It used to be Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates where all the one-off Rolls-Royce models ended up going, but it now seems that China is replacing the oil rich emirate as the first destination for such cars. RR just introduced this, the Ghost Chengdu Golden Sunbird edition, headed to China.

The inspiration for this model was, apparently, an ancient Chinese artifact belonging to the Shang Dynasty, which was discovered in 2001. A customer got in touch and asked Rolls-Royce to build him a Ghost whose paint job and visual features reflected the beauty of that national treasure.

So the Rolls-Royce Ghost Golden Sunbird is finished in a two-tone white and gold paint work, but the cool thing is that it’s not a shiny kind of gold like what Arabs like. It appears to be a dark, almost matt, finish that looks quite unique and nowhere near as ghastly as a shiny golden finish. The same theme is applied to the wheels, and, well, naturally, the Spirit of Ecstasy, which is made out of gold.

Mechanically, Rolls-Royce Ghost Golden Sunbird is the same as the normal Ghosts, which means it rocks a BMW 7 Series chassis underneath, and gets the 760’s V12 engine with well over 500 horsepower. Everything you see and touch is pure Rolls-Royce though. The BMW connection is buried deep under a thick layer of fine British luxury.