Publicity:
Imagine one day standing on flat ground in an open field, surrounded by farmland then returning two weeks later to precisely the same place only to find this time you’re standing high atop a glittering, glass skyscraper.


In China, that lightning high-rise hotel is just another project for soon-to-be billionaire developer Zhang Yue. He’s developed a stunning pre-fabrication model that slashes construction time and he’s busily planning to roll out around the world including Australia.


Unlike many businessmen with global plans Zhang Yue isn’t preoccupied with the economic turmoil in Europe or the stagnation in the United States. He’s powering onward and upward.


“Take it down. (In 10 years time) I’m sure ours will be the biggest company in the world” ZHANG YUE, Entrepreneur


So too is restaurateur Zhang Lan. The Beijing dynamo has developed a Szechuan restaurant called South Beauty into a national chain employing 10,000 people. By 2020, she estimates she’ll have 500 restaurants around the world.


“Like McDonalds and KFC I believe that, in 100 years, the South Beauty brand will be known around the World and will rank at No 1.” ZHANG LAN Restaurant entrepreneur


In China, optimism is unyielding.



For Foreign Correspondent’s returning program, China correspondent Stephen McDonell gains remarkable access to some of China’s heavy hitters and goes inside their world to examine the epic breadth of their business plans and the breath-taking scale of their luxurious lifestyles.


As we know Australia has been insulated against the global financial turmoil because of China’s voracious demand for our natural resources. Can the momentum continue when China’s customers in Europe and the US are mired in economic woe?


The echelon of China’s business elite seem to be dreaming bigger and planning their own personal versions of global domination.

Luxury cars pulling up at club. Young patrons enter club
Music
00:00

MCDONELL: It’s Friday night in Beijing and the rich young things have come out to play.
00:09

In the 1970s, you could be killed here by a mob for showing outward displays of wealth. Now barely-legal drivers can be seen behind the wheels of $600,000 sports cars.
00:17

Music
00:31
Interior. Club
MCDONELL:  Within ten years half the world’s billionaires will come from China. While other countries are in panic mode over their stagnant economies, here they’re making money and they’re flaunting it.
00:39

Music
00:53
McDonell to camera
MCDONELL: Wealthy people in China love their private clubs and the young rich are no different. To be a member of this establishment there’s a simple requirement – all you have to do is own a Porsche 911 or something even flashier.
01:08
Interior. Beijing Sports Car Club
This is the Beijing Sports Car Club in Chaoyang’s bar district. The night we visit is a kind of decadent palace theme party.
01:27

The members are mostly 20-something year old men and the “young maidens”, well, they just kind of appeared at one stage. Chinese people refer to those moving in these circles as the “fu er dai” – the children of those who got rich when China suddenly opened up in the 1980s. Whether it’s fair or not, they’re seen as the first generation who’ve known nothing but wealth their entire short lives.

Awards night, Gala dinner
Music
02:15

MCDONELL:  Across town, their parents’ generation are living it up their own way.
RUPERT HOOGEWERF: “The millionaire level, which is say British pound millionaires, we estimate there’s 960,000 of them which has been growing at about
02:20
Hoogewerf. Super:
Rupert Hoogewerf
Hurun Report Rich List
10% or more over the last five years. If you look at the billionaire level, US dollar billionaires, we estimate there are 600 now”.
02:33
Hoogewerf at dinner
Music
02:41

MCDONELL: Rupert Hoogewerf makes his living by observing China’s mega-wealthy class to produce the Hurun Report Rich List. Many Chinese people say their bosses have made it big on the back of corrupt deals following market reforms in the 1980s, but this self-styled wealth tracker says the country has become number one in terms of what he says are “self-made” billionaires – what’s more they’re getting richer and richer.
02:58
Hoogewerf
RUPERT HOOGEWERF: “I was with an entrepreneur last week who was explaining, that if all goes to plan, within 10 years time he’s going to be 10 times the size he is today. Now, of course, there is an element of ‘I want to challenge myself’ as well, but certainly these people, we need to be aware of them and we need to understand this group”.
03:33
Hoogewerf at dinner
Music
03:51

MCDONELL: According to the Hurun Report’s research, the typical Chinese billionaire is a 51 year old man. His child is just out of university. He lives in Beijing.
03:56

The typical millionaire is only 41 years old, lives in Shanghai, or nearby provinces, and is planning to send his 10 year old child to university in Australia, Canada, Britain or the United States.
04:10

Hoogewerf
“These are the people who are going to rule the world aren’t they?”
RUPERT HOOGEWERF: “Well, they’re very young still and they’re growing very fast and so if you look at the Bill Gates of this world who are well into their 60s and the Buffets who are well into their 80s even, and these Chinese entrepreneurs are still in their 40s, possibly their 50s, well they’ve got another 30 years to go. Where are they going to end up?”
04:33
High speed construction shots
Music
04:55

MCDONELL: And according to this rich list the top way for these people to make money is real estate. This hotel has just been built in 14 days – yes, you heard it right. Work went on around the clock and the seemingly unthinkable pace of construction was achieved by using pre-made steel frames which were placed in like massive blocks. So now, in the middle of nowhere in Central China’s Hunan Province, they have their own tower.
05:00
McDonell to camera on tower
“If I was standing in this exact location just two weeks ago I’d be on the ground surrounded by vegetable gardens. Now I’m on top of a 30 storey hotel and I’ve got to say it’s pretty surreal”.
05:35
Zhang Yue at hotel site with potential investors
The man behind this project is the rather eccentric and very successful businessman Zhang Yue. With workers still putting the finishing touches on his high speed hotel, he’s already giving potential business partners a tour of the site.
05:49

Zhang Yue
ZHANG YUE: “The process is like manufacturing vehicles. For a car, from making the components to assembling it, it will take around two months – but it will only take one day to put it together”.
06:07
Hotel construction workers
MCDONELL: Zhang Yue is marketing this as a cheap and he says eco friendly alternative to traditional building methods.
06:27

ZHANG YUE: “When we see a construction site it’s so dirty – but on our site it’s clean.
06:36
Zhang Yue
There’s no dust, no waste water, no flames, no welding, no smoke”.
06:41
“Broad Town” factory complex
Music
06:47

MCDONELL: Zhang Yue’s company is called Broad and we’re taken on a tour of the headquarters, known as “Broad Town”.
06:56

Music
07:04

MCDONELL:  This is not your average factory complex. The grounds include a massive replica of a French Chateau designed by Zhang Yue’s wife and a giant gold pyramid which is apparently going to be used as a museum to introduce visitors to the philosophy of Chairman Zhang Yue.
07:08
McDonell on tour with guide
TOUR GUIDE: “He invented all the products at Broad Group. He’s the key engineer for all the designs and he’s an inspirational person. Everyone around him has learnt a lot”.
07:34


MCDONELL: Zhang Yue’s personal fortune of an estimated $850 million originally came from making diesel and gas powered air conditioners. These days he presents himself as a Buddhist green businessman on a mission. He says he never uses a computer.
07:45

Music
08:02
Zhang Yue
ZHANG YUE: “Personal wealth means nothing in my life. If it does still have meaning it’s in my work. I can use money to invest in research and development for something that society needs – but for me and my family… really wealth means nothing”.
08:06
Zhang Yue  at hotel construction site
MCDONELL: Money may mean nothing to Zhang Yue but he looks set to make a whole lot more of it. His plan is to roll out building component factories first across China, then other countries. And he’s not short of belief in the potential of this technology which he calls ‘civilised construction’.
08:27

“In the future, if I come back here to see your company, in say ten years time - how big will it be?”
08:52
Zhang Yue
ZHANG YUE: “The biggest in the world, I’m sure of this. Take it down. I am sure. Ours will be the biggest in the world”.
08:57
City shots
Music
09:05


MCDONELL: China’s mad rush to urbanisation is responsible for producing a fair swag of the country’s wealthy elite. Infrastructure, iron and steel have been big earners and anyone who makes anything to do with homes and offices remains in the box seat. In the capital Beijing, there’s one company that’s transformed the very appearance of the city.
ZHANG XIN: “We’re lucky you know as a developer…
09:13
Zhang Xin
we’re talking about Beijing being built, urbanised in 15 years”.
09:45
Zhang Xin in meeting
MCDONELL: Zhang Xin is the CEO of Soho China. As a teenager she fled the Cultural Revolution to work in a Hong Kong factory. She studied in Cambridge, became an investment banker and returned to China in the 1990s to try her hand at property developing.
09:55
Zhang Xin interview
She remembers the early discussions with government officials about what Beijing was going to be like.
10:13
Super: Zhang Xin
CEO Soho China Ltd
ZHANG XIN: “They were talking about the future, the future of the CBD will be like the Manhattan of Beijing and I remember when I first came back to Beijing hearing people talk about this and thinking, oh these guys have never been to Manhattan, they have no idea about what they’re talking about.
10:20
Exterior. Soho building
But, you know, seriously when you go out today that’s exactly what’s happening and you’re surrounded by these high-rise very dense buildings
10:38
Zhang Xin
and it feels a modern version of Manhattan”.
10:47
Beijing CBD
MCDONELL: If the Beijing CBD now looks like a modern metropolis, that’s in no small part because of Soho’s towers and they’re not finished yet.
10:52
McDonell to camera on Soho construction site
The ambitions of this company and its boss seem to know no bounds and perhaps this is a good metaphor for this city and even this country. The designs are becoming more striking; the locations more sought after and the buildings, well they’re just getting bigger and bigger.
11:05
McDonell and Zhang Xin look at mode
But even being the largest developer in Beijing has not made Zhang Xin completely satisfied with the way things are going in China.
ZHANG XIN: “We have moved backward
11:24
Zhang Xin
by having more government owned companies taking over and, you know, that powerful state owned companies are managing many, many industries and so to that extent it’s going backward. But, you know, if you look at the history, if you look from the historical point of view, none of those would stop the trend of China moving forward to become a more modernised country and to be more integrated with the rest of the world”.
11:35
Lion dancers at restaurant opening
MCDONELL: Yet some are hoping that it’s traditional culture which will propel them to international success.
12:16
Zhang Lan at opening
ZHANG LAN: “Our staff numbers stand at over 10 thousand..
12:30
Zhang Lan
Our business turnover is quite good”
12:34

Zhang Lan cuts ribbon
MCDONELL: “So how many restaurants will you have in five or ten years?”
12:39

ZHANG LAN: “In 2020 we’ll have 500 restaurants around the world”.
12:49
Zhang Lan addresses staff
(to her staff) “We need to be bolder, because this time we sail the ocean, we carry the wind and we break the waves”.
12:57

MCDONELL: Zhang Lan is to restaurants what Zhang Xin is to property. She owns the “South Beauty” chain of Sichuan eateries and on the opening day of her newest outlet, she gives the staff a solid rev-up session.
13:05

ZHANG LAN: (to staff) “So, young fellows… young and beautiful sisters present the best drinks and the best food to our customers, okay?”
13:18

MCDONELL: As with other Chinese entrepreneurs, her ultimate goals are certainly not modest.
13:31
Zhang Lan
ZHANG LAN: “Like McDonald’s and KFC I believe that in 100 years the South Beauty brand will be known around the world and will rank at number 1!”
13:36
Zhang Lan and others inside the restaurant
MCDONELL: Zhang Lan thinks that if junk food can be swept around the world using chain stores, so can her Sichuan style restaurants and she’s starting off by conquering China. What’s more, though her vision is big, she says she’s prepared to take the long view to achieve ultimate success – an attribute lacking in many businesses here.
13:50

Zhang Lan
ZHANG LAN: “Everyone wants to earn fast money but no-one pays attention to building a brand. In my lifetime, I may not earn really big money from building a brand – but the next generation will!”
14:23
“Lan Bar” shots
MCDONELL: But she can’t be too critical of the fast money crowd as the company also has some very upmarket watering holes, like Beijing’s “Lan Bar” that are specifically designed to lighten the wallets of China’s nouveau riche.
14:42
McDonell to camera in “Lan Bar”
This establishment is not for your average Chinese customer. There are drinks here that cost the same as a week’s salary for a factory worker. But these are not the clientele that this place is aimed at and it’s a measure of the affluence in this town that there is no shortage of well-heeled patrons who are more than happy to come along and fill these seats.
14:57
Young women in lift
Many in China believe that their country is arriving at a powerful and privileged place, a place where international designers are flown in to create pleasure palaces like nowhere on earth. There’s not a lot of Communism in any of this. If you’ve got the cash in this country you can pretty much get whatever you want.
15:31
McDonell to camera on private jet with Jacob
Well this isn’t bad is it! I’m sitting on a private jet flying in between Beijing and Shanghai. I’ve got my champagne and it’s pretty comfortable. Now I’m sitting her with Jean Michel Jacob from Dassault and it’s his business to sell these jets to Chinese people.
“So who are you mainly selling to? What types of people in China?”
16:00

JEAN MICHEL JACOB: “Our main customers are big corporations or private individuals owning big corporations…  bankers, real estate, mining…  and they buy these aircraft for developing their activity in China, in Asia and throughout the world”.
MCDONELL: “And how hard is it to be selling these jets at this moment in China?”
16:21

JEAN MICHEL JACOB: “It’s not that hard selling these jets today because they need them – the market is booming here, it’s booming elsewhere. They are rich. They can buy the world. They can invest everywhere and they need commodities so it’s rather easier compared to what it is in Europe or in America nowadays”.
16:43
Jet landing sequence
MCDONELL: In China the military controls all air space. Until recently this made it hard for private jets to operate, but as the space has been freed up, the mega rich have lined up to buy. To own one of these particular planes all you need is a spare $53 million. Then there are the running costs of around $2 million a year. The hefty price tag is not dampening sales.
17:10
Jacob
JEAN MICHEL JACOB: “Three years ago we sold three aircraft and 2011, we sold 15 aircraft and we expect to sell much more in 2012”.
17:50
Potential buys looking over jet with Jean Michel Jacob
MCDONELL: And these jets might well come in handy for wealthy Chinese because there’s another thing about them. Surveys show that 75% of the country’s super rich have either left in order to get hold of a foreign passport or are seriously considering it. This is seen as an insurance policy in case things go bad in China.  
18:07
Big planes taking off
Of course, if you don’t have a private jet to get you out of here there’s always the pointy end of any commercial aircraft.
18:31
Worker riding around on toy animal
And if the wheels fall off China’s great leap into affluence, this will be the first place it hits.
In Guangdong, the southern province that sees itself as world’s factory, they produce just about everything, but some see future social, political and even economic turmoil threatening it all.
18:45
Factory production line/McDonell in toy factory
What then for the production lines which were once fields, the farmers who’ve become workers and the taxi drivers who’ve turned into millionaires?
19:12
Yan Zhihui
YAN ZHIHUI: “I always believed I’d be successful.
MCDONELL: “Why?”
YAN ZHIHUI: “I was self-confident when I was young. When I was a kid I stood out – I was different from the others. So I believe this success was pre-destined”.
19:28
Yan Zhihui walks with Sun Jinyong
MCDONELL: Thirty four year old Yan Zhihui runs Jincheng electronics with his business partner Sun Jinyong. He says he arrived in Shenzhen 13 years ago with around $150, that he drove a taxi for two years, then opened a fast food restaurant and finally got enough money together to jump into manufacturing. Becoming a boss has transformed his life.
19:45
Yan Zhihui
“I’m not sure this is polite, but can I ask you what your personal wealth is?”
YAN ZHIHUI: “Probably a few million Yuan”.
20:12

MCDONELL: “Is this very successful in China?”
YAN ZHIHUI: “No, I just stepped into the lower end of the middle class”.
20:25
Toy factory
MCDONELL: Yan Zhihui may see himself as middle class, but if your personal wealth is, like his, between 600,000 and a million dollars that goes a long way in southern China.
20:32
Shenzhen towers
Yet the world is changing and it’s possible that the good times won’t last forever for China’s manufacturers.
20:46
Pan right across towers to McDonell piece to camera
The towers of Shenzhen literally sprang from nothing in recent decades to create a city which owes its wealth to China’s export boom. But employees here are becoming less and less likely to work for peanuts, meaning that other countries can now undercut China in terms of production costs so what will this mean in the long run for Shenzhen’s businesses?
20:57
Inside factory
YAN ZHIHUI: “Although both labour and material costs are increasing we can improve our production techniques.
21:23
Yan Zhihui
To simply keep trying to reduce workers’ salaries is not the way to go”.
21:36

Animal toys being driven out of lift
MCDONELL: Many Chinese factories have also been hit by a collapse in demand following world financial turmoil. Yet this company sells 80% of its products domestically. More and more Chinese businesses are now pinning their hopes on the huge local market rather than an uncertain global climate. It’s even thought that Chinese consumers will eventually transform the international economy by simply buying things.
21:43
Hoogewerf. Super:
Rupert Hoogewerf
Hurun Report Rich List
RUPERT HOOGEWERF: “Well the general consensus is that you’ve got another 15 years of fast growth derived from this urbanisation program and if all goes to plan, at that stage it will then remarkably slow down and, at that point, we’re going to have to look for the so-called middle class who are going to start spending in China and that will be when Chinese brands really come to the front if you like”.
22:17
Driving sequence in Qingdao
Music
22:38

MCDONELL: In the meantime it’s luxury European brands that are counting on China’s super rich class to shore up their fortunes.
22:45

Music
22:54
Zhang Zhen driving
MCDONELL:  Zhang Zhen is from the east coast city of Qingdao and he’s the founder of the Beijing Sports Car Club. He divides his time between his hometown and the capital – sometimes driving between the two with his mates or family members.
23:04

Zhang Zhen
“Can you tell us how many sports cars you have?”
ZHANG ZHEN: “Sports cars… I am the kind of person who loves them. If I have a bit of spare money I will buy some. I don’t prefer any particular type. I’ve bought most of them – Ferraris, Maseratis, and so on”.
23:26
Zhang Zhen driving
MCDONELL: Zhang Zhen is very cagey about where his and his family’s money has come from. He says he’s an investor in the service industry. If so, he’s been very successful because his collection of sports cars is worth a not so small fortune.
23:59
McDonell and Zhang Zhen
What’s more, this young man in his 20s says his parents have merely offered him moral support and that he’s been able to earn enough himself to service his ultra expensive pastime.
24:18

ZHANG ZHEN: “I’ll save some money – if I make a bit of money I’ll use some of it to buy cars”.
24:31
Driving/Rich List dinner/bar
Music
24:38

MCDONELL: Who says America is the land of capitalist dreams? Here you can get rich, show it off and as long as you’re on the right side of powerful people, nobody is going to question how you got to where you are.
24:45

Music
25:01

Factory
MCDONELL:  This may be a country of massive wealth disparity but even the smallest percentage of mega rich individuals becomes in China, a large and extremely powerful group. And, with their tear-away success and big ambitions, it’s a group that is going to go a very long way.
25:09
Driving
Music
25:30
Credits
Reporter: Stephen McDonell
Camera:  Rob Hill
Producer: Charles Li
Editor: Garth Thomas
25:44