It’s got all the hallmarks of a shaggy dog story — but in this case truth has turned out to be stranger than fiction. A millionaire in northern China paid four million yuan (US$600,000) for a dog and ordered 30 luxury cars to come to the airport to greet her and the animal.
The woman and her new pet — a black Tibetan Mastiff — flew into Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi province, a report on popular news portal sohu.com said.
A convoy of 30 black Mercedes-Benz cars, led by two sports utility vehicles, drove to the airport Wednesday to pick up the pair, who had arrived from the Tibetan-populated province of Qinghai in China’s northwest.
Photos of the event posted with the report showed a committee of dog-lovers holding up a long red banner welcoming the mastiff to Xi’an.
The millionaire, who only gave her surname as Wang, said she and a friend had spent a long time searching for an original Tibetan mastiff.
“Gold has a price, but this Tibetan mastiff doesn’t,” the young woman said, according to the report.
China’s economy has developed at a fast pace, creating with it an increasing number of millionaires.
Research by the Hurun Report, a magazine that tracks China’s wealthiest, revealed in April that 825,000 people had personal wealth of over 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million, NT$49 million), or 0.06 percent of the population.
The vast majority of these millionaires have said the global financial crisis has not had any impact on their lifestyle, the research said.(AFP)
這是個無聊又冗長的典型趣聞──但這個故事比小說情節更光怪陸離。中國北方一名百萬富豪花了人民幣四百萬元（六十萬美元）買狗，還租了三十輛豪華轎車到機場迎接她和她的愛犬。
熱門新聞入口網站Sohu.com上的一篇報導指出，這名女子和她的新寵物（一隻黑色的西藏獒犬）搭飛機到陝西省省會西安市。
上週三，這名女子和她的愛犬從中國西北藏人區青海省搭機出發，而在機場迎接她們的，是由兩輛越野休旅車前導的三十輛黑色賓士車隊。
這則報導的新聞照片顯示，一個愛狗協會拿著長形紅布條，歡迎這隻獒犬來到西安。
這名王姓百萬女富豪表示，她和朋友花了很長一段時間尋找血統純正的西藏獒犬。
據報導指出，這名年輕女子說：「黃金有價，藏獒無價。」
中國經濟快速發展，百萬富翁人數也愈來愈多。
專門報導中國富豪情況的《胡潤百富》雜誌的研究顯示，中國今年四月共有八十二萬五千人的身價超過人民幣一千萬元（一百五十萬美元；新台幣四千九百萬元），約佔全國人口的千分之六。
這項研究顯示，這些百萬富翁絕大多數都認為，這波全球金融海嘯對他們的生活型態沒有一丁點兒影響。（法新社╱翻譯：袁星塵）
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