Via The Daily Telegraph: "Chinese citizens are outraged after a Ferrari sports car leaves tyre marks on Nanjing's ancient city wall during a publicity stunt for the car maker's Chinese dealership." more ›

Nearly 1.1 million wealthy Chinese tourists visited America in 2011 to fill their suitcases with jewellery from Tiffany, bags from Burberry and a whole bunch of other brands that would cost thrice as much back home. more ›

The United States has always been infamous for its gas-guzzling behemoths of luxury cars - the Cadillac Escalade, the Denali, and any one of the Hummer monstrosities. But whereas the US has begun downsizing with smaller models of former luxury SUV's and various hybrids, China's super-rich demand a new breed of monster-sized motors. more ›

Chinese nationals accounted for the largest share of luxury goods sales in overseas markets during the month of January, with total sales of approximately $7.2 billion USD recently. The amount sees the a nearly 30 percent increase from the same period last year, when Chinese on vacation spent $5.6 billion USD on luxury items. more ›

more ›

A few links to start off your day: In Bloomberg, Adam Minter takes a look at the debate raging over anti-radiation maternity suits in China, and why the bizarrely popular trend is likely coming to an end. Check out the new Sinica Podcast about the Wukan uprisings, and the debate that Han Han has recently inflamed over liberalization in China. The Telegraph looks at the explosion of Chinese luxury shoppers arriving on English soil and how it impacts luxury retailers, who are quickly hiring Mandarin-speaking staff and being advised to avoid topics like “politics, Japan and communism”. more ›

A report in the National Business Daily cites an insider "familiar with Gucci's operation mode"and claims the company repaired a bag that was returned by a customer and put it right back on the shelves. It's precisely the thing that 99% of businesses would do, of course, but hey, this is Gucci. more ›

• Just the mere whiff of Chinese investment in the Italian debt market had stocks going bonkers on Monday. WSJ points out that, weirdly enough, none of the rumors are really substantiated and this anonymous Italian official just happened to mention the prospects one day before Italian bonds for 2018/2020 go on sale...
• That's Shanghai gives us a nice review of Paul French's new non-fiction murder mystery Midnight in Peking.
• LA Times explains why the mooncake is very much the fruitcake of China. (Agreed - dessert should never feel like a punishment!)

In 2008, Patti Waldmier of the Financial Times referred to a McKinsey survey that said, “Chinese consumers are becoming more price conscious, less brand-loyal and generally harder to please.” Oh, how times have changed. more ›

Rui Chenggang, the host of CCTV's BizChina, has decided very suddenly to take up the cause of criticizing luxury goods and how the rich use them to keep everyone else down probably. On his Weibo, Rui criticized China's consumption of luxury goods and the brands that supply those goods, specifically Hermes. "The Hermès Birkin handbag and the leather 'H' belt are strong weapons for China's nouveau riche and socialites to show off their wealth," which is kind of the idea of buying a Birkin handbag. Rui also said in the west, Birkin handbags are "just used by a few middle-age women." But Rui wasn't done being angry at luxury goods. He then put up a poll called "The Ten Most Vulgar Luxury Brands." When he closed the poll, he called the winning brands "the most effective weapons to show off one's wealth." Again, that's the idea. The winners of the poll were Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Rolex. His grand enemy Hermès came in 7th. Some people have begun speculating where Rui buys his luxury goods and why he's suddenly decided that this is bad. Others have speculated that this is all self-promotion from the man who's been called the Chinese Lou Dobbs (as if one wasn't enough!). more ›

Because we need more stores we cant afford anything in - Harry Winston is coming to tow “Harry Winston Diamond Corp, the Canadian mining group which owns the jewelers, has this week announced plans to build a flagship store in the sprawling metropolis of Shanghai. And it will be pretty hard to miss, boasting a 12-meter high façade a company spokesman says will be like a "billboard to the world, a billboard to the Chinese people. The 460-square-meter flagship store - to be opened "before January" next year, according to the company - will be supplemented by a salon inside the lobby of the Peninsula Shanghai hotel….Media reports have suggested the company has plans for up to as many as 10 outlets in China.” [Independent UK] more ›

A new exhibition of Louis Vuitton luggage and handbags at the National Museum of China in Tiananmen Square is getting off to a flying start, proving offensive on both artistic and patriotic grounds. more ›

The thrill is gone, the dream has died (however, the non-VIP seats we showed you yesterday are staying): "Luxury VIP suites on the forthcoming Shanghai-Beijing High Speed Railway are to be removed and more standard seats installed in their place. The planned VIP suites had attracted heavy criticism from passengers complaining about high ticket prices and the difficulty of buying even standing tickets during the annual Spring Festival rush. Such luxury suites, charging more than 2,000 yuan (US$308) a ticket, appeared on bullet trains between Shanghai and cities in Sichuan Province in January. The suites did not prove popular." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Yongjia Internet Technique Co Ltd is currently exploring the possibility of offering 'space burial' services from China, whereby they cram your remains into a lipstick-sized tube, attach you to a rocket, and blast you into space. You then orbit for a while (depending on how much you pay, of course) as another piece of China's space junk, and eventually burn up. Sounds like a business almost as wasteful as it is useless. But then again, rich people who decide they want to shoot their ashes into outer space aren't exactly doing it to save the planet. They're probably doing it because, well, it sounds AWESOME. more ›

We already know how insanely popular Tibetan mastiffs are with the fabulously wealthy in China (among other ridiculous things.) Well, last week in Qingdao a Shanxi coal baron paid 10 million RMB (about $1.5 million) for an 11-month-old red Tibetan mastiff named Sensation (轰动, Hōngdòng), tying the record for most expensive dog ever sold. more ›

Spooky director David Lynch ("The Elephant Man," "Blue Velvet," "Mulholland Drive") rocked into Shanghai last December, and here's what he got up to: a 16-minute film for Dior called "Lady Blue Shanghai." Art directed by designer John Galliano, it stars Marion Cotillard as an appropriately distressed damsel in a perfectly tailored Dior skirt suit. The film begins with our heroine returning to her posh Shanghai hotel, where she quickly discovers that someone has entered her room and left behind a beautiful sapphire Lady Dior quilted handbag sitting smack in the center of the room. It emits smoke and light, so she freaks out and calls security. I'd have flung myself onto the bag and thanked the mysterious Dior gods for their blessing. more ›

Chinese news portal Jing Daily has compiled a list ranking China's 10 Most Luxurious Cities. The criteria? Living standards of the city's elite, "internationalness", designer shopping, and infrastructure. more ›

• In an exchange that has been making rounds on the internet, Mao Zedong's grandson lost his bearings last Friday and, beleaguered by journalists on all sides, asked "comrade, where is my car?" [AFP]
• He's not the only one to say a darndest thing though. Lots of officials have given meme worthy answers and opinions this week. [WSJ]
• The head of the environmental ministry in China has proposed that an environmental tax be studied - maybe it can help curb pollution? [Reuters]

You won't have to go to Dubai to enjoy seven-star luxury anymore as the world's second seven star hotel — and China's first — is going to be built in Sanya, Hainan. Construction of the 120m high hotel will begin later this year and will be completed by 2011 to be managed under the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts brand. Shanghai Daily tells us more:

Located in the center of Haitang Bay in Sanya City, the hotel will spread over 150 square kilometers and include a luxury yacht club, a golf course and the biggest ocean park in Asia. more ›

From Patrick Carr of Current TV:

The Burberry factory in Treorchy, Wales, closed down to much protest last year - but what happened after? In this pod we visit the Chinese factory and find that the same has happened again, with Chinese factory workers near the city losing their jobs as cheaper rural factories means the factory has moved again...