2005年NPR美国国家公共电台四月-Shanghai Real Estate Values Soar

For NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I'm Michele Norris, and I'm Robert Siegel.

If you think the real estate market in this country is out of control. Here's some advice: Don't move to China. Prices there are rising so fast, the government is taking action, raising interest rates on home loans to cool things off. NPR's Rob Gifford reports from Shanghai.

Liu Xun Shan is a happy man, the general manager of a new luxury housing development in the west of Shanghai, is so busy welcoming potential buyers to his showroom that he hardly has time for other visitors. The large western style houses are selling like hot cakes.

The whole property market in Shanghai is very hot, he says, but especially high-end gated communities like this one. Prices here have tripled in two years and it will double again at least within the next two years. It is not just the Chinese who are buying. Restrictions¹ on foreigners buying real estate in Shanghai have been lifted and many investors² from Taiwan, Hong Kong and around the region have piled into the market with its combination of shining new apartments and houses and beautiful old colonial mansions⁴ in the city's former French Concession⁵ District. And it’s not just people on the top end who are buying.

Sitting in a smoky restaurant just around the corner from the luxury compound, factory manager Yu Jiang discusses the tiny apartment he bought with his wife for less than 30,000 dollars. Yu came to Shanghai as a migrant worker ten years ago and worked his way up.

We wanted to buy an apartment to get a Shanghai resident's permit for our child, he says, then he can study here in Shanghai more easily, and the apartment gives us and him a base for the future.

Whether it's buy to live in or buy to rent, property consultant⁶ Sam Chris Bin³ who's lived here since 1994 says never mind the boom in US or UK markets, the Shanghai property market is developing even faster than the post-war property boom in the west.

We're in the most amazing real estate boom the world's ever seen. In global terms what we've seen in Shanghai is equivalent to the 50 years it took for the United Kingdom to achieve, it took 25 years for the United States to achieve, 10 years for Japan to achieve, is being compressed into 5 years in Shanghai. And we're just at the start.

Chris Bin says he's now receiving inquiries⁷ from investors in New York and Los Angeles. The market is so hot that the government is trying to cool it off, afraid that the bubble could burst. The Shanghai Government knows all about bubbles because one of the reasons the property market is so hot is that the stock market where everyone used to put their money in the 1990s has all but collapsed⁹. At one of Shanghai's small stock trading floors where ordinary investors gather to buy and sell, there's a lot of anger about that.

I invested all my family's savings¹⁰ in the stock market, says this man,who doesn't want to give his name. Tens of thousands of dollars he laments¹¹, it's all disappeared, and there is no hope of the stock market rising again, he says. He may be right. The 90's stock market was based on the government over-selling shares in generally badly-run state firms, believing that investors with few alternatives would buy them. They did, but the market was hopelessly over-valued. And for 4 years now, stocks have been in free fall.

48-year-old Wu Hongda is sitting in the taxi he drives listening to a program that goes out daily on local radio discussing what to do about the local stock market. Everyone is wondering about it, says Wu.

I want to buy an apartment, he says, but I can't afford it. Everyone is speculating on real estate so the prices are just going up and up. If they revive the stock market people will put their money there, he says, and housing prices will fall. That may be wishful thinking, but the government knows it has to do something to cool the property market. There were already many angry losers from the stock market collapse⁸, and the Communist Party whose legitimacy¹² is now [Ignor...] can’t afford any more angry middle class people from the bursting of a property bubble.

Rob Gifford, NPR news, Shanghai.

1 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

4 mansions   

n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Fifth Avenue was boarded up where the rich had deserted their mansions. 第五大道上的富翁们已经出去避暑，空出的宅第都已锁好了门窗，钉上了木板。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Oh, the mansions, the lights, the perfume, the loaded boudoirs and tables! 啊，那些高楼大厦、华灯、香水、藏金收银的闺房还有摆满山珍海味的餐桌！ 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

5 concession   

n.让步，妥协；特许(权)

参考例句：

• We can not make heavy concession to the matter.我们在这个问题上不能过于让步。
• That is a great concession.这是很大的让步。

6 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

7 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

9 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

10 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

11 laments   

n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• In the poem he laments the destruction of the countryside. 在那首诗里他对乡村遭到的破坏流露出悲哀。
• In this book he laments the slight interest shown in his writings. 在该书中他慨叹人们对他的著作兴趣微弱。 来自辞典例句

12 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。