(FORTUNE Magazine) – Only one Chinese company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2003, but it was a doozy: On Dec. 17, China Life Insurance floated 25% of its equity for more than $3 billion--the biggest IPO in the world for the year.

There are, in fact, two China Lifes. One is a debt-ridden, state-owned mess. The other is its offspring, the newly listed China Life (LFC), consisting of the profitable bits of the parent, which owns 75% of it. The China Life IPO generated buzz as well as billions. In Hong Kong, where the stock was also listed, retail investors oversubscribed the issue by 168 times. But regulations there prevented China Life from raising the offering price in New York. On the first day of trading, the stock closed at $23.72 in New York, 27% above the $18.68 offering price. So a lot of money was left in other people's pockets.

How could insurance be so sexy? An aging population and rising incomes mean that insurance sells itself in China--revenues routinely go up by a third each year. China Life has a 45% share of the market, and its network of 4,800 branches and 650,000 agents is tough to match.

Not that its competitors aren't trying. Western powers like AIG, Prudential, and ManuLife are already on the ground, and more are on the way, thanks to the WTO. But with $3 billion in cash to spend, China Life can buy a little insurance for itself against the barbarians.

--Cait Murphy