Originally Posted by
moondog
Personally I've observed an inverse correlation between city size / tier status and the prevalance of wealth flaunting. I'm not just talking about wenzhou and the random mining towns but about less obvious suspects such as ningbo, Nanning, lanzhou, shenyang, and jinan.
The only cities I've encountered in China in which wealth flaunting is not common practice are those that haven't gotten a taste of Beijing's water yet, but it's only a matter of time before they follow suit.
I agree, most smaller areas might not have the same degree of wealth to flaunt, but they flaunt what they have more. There is a Chinese saying that calls officials who are far away from the Capital "dirt emperors (土皇帝)". Meaning those who are far from the real emperor/president, live like emperors in their own areas.