China’s been breaking all sorts of records these past few years. From the “World’s Longest Bridge” to the “World’s Largest LED Screen”, China holds quite an impressive list of World records.

Recently, the title for the “World’s Most Expensive Dog” was snatched by China – again. A red Tibetan Mastiff, named “Hong Dong”, was sold for 10 million yuan (around $1.5 million) to a coal baron from North of China. Before the sale, the World’s most expensive dog was another Tibetan Mastiff who was sold in 2009 for 4 million yuan ($608,680).

“Hong Dong”, is 11-months-old but already stands nearly three-feet-high at the shoulder and weighs more than 180lbs, according to his breeder, Lu Liang. “He is a perfect specimen,” said Mr Lu, who runs the Tibetan Mastiff Garden in Laoshan, near the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. “He has excellent genes and will be a good breeding dog.” “The price is justified,” he said. “We have spent a lot of money raising this dog, and we have the salaries of plenty of staff to pay.”

According to Mr Lu, the Tibetan Mastiff was fed a diet of chicken and beef, spiced up with exotic Chinese delicacies such as sea cucumber and abalone. That sounds like a luxurious life even for a human. Considering that abalone is something most living in China will never taste in their entire life, I would say that most would wish to rather be reincarnated as this dog.

But is a rare breed and an opulent style of nurturing worth such a high price? The new owner definitely thinks so. The male dog can be hired out to other breeders for as much as 100,000 yuan a shot, so it can be considered more as an investment than pet.

Tibetan Mastiffs are huge and fierce guard dogs that have stood watch over nomad camps and monasteries on the Tibetan plateau for centuries. They are thought to be one of the world’s oldest breeds, and legend has it that both Genghis Khan and Lord Buddha kept them.

More recently, however, they have become highly-prized status symbols for China’s new rich. The dogs are thought to be a pure “Chinese” breed and they are rarely found outside Tibet, giving them an exclusivity that other breeds cannot match.

via Telegraph.

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After 2 years of living in her six-story, 38,000-square-foot Shanghai mansion, Mattel’s iconic American doll Barbie is moving out.

The Shanghai flagship store, which featured a spa, a cosmetics counter, and a cocktail bar, was launched in March 2009 (Barbie’s 50th birthday) in an attempt to expand the market into China. However sales failed to meet expectations and the firm was forced to cut its targets within the first eight months of the store’s existence.

Mattel is taking a positive spin on the situation, claiming that the store “served its purpose and was meant only to establish Barbie’s brand in China”. Barbie will soon be jumping in her “Barbie Pink Bus” to head on tour in the near future, a spokeswoman said, declining to disclose further details.

In the meantime, Barbie is still being sold in other shopping outlets across China.

A notice announcing Barbie’s new “mobile” lifestyle in China after her Shanghai mansion went into foreclosure can be found here.

I personally think a lot of these Western companies enter China’s market with an overly optimistic outlook and ambitious goals. To see what I’m talking about, Just take a look at the photo gallery after the jump.
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Just when I was getting excited about China’s first capsule hotel, the fire authorities in Shanghai have refused to issue an operating license.

The refusal was mainly due to fire and personal safety concerns. Apparently, the capsules were found to be made of highly flammable materials. In addition, inspectors said that the average space for each guest, which is measured at 2.4 square meters, did not meet the city’s basic requirement for renting houses and may pose difficulties for emergency evacuation.

The “Xitai Capsule Hotel” was set to be China’s first capsule hotel. The hotel features 68 cabinet-sized rooms imported from Japan – where capsule hotels originated – each equipped with a power point, clock, light, television and wireless Internet. The hotel is only opened to men with shared lavatory and shower facilities. It also has a designated area for snoring guests.

The hotel planned on charging 68 yuan ($10) for 10 hours or 88 yuan for 24 hours which is very cheap – even compared to budget hotels in China.

Ta Zan, the owner of the hotel who used to work for capsule hotels in Japan, said that without a license, he had never booked a guest since construction was completed last October. Ta regretted the denial of a license, but said that he would not give up the idea of opening capsule hotels in China.

via China.org.cn.

A Taiwanese sporting goods brand marketed their “no pants day” campaign by deploying a group of Taiwanese models on the subway. Since it’s “no pants day”, the models are obviously required to not wear any pants. The models wandered around the subway looking very comfortable showing off their panties.

I wish everyday is a no pants day!

Check the video below:

via Shanghaiist.

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It’s really here. McDonald’s in Hong Kong has launched McWeddings as an official product offering.

I am speechless. I have joked about a McDonald’s wedding reception on many occasions, but that was an idea to make sure no one comes to my wedding. As someone who was born and raised mainly in Hong Kong, I feel really ashamed of having the title of World’s first McWedding attached to the place I live.

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via reddit

runway-style-recruiting-1

In Chengdu, beautiful girls walk the catwalk to apply for jobs while CEOs sit in the audience to evaluate them.

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