Chinanews, Hangzhou, Nov. 15 – On Oct 9, the Shanghai-based Zhongzhou Holdings Limited spent 28 million US dollars buying a piece of land in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. The company wanted to build it in the form of Shanghai city. The purchase made Dubai, a city that seemed far way from China, suddenly become a hot spot in Chinese media, a magazine reported.

 

When US and European businesspeople are still cautious about their investment plans in Dubai, Chinese merchants have already begun to take action. Some businesspeople from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces even plan to charter a plane to go there. To them, Dubai is a hot land full of business opportunities.

 

Wang Weisheng from Wenzhou was the first Chinese to invest in Dubai. In 1988, he went to Dubai for travel. After the trip, Wang decided that he would do business there. At first, Wang did some trade business – he made and sold clothes there. Then, he started to sell shoes and bedclothes. At last, he set up his own company there.

 

After doing business for ten years, Wang made another bold decision which made him become famous in China overnight – he spent all his money buying Aldeer TV, a national TV station in the United Arab Emirates. From then on, the Chinese public has begun to know more about this exotic land.

 

Before this purchase, most Chinese people, about 100,000 in total, went to Dubai to open Chinese restaurants there.

 

Jiangsu and Zhejiang businesspeople were regarded as the first group of Chinese people to have gone there to do business. They brought a lot of small commodities to sell in Dubai. In 2000, China replaced Japan as the largest exporter to Dubai.

 

In 2003, the housing price in Dubai rose largely as many Chinese merchants went there to do business in the property market. According to information released by local government, among all the Chinese investors in Dubai, 24% come from the Chinese mainland.

 

For once, the world millionaires wanted to turn Dubai into a world island where they could take leisure activities. However, this is not what Hu Bin has planed. As the president of Zhongzhou Holdings Limited, Hu wants to build the island as a miniature of Shanghai city. He also wants to build 70 luxury villas on the island. In a word, he views the island as a commercial project.