France: The record-setting price for the most expensive racing pigeon ever sold topped the $328,000 bill for another bird, Blue Prince, in 2012

(File) China’s purchasing power has never ceased to amaze the world. The country’s newly rich are on a global shopping spree for luxury goods, but their taste goes beyond designer clothing, upscale properties and expensive artwork. A Chinese businessman recently set a world record by spending $400,000 on a racing pigeon auctioned in Europe, stunning the bird’s Belgian breeder, the auction house Pipa and other pigeon enthusiasts gathered in Brussels.