Industry estimates put the amount of Wenzhou capital in real estate in China outside its home place at 90 billion yuan to 100 billion yuan.

'Shanghai remains the first choice,' Ms Li said. 'It is a modern international metropolis, with a good reputation and well-educated, quality people. Wenzhou people have bought more than half of the properties in the Shimao Riviera Garden.'

Towering over the Huangpu River on the Pudong side, the project (which costs between 15,000 yuan and 23,000 yuan per square metre) is one of the most high-profile properties of the year in Shanghai. The developer is the Shimao Group, owned by billionaire Xu Rongmao, ranked by Euromoney as the third-richest man in China.

Wenzhou people are also big investors in Century Garden, Chrysanthemum Garden and Singapore Mei Shu Guan, upmarket developments that sell for 10,000 yuan to 13,000 yuan a square metre.

A typical buyer is Wu Quanpo, a Wenzhou businessman living in Shanghai who owns four properties in Shanghai. In October, he bought a 128-square-metre apartment in Zhong Shan Road at 6,500 yuan per square metre.

'In March, the price was 5,350 yuan per square metre,' he said. 'I am not worried about the increase. With a 20-year mortgage, I pay 4,000 yuan a month, which is equal to the rent in the district, so I am not losing money.'

He is considering the purchase of office space in Jiangning Road, in the upmarket Jing An district, at 13,000 yuan a square metre.

'For an investment in office space, I would consider only Beijing and Shanghai, and of these two, Shanghai is better. Office prices are on the high side but the risk is very low.'

In the past three weeks, Shanghai media has run stories saying that, after four years of growth and good profits, Wenzhou people are pulling their money out of the Shanghai market. Asked about it, city government spokeswoman Jiao Yang said it was a rumour not borne out by the facts.

Real-estate agents said it was more accurate to say that Wenzhou people were diversifying their investments, because some believed prices in Shanghai were near their peak.

This year, Wenzhou groups have been on buying tours to Beijing, Wuhan, Qingdao, Lijiang in Yunnan province, Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, Kashgar in Xinjiang, Shenzhen and cities in Vietnam. Wenzhou capital has also gone into Suzhou and Wuxi and Jinhua, the nearest largest city to Wenzhou, also in Zhejiang province.

The 40-member group that visited Qingdao in late October spent 25 million yuan. In addition, they offered to buy an entire street in the city for 14 million yuan. The offer was rejected because city officials thought the price too low.

Known as the 'Jews of China', Wenzhou people have a remarkable history of commerce and adventure.

Wenzhou residents and their products are found in cities and towns all over China and many countries in Europe, especially France and Italy, giving them a rich network of people, connections and information.

Because of the city port's proximity to Taiwan, the central government has invested little in the city. Almost all of its economy is in private hands, and following 25 years of Dengist reforms the volume of private capital is huge.

'Wenzhou people respond quickly to the market. They are commercially savvy,' Ms Li said. 'The return from property is much higher than from bank interest. Of the property investment in Shanghai, about 30 per cent is speculation - looking for a sale within one or two years and moving the money elsewhere. The rest is held longer, for use as a home or base for business or children to study.'

Wenzhou city and the surrounding countryside is densely populated, and because the area is surrounded by mountains there is limited space for growth. The result is that the people are forced to look elsewhere for places to do business and invest their money.

As of the end of October, Wenzhou banks held 87.6 billion yuan in personal bank deposits, against an estimated 180 billion yuan in personal wealth, with most of the difference of 92 billion yuan being invested in property outside the city.