No Gold for Chinese Stocks

While China's Olympic team has collected the lion's share of gold medals thus far at the Beijing games, its stock market isn't taking home any prizes. Down 11% since the start of the month, Chinese stocks have lost more than 33% of their value since the start of the year.

But some Chinese companies - Vision China Media, Netease.com, and Gushan Environmental Energy - to name a few, are among the best-performing international stocks this year. What gives? Part of the problem is that the "Chinese market" is actually several markets, and it's important to understand the many different types of Chinese stocks before you invest.