China real estate bazaar drowns out govt warnings

BEIJING - Standing in the shouting tumult of a Chinese real estate fair, Chen Shiyong said it seemed he was watching a suicidal man on top of a building ignoring the pleas of bystanders to pull back from the edge.

Not that many of the 142,000 potential buyers and curious visitors, who crowded into Beijing's latest big housing property sales fair over the weekend, were buying Chen's warning of the impending collapse of the property bubble.

Many said l housing prices in the Chinese capital and other cities would surely continue to rise, perhaps after a brief dip, shrugging off government efforts to cool the market. The disheartened said prices, which are already well beyond their grasp, are unlikely to come down.