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Apple Opening Massive New Beijing Retail Store This Weekend
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GDP per capita (2011) China $8,500 vs Taiwan $38,200.
Population below poverty line (2010) China 13.4% vs Taiwan 1.16%.
There is still reason for the Taiwanese to feel richer than the Chinese.
Actually only 2% (about 26 million) of Chinese earn equivalent of $30,000 per year so they still have a long way to go and reality is that their economy is cooling down, lots of manufacturing jobs are being automated, and their labor is already getting more expensive compared to other Asian countries. China has made a lot of strides thanks to western investments starting in 1970s and a couple of their cities look very modern and impressive but its a huge country where most westerners in love with Beijing/Shanghai didn't really see whats 100 miles away from the main cities.
What you don't get is that when they earn $30,000, they take home $30,000, all of it. The majority does not pay income tax other than the super rich, there is no real estate tax. So think about how much you have to make in U.S. to actually have 30k after taxes.
oh idk, maybe they'll have a lot of customers? maybe they made sure there's room for future products....
These figures doesn't mean anything. Just check the apartment price in Beijing , can Taiwan middle class people afford 100 squares apartment there?
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What don't you get is that average GDP in China is still only about $8400 compared to around $40,000 to most of the developed western nations such as USA ($48,000) and thats the average of the entire countries. The $30,000 figure I gave earlier in regard to China is for the top 2% of population, not the whole country. Again, only 26 million Chinese make over $30,000. Top 50% in USA makes over $33,000 which is roughly 160 million people. Top 10% (which is about 30 million people) in USA makes over $110,000. So there is still a very large discrepancy. Also, in China they consider people making between $8 to $15 thousand per year to be middle class. In USA that below poverty line. Sure the Chinese goods in China are affordable to its people but an original iPhone in USA that costs $500 will cost more in China yet people there make way less.
They have very different tax policy in Hongkong. If you calculate the original price by removing the tax part, the prices are the same (or almost). Apple itself doesn't charge more in China.
Here we go...
The officially name of Taiwan is Republic of China, so technically it is still China (come on, you guys speak Chinese don't you). Two different governments though.
Talking about high school education, ironically, in the dictionary of Ministry of Education of Taiwan, the geographic area of ROC covers the whole mainland China, with Nanjing being its capital (Taipei instead is only the temporary capital) ...
But if you are one of those ********* mainland China trolling guys, ignore me
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yup, it sucks
They do need to pay tax. One of my friends living in Shanghai earn 6800 RMB per month and she needs to pay about 2000 for tax
http://www.worldsalaries.org/total-personal-income.shtml
I think the taiwanese have a better chance of living in that Beijing apartment than the average Joe in China.
A person can dream, can't they?
Visit the busiest US store you can find, on the busiest day of the week; now multiply the number of visitors they get, MANY times, to get an idea of the volume of people, China's APPLE stores welcome each day! Mind boggling indeed. Also see da-vid's post below.
People all over the world, not just in China, will sacrifice in other areas, to purchase products that appeal to them, and APPLE products are no exception to that rule.
Here we go...
The officially name of Taiwan is Republic of China, so technically it is still China (come on, you guys speak Chinese don't you). Two different governments though.
Talking about high school education, ironically, in the dictionary of Ministry of Education of Taiwan, the geographic area of ROC covers the whole mainland China, with Nanjing being its capital (Taipei instead is only the temporary capital) ...
But if you are one of those ********* mainland China trolling guys, ignore me
Right, this is the ROC, not the PRC. It's not a communist dictatorship here with mainland censorship and blocking of websites on the Internet.
But the fact that I can't find a single bootleg DVD anywhere lets me know I'm really not in China.
I remember watching the news and headline story was some politician / businessman using an iphone instead of HTC.
I was like really?! This is news in Taiwan
That's when you know you live in a safe country.
I was like really?! This is news in Taiwan
That's when you know you live in a safe country.
I remember watching the news and headline story was some politician / businessman using an iphone instead of HTC.
I was like really?! This is news in Taiwan
That's when you know you live in a safe country.
Haha, I've never lived in such a safe country as Taiwan. I never feel threatened or unsafe anywhere, even at night, no matter what. I'm a guy though, but even women here can walk alone on the street at midnight and feel safe.
That alone is priceless.
Rich people here are big on the iPhone, like you said. It's everywhere. I see 12-year-olds with an iPhone 4 on the MRT.
Browett Make over?
Browett appears to have spent some time at the Stanford Shopping Center branch of GAP and maybe in one of those overpriced Salons on University Ave. He's unrecognisable. Maybe he's intentionally keeping a lower profile.
I say, put him back in a Ploy-cotton shirt & Tie and send him back over here to England; Dixons, Currys & PC World are missing him.
Browett appears to have spent some time at the Stanford Shopping Center branch of GAP and maybe in one of those overpriced Salons on University Ave. He's unrecognisable. Maybe he's intentionally keeping a lower profile.
I say, put him back in a Ploy-cotton shirt & Tie and send him back over here to England; Dixons, Currys & PC World are missing him.
You still think there're 1.35 billion people in mainland China? I think the number could be 1.7 billion now.
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Yes, because the tax is so high in China, especially *imported* products.
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Even though you count the tax, the final price is still higher in China than in US.
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Hong Kong and Shenzhen are separated by only a river, but people have huge different life in these two areas.
You missed something. The first HK$120,000 of annual income is tax-free.
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The very fact that Hong Kong alone has 2 (and will have 3 very soon) Apple Stores, and Hong Kong is in the first round of release of any Apple product since 2011, are solely because of the mainland China visitors buying iPhones, iPads, MacBooks like crazy back to China.
Few years ago nobody in Cupertino knew what Hong Kong was (they may think that it's a mutant of King Kong). There was not a single Apple Store, there had been no iTunes Store for 8 years, with abysmal support service, close to impossible repairs. And everything changed last year.
