Move Over, Perth; S'porean Retirees Are Heading, for CHINA Options

[huaren]

Move over, Perth; S'porean retirees are heading for CHINA
The low cost of living and cultural affinity are part of draw

By Li Xueying

A SPRAWLING villa for the price of a five-room Housing Board flat. A rich, ancient culture, and an endless string of mountains, temples and cities to explore on weekend vacations.

Life is good for the Lims.

Last year, Mr Lim Tau Han, 54, a former manager, and his wife Wong Tew Juan, 52, retired to Shanghai to spend their autumn years. Their 4,200 sq ft villa on an 8,000 sq ft plot is 20 minutes' drive from downtown Shanghai and cost $500,000. Set in a private estate, it has a lake, swimming pool and its own security guards.

Forget Phuket or Perth. China is becoming the retirement destination of choice for middle-class Chinese Singaporeans enamoured of its diversity, rapid development and low cost of living.

More than simply panda-hugging Sinophiles, they are former bank officers, businessmen, professionals, civil servants and others.

They're selling their homes, withdrawing their Central Provident Fund savings, and buying Chinese dictionaries and one-way tickets to China, reversing the route that their ancestors took.

Some 20,000 Singaporeans work, study or live in China, says the Singapore International Foundation. It has no data on retirees. But several Singapore clubs and China-based Singaporeans say they know of an increasing number of retirees from the Republic and more considering the option.

Among them are entrepreneurs who went to China after it liberalised its economy in the 1980s and who have grown used to living there.

Said Mr Beng Tan, 45, who runs an investment company in Shanghai: 'Singaporeans who used to think China was dirty, unsafe and hazardous, now see a different side to the country.'

Deluged with requests for free retirement advice, he turned it into a business last October: $500 buys a basic package, but a customised deal with housing, education and induction arrangements may cost up to $5,000.

He's helped 13 couples to retire there, he said, and is now negotiating with a town near Xiamen for a site to build a $750,000 retirement village for up to 250 people, mainly Singaporeans.

Nursing homes in China will also take in Singaporeans too old or too frail to live independently, said Singapore-based China business consultant Lauren Li.

Singapore-listed Econ Healthcare is considering setting some up in the south 'where the weather is warmer', said its managing director Ong Chu Poh.

China is gaining currency for retirees because the 'grey dollar' goes so much farther there.

With $500,000 saved from 10 years' work as a paralegal in Singapore, Mr Brandon Tan toured China, fell in love with the 'friendly people', and settled in Dongguan, Guangdong, in February last year. He was 38.

Living on about $500 a month, he believes he can lead a life of leisure there for least 20 years. 'There is no way I can retire in Singapore with $500,000,' he said. He passes the time playing with his two dogs, at karaoke lounges ($300 for five persons), and tinkering with his 30,000 yuan ($6,200) Nissan Sunny, which would easily have cost him $70,000 in Singapore.

China has an edge over Thailand or Malaysia as a retirement haven because of the cultural affinity Chinese Singaporeans feel.

'We become part of the society very easily because we look the same, and if you know Mandarin, we speak the same language,' said Mr Lim, who was general manager of Kraft Foods' China operations from 1997 to 1999.

The Lims go on jaunts around the country, reliving classics such as Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, and Tian Long Ba Bu by wuxia novelist Jin Yong.

Housewife Kit Koh, 37, and her 41-year-old husband, Clement, who run a food business in Guangzhou, will retire there.

'Unlike in Western countries like Australia, there's no racism because we blend in here,' she said. 'China is so big. When we retire, we can still explore it. What can we do in Singapore?' she said.

But it's no bed of roses.

Singaporeans are apt to complain about hazardous traffic, the locals' spitting habits and the high cost of health care.

Seeing a local doctor costs 30 to 100 yuan but a consultation at a hospital for expatriates may cost 90 to 300 yuan. Locals may pay 5,000 to 8,000 yuan for a simple operation, but foreigners can expect to pay 10 times the sum, though one can engage a private nurse for 800 yuan a month.

But when death beckons, Mr Lim reckons he'll be buried in China. 'At least, there is enough land for burial. In Singapore, I'd have to get cremated.'

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/news/stor...,255971,00.html

This post has been edited by huaren: Jun 12 2004, 06:01 PM