Polo and luxury living in China
Polo players watch as the Buenos Aires Marching Band prepares to perform during the halftime action at the Snow Polo World Cup, held in Tianjin, China. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times)
Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club offers an exotic diversion for China’s wealthy.
Team England faces off against the Hong Kong China team at the Snow Polo World Cup in Tianjin, China. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times)
Attendants await a passenger for a horse and carriage ride in front of the hotel at the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club in Tianjin, China, during the Snow Polo World Cup in January. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times)
A life-size horse mannequin is harnessed to a carriage in the clubhouse at Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club. The room also contains models of the entire property development, which features the polo club, apartments, a hotel, standalone homes (known as villas) and a business district with 11 skyscrapers. Apartments start at $1 million and the top-end mansion is priced at $90 million. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times)
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A horse-themed fountain in front of the hotel at the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Club in Tianjin China. The completed towers in the background are apartments for the Fortune Heights residential luxury development. The tower under construction in the background will be a 117-story skyscraper anchoring a huge new business district nearby, also built by the same developer. It will be the 3rd tallest in China when it is completed in 2016. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times)
Smog, a problem in Tianjin, enshrouds the villas at Fortune Heights. Purchase of a property in the development includes membership in the polo club. For those choosing to live elsewhere, basic memberships in the club start at $165,000. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times)
A model of the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan development includes a hotel, in the foreground, villas and a business district. “Our product, in one word, is lifestyle. We sell lifestyle,” said Harvey Lee, a UC Berkeley graduate who is vice chairman of Goldin Real Estate Financial Holdings. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times)
