In the last 5 years the considerable increase of the wages of the white collars in the cities has made possible to many Chinese to buy exclusive luxory fashion brands products such as bags, clothes and accessories. In shopping malls, airport duty-frees, taxi, even in restaurants!, there are videos running all day showing the latest creations of Gabbana, Gucci, Armani, Dior, Chanel, Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton... Young Chinese, influenced from these campaigns, want to dress the westerner style and are willing to pay the same price as in European shops, and sometimes even more.
Another sector in which Chinese starts to be very interested in is the tourism industry. If 10 years ago only the Chinese elite could afford a Europe-travel, now a great number of Chinese can visit the places that the government never printed in school books: Siena, Florence, San Gimignano, Paris, London are put on show in videos running as entertainment in Chinese flight companies.
Even coffee has become a common drink among Chinese. Many coffee chains have opened in Shanghai, Bejing and in the all tourist spots around China (I have drunk one of the best coffee of my life in Yangshuo, a place among the hills of southern China). Apart from Starbucks, there are many other chains which are sharing this growing market.
Bier and wine are still behind compared to coffee (probably because Chinese do not like cold drinks).
Gelato is not loved among Chinese, too cold. The few ice shops in Shanghai and Bejing are just opened for the expatriates.
Bread is quickly appearing on many Chinese tables. Chinese like french bread (which contains more lard than the Italian bread) and many stores have opened in Shanghai selling baguette.
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China has a population of 1 milliard and 330 millions people and the buying power, together with the wages, is growing everyday. There will be a considerable increase of Chinese tourism in Europe in the coming two years with a considerable increase in the need of Chinese speaking staff at the hotel reception and tourist information centres. People who want to be competitive in the tourism industry should better train their staff in speaking Chinese.
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