Good news! The high speed rail (HSR) train from Kunming to Xishuangbanna will finally be complete at the end of this month, and in service for the public on December 2, 2021.

Approximately a 3-hour trip from Kunming to Xishuangbanna. 2.5 hours for Puer. Also stops at Yuxi. The HSR will continue beyond the Chinese border and connect to Laos as part of the BRI.

Perhaps I'll pay those elephants a visit later next year to apologize.

Semantics.

The "complicated topic" lies in the interdependence of China’s economy with real estate developers, as JanJal alluded to:

29% of China’s national GDP is riding on the property market.

40% of local government revenue come from land sales. Land sales make up more than half of combined national tax revenue.

30 - 40% of total loans from China’s largest banks/ financial institutions consisted of property-related loans. (Limits are being applied)

40% of household wealth are derived from real estate.

Evergrande, whose CEO was once hailed as a socialist hero and champion of urbanization, is now being thrown under the "common prosperity" train. Yet, the villagers castigating the proverbial evil witch into the fire pit may be complicit in the derailment; the governments, banks, investors seeking high interest rate returns, and homebuyers are all culpable in paving this track for over two decades.

Curbing the status quo property growth model while sustaining economic growth to alleviate poverty would require skillful tempering of the double-edged sword. We will see.

@DAWP Without including the ubiquitous, empty apartments that have closed escrow yet collecting dust, there are approximately 3,000,000,000 square meters of unsold housing inventory existing across China.

That equates to apartment vacancies that could house ~90 million "ghost" residents. Assuming there are three friendly ghosts haunting each household.

The result of speculative building/buying decades in the making.

The first, maiden store in Yunnan will open next week, August 4th near the west.

According to an old Xinhua article, the Swedish company reported spending over 1 billion yuan on this three-story building. It's huge. Over 120,000 square meters of floor space. They were supposed to open last year, but was delayed due to pandemic.

Expect heavy traffic on its grand opening day.

No pastries, yet. I believe only waffles now. Regular waffles priced at 28rmb, 35-38rmb with ice cream. Whip cream and fruit toppings included.