In the past few years, China's wealthy people, especially the top rich, with a net worth of hundreds of millions, or even billions or tens of billions, have invariably chosen to immigrate to Singapore.
Just a few days ago, Zhang Yiming, the founder of "Today's Headlines", was also revealed to have lived in Singapore for a long time and is a low-key super boss.
There were more exposed by the media before, including the Haidilao boss Daniel Zhang and his wife, the wife and daughter of Xiang Guangda, the richest man in China's steel industry and chairman of Tsingshan Holding Group, and Li Xiting, the founder of medical device giant Mindray Medical, and so on......
Why has Singapore attracted so many wealthy Chinese to emigrate to the past?
During this May Day holiday, I took a trip to Singapore with this huge question and found a different answer.
"I can't believe I can't find a piece of garbage!"
From February 9 this year, Chinese can go to Singapore without a visa and stay for no more than 30 days. Singapore became the first developed country to implement visa-free access to China.
In my actual experience, visa-free + electronic customs clearance, entering Singapore, can be described as "silky", as long as a passport, the whole process is unimpeded, and it feels similar to going to a domestic city.
Moreover, it is more convenient to go to Singapore than to Hong Kong. To go to Hong Kong, in addition to applying for a Hong Kong and Macao pass, you also need to apply for an endorsement, which can only stay for no more than 7 days each time, while Singapore can stay for up to one month without a visa.
At the airport, I felt the heat of Singapore, going to travel, going to study abroad, going to talk about business, Chinese, foreigners, squeezing an Airbus A320 to the brim, this is after the May Day holiday!
Many people have heard that Singapore is a "garden city", but how clean is Singapore?
See for yourself, the streets are so clean that there isn't even a single piece of garbage. When I left Changi Airport to go to the hotel by car, looking at the golden sunshine outside the car window, blue sky and white clouds, and green trees, my first impression:
Well deserved the name!
However, with a "picky" attitude, I still want to test the test, is there a "loophole" in this garden in Singapore?
So in the next few days, no matter where I visited, I would take out the spirit of "raising the bar" - looking for garbage! Then take a picture and slap "Garden City" in the face. Especially in the places where it is easy to hide dirt and dirt, such as in the grass, in the sewer, around the garbage can, any corners and corners, I don't let go of any corners. I can't believe I can't find a piece of garbage on the streets of Singapore!
And guess what?
I really didn't even see a piece of garbage! What peels, cigarette butts, paper towels, cans, plastic bags...... None of them! Chewing gum is banned in Singapore, so you can't see it sticking to the ground.
In the end, I gave up. Friends who do not believe in evil, welcome to Singapore to "find garbage" and challenge.
Singapore's cityscape has a sense of sophistication from a developer's model house, which is clean and tidy, and people don't feel the fireworks.
How to describe it, it's like a girl who is about to go out on a date, takes a shower, washes her hair, puts on makeup, puts on beautiful clothes, and then stands in front of the mirror, the kind of delicacy that exudes from her whole body.
The garbage was not found, but I saw a lot of various animals on the streets. Here's a photo I took at the exit of a MRT station in Singapore:
At about 9 o'clock in the morning, two pheasants with long tails, one white and one yellow, were leisurely looking for food on the grass, and when I clicked and took pictures of them, they didn't bother to look at the camera.
In addition to pheasants, there are also pigeons, crows, sparrows, and all kinds of birds that I can't name, wandering in the grass and jumping on the trees.
Why does Singapore maintain such a clean and tidy cityscape?
After a few days of shopping, I came to a conclusion: Singapore's sense of sophistication is inseparable from the government's "regular beautification" of the city.
Do you know? Every five years or so, the Singapore government pays out of its own pocket to renovate and paint the facades of residential buildings, which are the HDB flats where the vast majority of people live.
The government generally provides 3 color schemes for painting, and residents in the community do not have to pay a penny, as long as they go downstairs and choose a favorite color.
As a result, residential buildings in Singapore, even if they have been built for thirty or forty years, look brand new and have no dilapidated atmosphere at all.
The photo below was taken in my car. The driver said that this building is more than 20 years old, and I really can't see it. What do you think?
In any city, as soon as there are many old and dilapidated houses, the whole city will have a sense of twilight. The sewage stains, moss, mildew, and peeling wall skin on the wall look particularly decadent, dilapidated, and old-fashioned.
For example, I felt this way when I was in Hong Kong, and I felt this way in the urban villages of some other cities in Chinese mainland......
Of course, there is a very important premise for Singapore's approach, that is: the government must have the heart and the money!
It's so good to locals, but it's so cruel to foreigners!
In Singapore, the government is the largest developer.
Eighty to ninety percent of Singaporeans live in government-built HDB flats, a bit like "affordable housing" in the country.
If you want to apply for an HDB flat, there are two very important conditions – first, you must be a Singapore citizen; Second, the monthly household income should not exceed S$14,000 (about 75,000 yuan).
In 2023, the median monthly household income of Singaporean residents is more than S$10,000, which means that basically every Singaporean family is eligible to apply for HDB flats.
HDB flats in Singapore are really cheap!
The accompanying tour guide, a family of three, lives in a 93-square-meter HDB flat, less than S$400,000, that is, more than 2 million yuan; The driver who picked up the airport, with a family housing area of 90 square meters, only cost more than S$300,000.
In terms of location and size, if you buy a private developer's home, it will cost two or three million Singapore dollars a unit, and the price has increased seven or eight times.
Interestingly, when it came to housing, the driver who picked up the airport suddenly said: "Hong Kong, it's all Li Ka-shing's gang that made trouble!" ”
On the issue of housing, the Singapore government is really good to its own people -
HDB flats are all finely decorated, as long as you get some soft decoration and buy some furniture and appliances, you can move in with your bag;
The price is cheap, and the interest rate on the loan is also low, which is now almost 2.6%; The property fee is almost negligible, and the tour guide said that her family only needs more than S$60 a month;
In addition to regular exterior wall painting, the Singapore government will also maintain and repair the water pipes and electrical wiring inside the house every 7 years or so. The face project is done sufficiently, and the lining project must also be done well;
In the early days, if an elevator was installed in an HDB flat, it was also paid by the government, and the residents had to pay a little, with an average of S$2 or 300 per family......
In particular, the Singapore government will prioritise the housing needs of young people:
Young people who are about to get married, or who are newly married, will be very high in the ranking when they apply for HDB flats for the first time, and it is easy to be selected. If you are a middle-aged couple who want to exchange for a larger HDB flat and apply for a second time, this situation will be lower in the queue.
The ultra-rich who immigrated to Singapore from China are not expected to live in HDB flats, and that's okay, there are plenty of luxury homes to choose from.
According to media exposure, Haidilao Daniel Zhang spent S$27 million to buy a luxury house in 2017, and then bought a S$42 million house next door to his son;
Jack Ma's wife, Zhang Ying, bought three buildings in one go, with a total price of about S$50 million;
Xiang Yangyang, the daughter of Xiang Guangda, chairman of Tsingshan Holding Group, bought a luxury house of S$84 million......
After the epidemic, Singapore's housing prices have risen sharply, but they still can't stop the wealthy Chinese from buying houses. The Singapore government does not like property speculation very much and does not rely on real estate to develop the economy, so it stipulates that if you do not obtain Singapore status, you need to pay 60% stamp duty when you buy a house.
That's ruthless!
Our three "mountains" are the three major benefits in Singapore
The tour guide and driver were very talkative, and they took the initiative to introduce us to various aspects of Singapore's clothing, food, housing and transportation, and even shared family life with us.
From the words and expressions, I can clearly feel that these two people are satisfied with their current lives, they really did not say a word of complaint, but showed satisfaction.
For example, when it comes to medical care in Singapore, the driver said that his father was sick and hospitalized a while ago, and underwent an operation, which cost more than S$20,000 in total, and after medical insurance reimbursement (called medical allowance in Singapore), he only paid a few hundred yuan in the end.
In Singapore, the wards are roughly divided into three levels: A, B and C, and the doctors who see the patients and the instruments and equipment examined are the same, the only difference is the hardware facilities and services in the wards.
Class A is a single room, which is equivalent to the presidential suite of a hotel, mainly for the wealthy, and the government has little or no reimbursement for medical insurance;
Class B is usually a 2-3 person room, and about half of it is reimbursed by medical insurance;
The driver's father lives in a C-level ward, with 5-6 people in a room, and the government can reimburse 890% of the total, which is also the choice of most Singaporeans.
For another example, when it comes to education in Singapore, the tour guide said that her daughter has just been admitted to the National University of Singapore this year, majoring in civil engineering. The National University of Singapore is ranked first in Asia and eighth in the world, and the tour guide was so happy that he didn't sleep well all night.
This tour guide of mine is originally from Heilongjiang, then went to school in Fujian, and then immigrated to Singapore with my husband for more than 20 years.
In Singapore, children in the lower grades of primary school only go to school in the afternoon, because they need to get more sleep to ensure that they get enough sleep. If you are in a hurry in the morning, adults and children are in a hurry, and chickens and dogs are jumping.
Probably from the third grade, it was changed to school in the morning, and in the afternoon there were various interest classes, outdoor activities, sports, dance, musical instruments, handicrafts, calligraphy, etc., everything, parents save money and worry.
The tour guide said: "My daughter has been going to school since she was a child, and my husband and I really don't have to worry about it. ”
A friend of the same group listened to it and sighed and said that the house is so cheap, and the government has the backing of medical care and education, but I didn't expect our three "mountains" to be the three major benefits in Singapore!
What a good summing up!
In this life, if you don't have to worry about housing, medical care and children's education, how much space can be expanded, and how much excitement and possibilities can be released?
Singapore's "three most expensive" are all related to men
The news of Singapore's prices is overwhelming on the Internet, saying that Singapore's prices are "so expensive that the middle class goes bankrupt", saying that a casual takeaway will cost 30 Singapore dollars, which is equivalent to more than 150 yuan, and you can't afford to eat!
Is it true?
After investigating, I found that this statement is not necessarily wrong, but it is definitely not looking for the right place to eat.
Because, in Singapore, from 80-year-olds to 2-year-old children, they basically don't cook at home, and they go out to eat three meals a day. The place they go to is called the "hawker centre", which is a bit like the food stalls in China, large and small, spread around various residential communities, and is the "national canteen" of Singaporeans.
The photo below is of a hawker center I photographed, around 7 p.m., during the peak dining season, and it was difficult to find a seat.
If the streets of Singapore are so clean that you can't feel the fireworks, when you go to the hawker center, you will know that all the fireworks in Singapore are here!
After looking around the small shops in the hawker center, the prices are really not expensive.
The most commonly eaten chicken rice, duck rice, fish ball noodles and the like in Singaporeans range from S$6 to S$10 per serving, depending on the size of the portion. Grilled chicken wings, barbecue skewers and other barbecues are available for S$1 per skewer, and S$1.5 or S$1.8 per skewer.
Generally speaking, a Singaporean can pay only S$15 for three meals a day. Of course, if you eat at a restaurant outside the hawker centre, it is a bit more expensive.
For dinner that day, I ordered a beef kway teow for S$6 and a glass of freshly squeezed sugar cane juice for S$2.5, which is about the same price as in China.
I was impressed by the hawker centre, on the one hand, the prices, and on the other hand: there are so many foreigners!
Singapore's foreigner "content" is higher than Hong Kong's, blonde hair and blue eyes, men and women, young and old, and those who lie in the stroller to eat pacifiers, holding their parents' hands to learn to walk, making people think that they are in a Western country.
However, if you want to say expensive, there are three things in Singapore, which are really expensive, and they can even be said to be the most expensive in the world, and they are all related to men -
The first one is the car;
If you want to buy a private car in Singapore, you must first apply for a "car ownership permit", which costs almost S$100,000, and is only valid for 10 years. The price of Singapore cars is also extremely high, and some people joke that the money that China buys Audi will buy an Alto in Singapore.
As a result, the following scene appeared on the street:
At 9 o'clock in the morning, there were few cars at a T-junction in Singapore! The feeling of emptiness on the road is similar to that of Beijing, which is empty during the Spring Festival.
Therefore, Singaporeans have no idea what "traffic jams" are.
While curbing private cars through economic means, the Singapore government has vigorously developed public transportation, which is very convenient to get around.
There are currently 6 MRT lines in Singapore, covering the whole country, and the 7th is under construction. If it hadn't been delayed for three years due to the epidemic, it would have been built a long time ago.
Singapore MRT Map
The second most expensive thing is wine;
The Singapore government seems to have a grudge against alcohol and does not want people to drink and make mistakes. Liquor is super expensive, and a bottle of the most ordinary beer costs at least S$8, which is equivalent to more than 40 yuan. It's even more expensive in bars, costing a dozen dollars for a drink.
To sell alcohol in Singapore, in addition to applying for a liquor license, you must also strictly abide by the time of selling alcohol, bars are not allowed to sell alcohol until 12 o'clock in the evening, and as for supermarkets and restaurants, the prohibition time is advanced to 10 o'clock.
the third is cigarettes;
Smoking is harmful to health, so cigarettes in Singapore are also expensive, starting at about S$18 per pack.
As mentioned above, Singaporeans can get three meals a day for almost S$15, so the cost of a pack of cigarettes is more expensive than a person's food expenses for a day.
And even if you have money, it's not easy to buy, you can't find it on the store shelves, and the cigarettes are locked in an opaque cabinet, and you have to ask the clerk to pick them up for you alone, just like a drug dealer.
The government is not absent, but it is not "offside"
Going back to the original question in this article, why do China's rich people love to immigrate to Singapore?
In fact, there are many reasons, and all aspects of the environment, ecology, and social governance mentioned earlier actually have an impact. Singapore is an extremely friendly country for the wealthy, with a sound rule of law, a strong sense of rules, low taxes, and a sense of security.
Although Singapore is very small, with a population of more than 5 million and more than 700 square kilometers, it is less than the area of a third- or fourth-tier city in China, and it can be visited in a day or two. But its degree of internationalization is also difficult for any city in China to match.
From the experience of this field visit, I also formed a very important point of view:
Although the Singapore government has been strict in many aspects, punished severely, and even had a terrifying "whipping punishment", it has generally achieved strictness where it should be strict, and loosening where it should be, and there is neither a lack of position nor an "offside".
The result is that Singapore has a beautiful environment, social stability, good public security, people live and work in peace and contentment, the government is clean and efficient, and the judiciary is transparent and fair, if it can be summed up in one word, it is the "harmony" that Chinese are most familiar with.
In addition, Singapore is a Chinese country, with the same language and culture as us, so it is almost difficult to integrate into the local society.
With so many advantages, it's no surprise that Singapore is favored by China's rich.