Broke on Beans

1 Aug. 2010 - Imagine being in Beijing with about RMB 50 (approx. USD 7) - what could you buy? Believe it or not, but you can just buy a cup of coffee. Beijing tops a recently published list of Asian cities with the 20 most expensive cups of coffee. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul are also high on the list (more than USD 5). Urbanization and the arrival of chains like Starbucks have helped to open the market for coffee drinkers, but prices are still relatively high as consumption per capita is still relatively low. It is expected that China will follow Japan, where the first Starbucks was opened in 2001, but has now more than 10,000 coffee shops all over the country.  Coffee is more widely available in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, where Dutch and French settlers introduced the drink much earlier.