拍卖现场：雷声大雨点小，大部分是凑热闹的
淘宝上最大宗的商品是什么?房子?不，是海岛。3月3日上午10点，淘宝网拍卖会专区的“全球稀有海岛拍卖专场”，4座海岛开始拍卖，分别是斐济第二大岛屿“海洋之心”、加拿大戴德门岛、希腊玲珑莱斯岛、末代皇帝溥仪老师庄士敦的帝王之师岛。
页面显示，位于英国的帝王之师岛起拍价为400万元，其余三座岛起拍价仅1元。
截至3日晚10点，斐济的“海洋之心”岛以500万元人民币成交，加拿大戴德门岛以170万元人民币成交，希腊玲珑莱斯岛以480万元人民币成交，而英国“帝王之师”拍卖前设置了保留价，最后拍卖的价格未达到保留价，导致拍卖失败。
相关英语新闻：
Four islands in Fiji, Greece, the United Kingdom and Canada were put up for auction on China's largest online shopping platform Taobao, with three of them sold within 12 hours.
Any Chinese citizen who put up a 1,000 yuan ($159) deposit was qualified to bid. Starting at 10 am on Wednesday, at least 48 bidders took part in the auction.
Except for the UK property, which had a starting price of 4 million yuan and was not sold, the other three islands had a starting price of only 1 yuan. The island in Fiji was sold with 99-year rental property rights while the others were sold freehold.
When the auction ended at 10 pm on Wednesday, a construction magnate in Yunnan province had bought the islands in Greece and Canada for 4.8 million yuan and 1.7 million yuan, respectively.
A businessman in Zhejiang province bought the island in Fiji for 5 million yuan, according to Beijing-based Ilongterm, the real estate firm that held the auction.
"We chose to work with Taobao as a strategic partner, because it is undoubtedly the most influential online shopping platform in China right now. Our bidders in this auction were long-time users of Taobao who have spent about 10 million yuan on it" so far, she said.
Ilongterm will take the winning bidders to their islands for on-site inspections and the completion of procedures such as paying taxes, commissions and legal expenses. The company will also offer more overseas properties by auction on Taobao later this month and in May.
Taobao started auctions for overseas properties on Dec 12.
"We are catering to rising demand for overseas properties among these groups. We're sure to offer more such projects in the future," said Taobao in a written reply.
According to Lin Dong, founder of the China Island Owners Association, wealthy Chinese have shown growing interest in overseas islands in recent years.
Islands in China come with many restrictions on their use and just 50 years of ownership. But most overseas islands are sold freehold. Wealthy Chinese bought at least seven overseas islands in 2014.(英文文本 via ChinaDaily)
重点解析 Key Phrases/Words
1. put up for auction v. 交付拍卖
2. magnate n. 富豪，权贵，巨头，大资本家
3. restrictions n. 限制，限定，拘束
4. freehold n. 自由保有，不动产
