Chinese tycoon offers to buy 0.3% of Iceland for $100,000,000

Huang Nubo is China's 16th richest person. The self described "poet and adventurer" has offered $100 million to buy 300 square kilometres of Icelandic wilderness to develop a golf course and tourist destination resort.

Opponents have questioned why such a large amount of land – equal to about 0.3 per cent of Iceland’s total area – is needed to build a hotel. They warned that the project could provide cover for China’s geopolitical interests in the Atlantic island nation and Nato member.

While home to just 320,000 people, Iceland occupies a strategically important location between Europe and North America and has been touted as a potential hub for Asian cargo should climate change open Arctic waters to shipping.

(To get an idea of how much 0.3 percent represents, take a look at the above photo of Bjork. Her tattoo covers roughly 0.3% of her body's surface area.)

Chinese tycoon seeks to buy tract of Iceland

(Image: Bjork-1, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from 8073591@N04's photostream)

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