Word: celling
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Though he doesn't know it, shop manager Zhu Baohua is on the front lines of the battle to reform the global economy. Zhu's three-floor electronics store, crammed with Sony TVs, Motorola cell phones and HP PCs, is located in a nondescript neighborhood in the western Chinese city of Xi'an. Far from China's dynamic coastal manufacturing and financial centers, Xi'an for decades has been an economic backwater known mainly as the home of China's famed terra-cotta warriors, reminders of the city's glory days as a capital of ancient dynasties...
...China's coastal cities, Chinese companies based there are investing in operations in less-developed Xi'an to capitalize on its lower costs and tap a cheaper labor market. About 70% of Xi'an's domestic investment comes from the southeast coast. For example, in late 2008 Shenzhen-based cell-phone maker ZTE announced it would invest $880 million in manufacturing and research facilities in Xi'an that will ultimately employ 26,000 people. Hybrid-car maker BYD, also headquartered in Shenzhen, has turned Xi'an into one of its main manufacturing centers, with almost all of the cars sold...
...more domestically focused. In October, Applied Materials, a California-based maker of manufacturing equipment for the semiconductor industry, opened a solar-power research center in Xi'an, part of a $250 million investment in the city. The facility, unique to Applied Materials' global operations, will house solar-cell production lines to devise new ways of bringing down the costs of manufacturing panels. Though the results can be utilized in factories anywhere, the center is directed to a great degree at expanding the company's business within China. "China is where all the customers are," says Charles Gay, president...
Cheryl Blitman got a horrible shock when she opened her cell-phone bill. It was $170 higher than usual. Her phone company told her that her daughter had subscribed to 17 premium texting services. But Michelle, 15, was adamant; she had not. Eventually they figured out the source of the charges: FarmVille...
...service in exchange for game points. Sign up for a Netflix subscription, get two months free plus 100,000 points. Some players cancel as soon as they have the points. Other deals, like those that snagged Michelle, are shady. Michelle took a quiz that required her to enter her cell-phone number and a code. At some point during the exchange, there was supposed to be a notification that she was signing up for an SMS subscription at $9.99 a month. Michelle says she never...