Day: May 28, 2013

China’s purchasing power has never ceased to amaze the world. The country’s newly rich are on a global shopping spree for luxury goods, but their taste goes beyond designer clothing, upscale properties and expensive artwork. A Chinese businessman recently set a world record by spending $400,000 on a racing pigeon auctioned in Europe, stunning the bird’s Belgian breeder, the auction house Pipa and other pigeon enthusiasts gathered in Brussels, the Associated Press reported.

The star pigeon Bolt, named after Jamaican Olympic superstar sprinter Usain Bolt, was sold to Gao Fuxin, according to its celebrated 66-year-old breeder Leo Heremans, whose entire collection of 530 birds fetched almost $6 million at the auction over the weekend. According to Pipa, about 20 countries were bidding for the birds, but nine of the ten most expensive pigeons went to Chinese Mainland or Taiwanese fanciers, a phenomenon it deemed “remarkable.”

(More: World’s Most Expensive…