The expo's theme? "America Is For Sale"

"I think in the past, we sort of assumed that the Chinese had no money, and we turned them away," Harrington said. "But they really are the ones carrying cash right now."

Harrington, the 35-year-old daughter of local luxury broker Pam Harrington, once dabbled herself in Charleston-area real estate but moved to China to teach fourth grade after earning an MBA.

When she first saw a brochure about the Beijing expo, she thought it was a joke. But soon, she found herself printing off posters and setting up a booth alongside about 20 other groups, including a Century 21 franchise from Hawaii and a group that was marketing condominiums developed by Donald Trump.

Across the aisle, a Las Vegas firm played a video clip on a loop of the city's mayor welcoming investors and talking about his want to create a Chinese cultural center. The experience was bizarre, she said.

Harrington set up a booth with pictures from local beaches and golf courses, and she had brochures of multimillion-dollar listings along the barrier islands and in downtown Charleston.

Harrington said she fielded baffling questions from attendees who wanted to know if buying Charleston property could help their child get into Ivy League school or how a 30-year mortgage works. (The Chinese, she explained, aren't big on debt.)

The expo produced some leads, but the crowd tended to cluster around a handful of booths that were marketing cheaper investment properties, such as foreclosures priced under $100,000, she said. Expo officials told her the event drew about 2,000 attendees.

"This is the first of many ways to figure out how we get these folks over to Charleston because I think they'd like it. It's very sellable," she said.

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Mashburn Construction Co. recently finished framing a building that's set to become the next public safety building for the Isle of Palms. The $6 million project, which will house administrative offices the police and fire departments, will likely open in June.

Reach Katy Stech at 937-5549 or kstech@postand courier.com.

Source: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/apr/27/firm_markets_properties_china80079/

Reprinted with permission of Katy Stech of The Post and Courier