Out with stir fry, in with real business nous

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, "No man ever steps in the same river twice". Nor do investors find themselves in the same stock market rally twice. Markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen are rising to a level that investors have not seen for almost a decade. At least in the past week, indexes have changed quickly, reaching new highs daily.

And retail investors, led by rich and wayward middle-class housewives - called dama in Chinese - were still coming as if they were shopping on London's Bond Street, buying any share they can name.

Naturally bystanders ask if this is a bubble. No rally lasts forever. The current A-share rally - at a time when the real economy is not doing great and the nation's GDP growth is hovering around its lowest point in the last two decades - may simply look bizarre.