White House just outside Shanghai. The house is modeled to the tiniest detail after the Oval Office at the White House. ôEvery detail has been immaculately reproduced, from the $60,000 baroque sofa to the U.S. presidential seal on the carpetùnaturally, made in China. æEverything you see here is just like Washington,Æ says Huang. æOnly it's all mine.Æ And outside the window of the Blue Room, which Huang uses as his office (it would be inappropriate, he says, to work in the Oval Office), is a one-third-size Mount Rushmore with employees' quarters tucked in the back. Meanwhile, in front of the White House stands a miniature Washington Monument. æI bet you've never seen anything so wonderful,Æ says Huang. æThis is my dream houseÆö (Beech, 2002).
ChinaÆs richest now number almost 10,000, each worth at least $10 million, and they are among the fastest-growing economic elite in the world. ôThe person who ranked 50th on a list of richest Chinese last year boasted $110 million; in 1999, No. 50 only had $6 millionö (Beech, 2002). However, this ostenta
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