September 12, 2007
The top headline and front page picture on today’s Southern Metropolis Daily concern a land auction held in Guangzhou yesterday. The auction, called a “Land Banquet,” sold 13 plots of land for a total of 9.51 billion yuan (US$1.26 billion).
R&F Properties (富力地产) bought one plot of land on Yuxiang Road in Baiyun District for 180 million yuan, or 18,729 yuan per square meter. This price breaks the previous record, 15,243 yuan per square meter in Dongguan, leading to the headline, “New real estate king born at the foot of Baiyun Mountain.”
The upper left headline concerns a slump in the Chinese stock market. The Shanghai index fell 241.32, from 5395.04 to 5116.90. Analysts said that the immediate cause was the announcement of an 11-year high in the Consumer Price Index; August’s CPI jumped to 6.5 percent.
The bottom left headline is about a stabbing that occurred at an adult training school yesterday. The suspect slashed six of his classmates with fruit knife; police suspect that he has a mental illness.