2 May 2006 – holiday period
The best kept secret seems to be – how many people really live in the Beijing Municipality?
I have been checking any figure published in the official press. Most are misleading and contradictory, once you know what to look for.
Finally, in the April edition of the magazine BusinessBeijing (one of my favorite), I found an overview I can give a stamp of credibility. The official population in 2005 was 15.36 million – in 1949 it was 4.2 million. The outlying rural regions count for 16.4% or 2.52 million. Now comes the interesting part – it does not include the more than 4 million migrant workers without a residency status.
In other words, the real total would be about 20 million. Now you know.
China’s total population on 1 November stood at 1.306 billion according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Wal-Mart China will hire up to 150,000 employees over the next five years – five times the current work force. It has now 30,000 employees and 56 stores – 20 more to open this year.
China will produce 98 million desktop and laptop computers in 2006, 58 million for export. Roughly, production goes up 20% every year. Check the lable on your PC when you go shopping next doors to Wal-Mart.