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Pigs might fly, but can cars do it too? China’s Geely hopes to convince customers in the US that they can. Its wholly-owned American subsidiary Terrafugia has announced that it will start taking orders for its flying automobiles this month, with chief executive Chris Jaran saying the first models will be delivered next year.

Jaran said the world’s first commercially-produced flying car will cost around $290,000 and run on electricity or petrol. The first batch will only be available in the American market. The two-seater will be powered by a rear propeller and fly to a range of over 600km. To prove airworthiness, prototypes have been tested for more than 200 hours in the US, Terrafugia says.

The model won’t be available to just anyone: only those with a pilot’s licence can put down deposits.

And don’t expect too many landings in busy city centres either. Terrafugia says the cars – which have foldable wings and will be manufactured in Hangzhou – require 425 metres of road to take off, so runways will be required at either end of their trips. Take-offs shouldn’t take too long, however: the vehicle is supposedly capable of switching between driving and flying mode in just 40 seconds.

China has form when it comes to its business leaders scaling the heights of achievement in areas unrelated to their day jobs. Wang Shi, for instance, took time out from running real estate giant Vanke to climb Mount Everest (twice).

Step forward Zhang Xiaolong the Tencent engineer famed throughout China for creating the ubiquitous social media app WeChat. About seven years ago he switched hobbies from tennis to golf – and decided he wanted to be as good at swinging an iron as he is at coding software. That goal looks to have been realised this month when he won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.

The title he won was one of the two most prestigious Pro-Am tournaments (the other being at America’s Pebble Beach) alongside professional golfer Li Haotong. Not only was it the first time a Chinese duo had won the Alfred Dunhill prize, Zhang sunk the winning putt. The tournament creates a composite score from the best shots of each player, played over four days and ending at the fabled St Andrews Old Course. Li shot a 10 under par 66, while their composite score was 35 under, suggesting Tencent’s Zhang did most of the heavy lifting when it came to accumulating birdies and eagles. Both men said the key to winning the European Tour event was a hotpot meal they ate at the Fairmont Hotel the night before the final round. The next day they shot 11 under par. WiC advises the Fairmont to stock up on mutton, as it can expect a lot of visiting Chinese golfers to emulate Zhang’s choice of meal…

Is this a replica I see before me? It’s a question that needs to be asked in China, where WiC has profiled some controversial cases of construction copycats (not least when the 923 residents of the idyllic Austrian village of Hallstatt discovered they had a doppelganger in somewhat less lovely Huizhou).

Now Fuzhou wants to get in on the act with its own bit of Shakespearean England. The city in Jiangxi has reached a deal with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to build “the world’s first recreation of the two houses where the English playwright was born, lived and died”, the Financial Times reports.

The trust says that it will be paid a fee by Fuzhou but will insist that the project looks authentic (a particular concern after a Chinese version of Tower Bridge improved on the original landmark by building four towers rather than two).

The construction will be part of a new town called San Weng, which will welcome its first residents in 2020. However, as the FT points out, the Bard’s dwellings won’t be easy to duplicate. One of the houses – the one where Shakespeare died – was knocked down in 1702 and will have to be created from plans held by the trust and historical records from Stratford-upon-Avon, the city of his birth.