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Bizbites

Tom Lee Music Opens Flagship Store
Tom Lee Music is the largest musical instrument retailer in Hong Kong, with the widest range of products as well as the most comprehensive services to support the music industry. On March 23, the Tom Lee Music Beijing Flagship Store opened in Chongwen District, opposite the Hongqiao (Pearl) Market.
Tom Lee Music is an exclusive representative for many world-famous names in musical instruments.

Giant Housing Exhibition
The Fifth Session China International Exhibition on Housing Industry (CIEHI 2006) will he held in the Beijing Exhibition Centre on August 17-20. It will be the only international exposition focusing on the housing industry in 2006 and will be sponsored by the Ministry of Construction of China and co-organized by the Centre for Housing Industrialization Ministry of Construction, the China Architectural Culture Centre and the Beijing JiaHua Four Seasons International Exhibition Company. CIEHI will offer 30,000 square metres of exhibition area with 1,800 standard booths. The exhibition is designed as a world-class event dedicated to showcasing the achievements of China's housing industry and the latest and the most advanced building products and services. This magnificent international expo covers the full range of China's housing industry, from building design to construction and finishing. To meet challenges arising from China's rapid modernization, this exhibition will highlight topics concerning energy efficiency, land-use optimization, water conservation, material 3R and environmentally friendly approaches. Many famous companies from the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries will attend the event. The expo's seminars will focus on many topics and help to build bridges among different people, providing business opportunities and exchanging ideas in the field of housing industry.

HSBC Zhongguancun Sub-branch Opens
HSBC opened a new sub-branch in the Zhongguancun Science Park on March 14, an expansion of its service network in Beijing. HSBC has more outlets than any other foreign bank in the capital city.
Richard Yorke, CEO China for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, said: "The opening of the HSBC Zhongguancun sub-branch represents the expansion of our network in Beijing, and marks a new stage in our Personal Financial Services in the capital city. Known as China's 'Silicon Valley,' Zhongguancun has attracted many overseas and domestic investors, and HSBC is committed to meeting our customers' needs for first-class banking services."
The new sub-branch will focus on providing HSBC's Premier service, a worldwide HSBC service offering dedicated wealth management services to retail banking customers, including foreign currency services to Chinese mainland citizens and renminbi and foreign currency services to foreign nationals and residents of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The sub-branch is equipped with a self-service centre that will provide 24-hour automated banking services.

Seed Money for the Poor Discussed in Beijing
The Banking with the Poor (BWTP) network in collaboration with the Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC) organized the 2006 Asia Microfinance Forum on the theme "Partnerships and Innovations: Increasing the Impact of Microfinance in Asia" on March 21-24 in Beijing.
It is the largest international microfinance event ever held in China.
The central aim of the forum was to examine the prospects for rapidly increasing and deepening the outreach of financial services to the poor in Asia. A particular focus is placed on the building of partnerships and innovative new business models that combine the resources of a range of different stakeholders, as well as highlighting ways to improve the policy environment for the growth of microfinance in the region. While the geographic focus was on Asia, the event drew on examples and speakers from various countries to enhance the diversity of ideas and experiences of relevance to microfinance in the region.
The conference promoted constructive dialogue, information-sharing and new partnerships that will lead to increased access to basic financial services for poor people in the Asia-Pacific Region. More than 250 microfinance practitioners attended the conference and the programme included speakers from 20 countries.
As the lead sponsor of the inaugural Asia Microfinance Forum, Citigroup also announced a US$3.9 million grant to teach millions of poor people around the world about important financial concepts that will help them make more informed financial decisions and help improve their standards of living. The curriculum for this ambitious project was introduced publicly for the first time during the opening ceremony of the forum.
"We are very pleased to fund this innovative programme which will bring a new level of knowledge and skills to microfinance clients. It demonstrates the role that long-term multi-stakeholder partnerships can have in creating sustainable and high impact approaches to help low-income households and reduce poverty," said Robert Morse, CEO, Corporate & Investment Banking, Citigroup Asia Pacific.

Celine Boogie, a top Mother's Day Gift
With a name derived from 1945's boogie-woogie blues dance craze, Celine's Boogie handbags were created and marketed in the same year by Celine's founder, Celine Vipiana in Paris. For years, Boogie handbags have been improved by world-famous designers; in 2002 a new series of Boogie handbags came into being and were popularized by pop icon Madonna and movie stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Gwyneth Paltrow.
The handbags are large enough to hold all the necessities needed by modern women, complete with special pockets designed to hold mobile phones. For Mother's Day in 2006, several new styles of Boogie handbags are recommended. The more captivating include the Palm Ostrich Boogie, Chestnut Genuine Crocodile Boogie and Amethyst Genuine Crocodile Boogie. For weekend travels, try the Macadam Rafia and Jacquard Blason Boogie.

Yemo.cn: Beijing's Nightlife Database
As recently as a decade ago, Beijing routinely tucked itself into bed shortly after nightfall, leaving visitors with one of two "approved" tourist options: a Beijing opera or an acrobatic performance in a sterile theatre, either that or a visitor could wander the city in search of a drink or to bring on sleep, but now, if you measure nightlife by its diversity, the Chinese capital rivals any major city in Asia. The problem has become how to find a satisfactory night entertainment to suite your tastes. Yemo.cn has the answer.
The Web site sorts all activities affecting your nightlife into discrete listings on its daily calendar. You can find all the times, locations and the content of public late-night entertainment in Beijing. It also offers a BBS service and organizes activities, acting as a bridge for night crawlers.

See: http://www.voguezone.com/party/PartyList.aspx?sn= for further information.