On the morning of February 25, the Ma Changdi plot—a large mixed-use site in Guangzhou’s Zhujiang New Town—was officially put up for auction with a starting bid of 18.6 billion yuan, second only to the Asian Games City plot sold in 2009. The plot has attracted significant attention due to its prime location and large size. The eight companies currently participating in the bidding are Yuexiu, Poly, China Resources, China Merchants, Zhushih, Guangzhou Metro, Guangzhou Construction, and Guangzhou City Investment. With hundreds of thousands of people watching online, the land auction system has crashed multiple times. As of press time, bidding has been underway for over an hour and a half, with the latest bid exceeding 20 billion yuan. The auction is currently still in progress. (Yicai)