Beijing

THE trains coming into Baigou station, a village some 120km from Beijing, are full. Those going out are more or less empty. Inside the nearby town, hotels are fully booked, their carparks black with cars coming from all over China.

Three weeks after Xiongan was officially earmarked by President Xi Jinping as China's "new economic zone", investors and real estate speculators have been flocking to this rural, under-developed land to cash in on what is expected to become China's new Pudong or Shenzhen.