Skyrocketing home prices driven by good schools
Society & Culture
Top society and culture news for February 27, 2017. Part of the daily The China Projectย news roundup "Chinese private military contractors."
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Another season of battling for school-district houses has begun โ properties sold at 250,000 yuan per square meterย / The Economic Observer (in Chinese)
Though Chinaโs buoyant housing market has started to cool downย on a nationwide level, home prices in the countryโs best school districts show no signs of deflating. The Economic Observerย reports that in late February, one Mr. Xiong in Beijing spent a staggering 12 million yuan ($1.7 million) on a tiny 39-square-meter house in the Jinrongjie District, in the hopes that the property would guarantee his child access to a prestigious elementary school there. According to Xiong, before the purchase, he had checked more than 200 houses and witnessed a buyer purchase a school-area basement apartment at the price of 6.4 million yuan ($931,000), which he thought was โtoo humid to live in.โ A new frenzy of buying basement apartments started after tightened policies on the purchase of alleyway houses, which used to have huge appealย to parents, as they were officially recognized as โhousesโ that assured the buyersโ children a spot in a good school nearby, despite the fact that most of them are unlivable. On Chinese social media, one of the most upvoted comments readsย (in Chinese), โThis is a result of a dysfunctional education system and a dysfunctional housing market.โ -
Tan Jing Withdraws from Hunan TVโs Singer 2017ย / See Hua Online (in Chinese)
Tan Jing ่ฐญๆถ is a singer in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Peopleโs Liberation Army and an elected member of the 10th National Peopleโs Congress. On Saturday, she declared her withdrawalย from the talent show Hunan TV Singer 2017ย on China social media platform Weibo. Previous reports speculated on the reasons behind her withdrawal: was it a disagreement with Hunan TV, or that her song Moonlight in Sailimu thatย angered people in Xinjiang, or her performance of Yu Shui, a theme song for a banned Cultural Revolution film, or because her husband, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was guilty of violating certain Party regulations? However, Tan announced that her withdrawal simply caused by a scheduling conflict and copyright issues.
- Controversial and renowned Chinese photographer Ren Hang dies aged 29ย / British Journal of Photography
- Chinese business owner and his chef charged with serving pangolin at banquet in 2015ย / SCMP
- Q&A: Fuchsia Dunlop on the politics of Chinese foodย – (listen to a Sinica Podcastย with Fuchsia Dunlop here)ย / Al Jazeera
