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HONG KONG – BANGKOK 3/28 – 4/9/11
As you will see from the pictures, Asia is an over-populated, extremely polluted area with a few very rich people at the top and multitudes of exceedingly poor at the bottom.
In Hong Kong -- which continues to thrive as a capitalistic paradise even though returned to Chinese rule in 1997 -- a 500 square foot apartment in an old, shabby building costs $300,000 or more. When the average Hong Kong citizen makes only $48,000 a year, owning one’s home is a fantasy. Nevertheless, that is far more than the $6,000 yearly income of the average Asian.
Even in Vietnam which is about 40 years behind China in development, it is shocking to see new, high rise condos listed in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to over 1 million US dollars. But the biggest difference we saw in Vietnam since our visit in 2002 is that bicycles and pedicabs have been replaced by motorbikes. In Saigon alone with a population of 8 million people, there are 5 million motorbikes.
In this segment, I have tried to let the photos tell the story.
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