in Hollywood. The trained dancer and former fashion model, landed roles in major studio releases like the blockbuster, Rush Hour, the first of Jackie Chan's popular film franchise. Ai then became a best selling published author in 2005 with the release of The Madness of Appetite a book that according her biography, a book that stayed at the top of China's best selling list for two years. She is currently busy reincarnating China Doll her popular club two years after creative differences with a partner caused a split. China Doll was compared favorably to clubs in far flung party places in Ibiza, Paris and her former Los Angeles. The name China Doll was designed to appeal to foreign tastes and local pride. Ai is excited about the ch...

Sage Advice 'Trying to capture such a fast moving target as Beijing is no easy task,' according to Immersion Guides, the creators of Insider's Guide to Beijing. But if when have a staff of 40 plus 'insiders' to contribute articles and photos to a Beijing city guide, then your bound to uncover some fascinating and useful tips. This year's addition of Insider's Guide arrived on our desk with a resounding thud; it's crammed with seven hundred pages of sage advice, tips and pictures. Of course there's an expanded Sports and Fitness coverage that includes everything Olympic. Its no svelte, boutique urban guide, but rather a bully of a tome. Because of it's size this mini-me encyclopedia is not geared for the one-time tourist although one would be hard pressed to find a more exhaustive dissection on the Capital's merriment options, no, this Guide was written with the long-term resident in mind. It provides exhaustive coverage on domestic issues: k...

What's the biggest economic topic for 2008? In a word, inflation. From absolute obscurity only a few quarters ago, inflation has come raging forward to command the full attention of China's policy makers, global investors and even casual observers as “the” issue of the moment. Definition: ‘Inflation is the loss in purchasing power of a currency unit such as the dollar, usually expressed as a general rise in the prices of goods and services.’ Today, inflation continues to be blamed on private greed, while governments still seek to restrain it by decree, sometimes even devaluing their currencies as they do so in order to make there exports cheaper and thus create demand. However for most companies, operating and financing costs rise due to devaluation-created inflation, stealing back any initial competitive gains. In the news media, discussion of inflation often takes a ‘bottom up’ view. Each month's change in any given price index spills into every n...