Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

[tag]Chocolate[/tag] will get more expensive. Why, because the [tag]Chinese[/tag] seem to like it more and more.

Some chocolate makers predict that in 10 years the demand for [tag]cacao[/tag] will be bigger than the supply.

Some chocolate consumption statistics

[tag]Europe [/tag]- yearly 7 kg/person

[tag]Holland[/tag] – yearly 4.5 kg/person

[tag]China[/tag] – yearly 150 grams/person

In [tag]Shanghai[/tag] the number of chocolate stores is definitely increasing. On festivals like [tag]Chinese New Year[/tag] or [tag]Valentine’s day[/tag] it’s a popular gift.

The paltry 150 gram leaves room for a lot of growth. [tag]Dentists[/tag] will, as a by effect, profit too.

One of the better chocolate stores is in my district. They sell authentic Belgian Chocolate.

Source: AD (Dutch newspaper)

Statistics from the [tag]China Internet[/tag] Network Information Center (CNNIC) indicate that 111 million [tag]Chinese[/tag] (8.5 % of all Chinese) are using the [tag]Internet[/tag]. Compared to the data from July 2005 that’s an increase of 8 million. Compared to the end of 2004 that’s an increase of 17 million.

The last half year shows that growth is slowing down a bit, with a million. In absolute numbers it is still a big number though.

Other statistics from the report (based on several news sources as the English version of the report is not yet available)

• 19.31 million (2,6 % of the rural [tag]China population[/tag]) netizens live in the rural areas
• 91.69 million of the netizens live in cities, making up 16.9% of the urban population
• 57.8 % of the total users are from eastern [tag]China[/tag], the country’s most affluent region
• 15.9 hours a week is the average Internet users spent on the Internet
• 64.3 million users have broadband access, an increase of 50 per cent on last year.
• 49.5 mln computers connected to the Internet against 41.6 mln a year earlier
• 19.8 + million logged on with laptops, 8 million more than in 2004.
• 74.39 million Internet [tag]IP addresses[/tag] are in use, ranking China no.3 in the world behind the United States and Japan
• 100 billion yuan (US$12.4 billion) is spend on Internet access fees in China last year
• 103.6 Yuan (12.9 U.S. dollars) per month is the average expense of each netizen, excluding the charges of various kinds of services like the e-commerce provided many websites.

(This last part is great [tag]Chinglish[/tag] but until I can see the English version of the report I won’t be able to make much of it. Much more interesting would be to know how much they spend for services, how much they buy online. An indicator for that is the last report by the Markle Foundation that learned that more than 75% of Internet users have never made a purchase on line.)

China is the second-largest population of web users after the US which has an estimated 145 million.

And to end with some sweet propaganda. Xinhua has their own twist by adding that

Currently the Internet popularization ratio in China is 8.5 percent, much higher than the world’s average of 1.52 percent.

Sources: ChinaTechNews, Forbes, 999Today
Xinhua, China Internet Network Information Center

It’s time for some more [tag]statistics[/tag], derived from the [tag]expat[/tag] magazine 8days.

As it is pretty clear [tag]China[/tag] isn’t known for it’s environmental friendliness. It’s more about production, production, creating jobs and production. In a way very understandable as the Western world, although in a different phase, does the same.

Asking the [tag]Chinese[/tag] to apply strict regulations to decrease the pollution is great but jobs come first, people with jobs will buy cars and why deny them the fun which others already have for a long time. Actually it is just like any other country with the difference that China is bigger and as a result so is it’s impact .

The consequence of course is that the world will be hardly livable in 100 years or so but that’s a global issue most people don’t like to think or care about. Life is now, consuming is great and the more the better.

In the top 20 of most polluted cities in the world 16 are in China

300 cities in China face water shortages (not included temporarily shortages like the [tag]Songhua[/tag] river)

70% of China’s rivers is polluted

385 species are endangered

In a city with an average income of 3000 Rmb I was surprised to read that they spend 160.000 on their weddings.
Some stats from the expat magazine 8Days.

Shanghai Weddings

I always wonder by the way why people call this the most beautiful day in their life, blah, blah, blah. It’s so sad, like all days after this grand spending will be less.