Lee hsien loong, Singapore's former prime minister, recently gave some advice to foreigners in the city-state:
"Please keep the bling down."
Mr Lee counselled rich incomers not to go popping expensive champagne or driving Ferraris loudly at night.
Such excess may grate on locals.
Happily, social mores are different in Dubai,
reckons Li Guo, a transplant to the Gulf city and owner of an Italian sportscar.
Mr Li is one of many wealthy Chinese who are moving, with their cash, to Dubai.
A stagnant economy at home and America's use of financial sanctions is pushing some to diversify their holdings.
Many private investors are looking beyond Singapore, long favoured by China's rich-listers,
in search of another sunny, safe and low-tax jurisdiction.
Chinese firms facing low-spending consumers at home also seek rich, growing markets beyond America and Europe.
For both groups, Dubai holds promise.
By China's own estimates, 370,000 of its citizens live in the uae, while 15,000 of its firms operate there.
Both figures have roughly doubled since 2019.
Chinese investors are part of a larger migration of private wealth to the uae,
according to Henley & Partners, an advisory firm that tracks the minted and mobile.
It reckons that the uae saw a net inflow of nearly 10,000 dollar-millionaires in 2025.
Singapore, on the other hand, saw its annual net intake halve to around 1,600.
More than 1,250 private-investment vehicles, including family offices,
now operate in Dubai's offshore financial centre, up from 800 at the end of 2024.