May 23, 2013
Redefining Super Luxury On A Shrinking PlanetAnyone on Earth with access to the Internet, a television or radio for the last 20 years knows that China is no longer the poor stronghold for strict Communist ideals that it was for much of the 20th Century. (Well, at least not in some places.) Traveling to China twice in less than a month – first to Shanghai for a very international auto show and now to Beijing to drive and review the 2014 Bentley Flying Spur – I’ve learned that there’s no lack of personal wealth, at least in two of the world’s largest cities.And yet, even I think the scene before me is a little bit ridiculous. Here I am, slowly climbing up a hillside to reach a fortification at something called Zhuanduo Pass, where roughly a dozen pristine examples of Western decadence sit idling their hand-built 12-cylinder engines in the shadow of China’s revered and awesome Great Wall.