When Hong Kong-based business tycoon Stephen Hung ordered 30 new Rolls Royce Phantoms for his upcoming hotel business in 2014, it was the largest single order in the luxury car-maker’s history.

Hung, a former investment banker at Merrill Lynch, purchased his highly customized Rolls for ‘The 13’ hotel-casino in Macau in a deal reportedly worth $20m. The uber-luxurious cars were all painted in a unique glossy red hue with gold trim and came equipped with diamond-encrusted Rolls Royce badges.

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If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It

The cars with the Spirit of Ecstasy emblem are also the luxury vehicle of choice for other hotel chains. The five-star Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, which charges up to $20,000 a night for a room, also boasts a fleet of Phantoms - 13 at the last count.

In Hung’s case, most of the cars were later sold at a huge discount – a sign that the business was in deep financial trouble – but it served to highlight the stratospheric wealth of high-flying, Hong-Kong-based businessmen.

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And what better to flaunt your wealth than by driving around in a Rolls?

Property magnate and avid car buff Samuel Tak Lee, whose net worth is about $3.7b, obviously agrees as he reputedly owns a Rolls Royce Sweptail – at $13 million a pop, it’s one of the most expensive cars in the world, and certainly the costliest Rolls when it was launched in 2017.

It is often said that Hong Kong is the city with the highest number of Rolls Royces in the world per capita, and there’s enough wealth in the city-state to suggest that might well be true.

As one of the most important financial hubs around, Hong Kong is also one of the wealthiest cities – it ranks fifth globally – and has one of the highest number of billionaires in the world.

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1 In 125 Worth Millions

According to the South China Post, one in every 125 people in the former UK colony is worth at least $5 million, thanks largely to its thriving stock market, which has become “a huge contributor to individual wealth”.

The other side of the coin is that Hong Kong is also one of the most expensive cities around. Testament to this is the growing number of poverty-stricken individuals living in the city’s notorious ‘coffin homes’; tiny bed-sized fire-traps that are home for up to 200,000 people.

Nonetheless, this bustling metropolis ranks 4th in the UN’s Human Development Index, which measures living standards, education, and income per head.

And where there’s money, there’s luxury and almost obscene levels of extravagance.

Inevitably, Rolls Royces make up only a fraction of the sort of automotive porn you can expect to see cruising past the city’s streets.

A wander along any one of Hong Kong’s public car parks will reveal a collection of hyper-cars that wouldn’t look out of place at a lavish international car show. From limited-edition vehicles such as Mercedes AMG SLS Black Series and Pagani Zondas to more common-or-garden Ferrari 360s, they’re simply a common sight here.

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