Toy for rich boys

Yacht salesman Russell Crump says China's new rich do not look like the multi-millionaires he normally comes across in Monte Carlo.

Crump, a yacht broker for Edminston & Co, which specializes in the sale, charter and management of super yachts and who is normally based in Monaco, was finding the people with the money difficult to spot under the Sanya sun.

The British expat was one of nearly 200 exhibitors at the show for China's richest, Hainan Rendez-Vous, staged in Sanya on Hainan island, the nearest thing the country has to its own French Riviera.

The world's leading yacht makers, business jet manufacturers, real estate agents of luxury property, fine wine merchants, Bentley and Ferrari dealerships and one hotel group marketing a one-night stay in its top suites at 38,000 euros a night, descended on the resort for four days earlier this month.

All were targeting China's wealthy with the number of dollar billionaires in the country nearly doubling to 115 on the latest Forbes list.

To read more, please get a copy of China Daily European Weekly due to be published on April 15, or visit www.chinadailyuk.com on the same day.