Staff in the Netherlands and Spain were less stressed than Britons
China may be years away from a lunar landing but one company is offering a piece of "land" there right now.
The so-called Lunar Embassy, through which one can purchase an acre on the moon for 298 yuan (US$37), started operations yesterday in Beijing.
Li Jie, chief executive officer of Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science Co Ltd, said his company is the sole agent in China for US-based Lunar Embassy.
The area? Between 20 and 24 degrees latitude north and 30 to 34 degrees longitude west, the company says.
Lunar Embassy will issue customers a "certificate" that ensures property ownership including rights to use the land and minerals up to 3 kilometres underground
"We define it as a kind of novelty gift with the potential of unlimited increase in value," said Li, who was nominated as the agent in China by Dennis Hope, a US entrepreneur who founded the first extraterrestrial estate agency Lunar Embassy in 1980.
Hope thinks a loophole in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty makes his property sales legitimate. The agreement forbids governments from owning extraterrestrial property, but fails to mention corporations or individuals.
"I have 3.5 million customers including ex-US presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and movie stars who have purchased land on the moon," said Hope at a press conference yesterday in Beijing. China is the eighth country to have a Lunar Embassy after the United States, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, he said.
And there appear to be at least some moonstruck people in China Li told reporters that he had received more than 400 telephone orders in the past few days.
Meanwhile, not all believe that the trading is legal; and some even regard it as fraud or a joke.
中国宇航员想要登上月球也许还要几年时间，但一家美国公司已经开始在中国出售月球上的土地。
这家被称为“月球大使馆”的美国公司昨天在北京正式营业。目前，每一公顷月球地皮的售价为289 元(37美元)。
北京月球村航天科技有限公司总经理李捷说，他的公司是美国“月球大使馆”公司在中国的'唯一代理商。
购买月球上的土地?该公司表示，向中国顾客发售的是月球上北纬20到24度、西经30到34度之间的土地。
“月球大使馆”公司将发给购买者一张月球土地所有权证书，土地所有权包括土地使用权和地下三公里深的矿物资源。
“我们认为这是一种非常新奇的礼物，有无可限量的升值潜力，”李捷说，他被丹尼斯·霍伯任命为中国区独家代理。美国企业家丹尼斯·霍伯于1980年建立了第一家宇宙地产公司——“月球大使馆”。
霍伯认为1967年联合国通过的《外层空间条约》存在漏洞，他可以趁机合法出售外太空地皮。《外层空间条约》禁止政府拥有任何外层空间产权，但并没有提到公司或个人。
“我的客户已达到350万人，其中包括美国前总统罗纳德·里根、吉米·卡特和众多电影明星，他们都购买了月球上的土地。”霍伯在北京召开的新闻发布会上说。中国是继美国、德国、英国、爱尔兰、澳大利亚、新西兰和日本之后拥有“月球大使馆”公司代理商的国家。
在中国，确实有一些想入非非的人，李捷告诉记者说在过去几天中他已经接到400多个定购电话。
同时，并不是所有人多认为这种做法合法，有些人甚至认为这是一种欺骗或玩笑。
Vocabulary:
novelty: originality by virtue of being refreshingly novel(新颖，新奇)
loophole: an ambiguity (especially one in the text of a law or contract) that makes it possible to evade a difficulty or obligation(漏洞)
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