Chinese are spending large amounts of cash on luxury goods in major cities around the world. Paris has become a prime shopping attraction for many Chinese tourist groups, the last stop on a multicity, multinational European bus tour. The average shopper in Paris spends 1,300 euros on shopping. Galleries Layfayette in Paris reports that the typical Chinese tourist spent 1,000 euros in two hours of shopping during 2009, 87 percent of it on fashion items, including shoes and handbags. The number of Chinese tourists to France in 2010 rose to 550,000, and they spent 650 million euros ($890 million). In 2009, Chinese surpassed Russians as the highest spending non-European visitors to France reports David Shambaugh. (1)
Nouveau riche Chinese are also developing an appreciation for fine French wines, buying up vineyards in Bordeaux and importing red wines. China has overtaken the UK and Germany as the top export market for Bordeaux wines. (1)
Kim Willsher adds, “The Chinese appear to have beaten the French at one of their own favorite pastimes—quaffing red wine. China's drinkers knocked back 1.86 billion bottles of vin rouge last year, an increase of 136% over five years, making the country the leading market for red wine.” (2)
However, some experts say the boom is more a matter of cultural sensibilities than taste. Red is a very positive color in Chinese culture and is synonymous with wealth, power, and luck. In the business world these values are fundamental, therefore, red wine is often found in banquets to seal partnerships. And red is also the color of China. White is associated with death and is predominantly seen at funerals. (2) So, its no surprise that red wine counts for 90 percent of consumption in China as white lags. (3)
Demand for red wine has grown steadily in China since the mid-2000s and today's sales figures are more than 175% higher than those for 2005. During the same period red wine sales dropped by 18% in France and by 5.8% in Italy. (2)
Overall, Americans remain the world's most prolific consumers of still and sparkling wine, drinking nearly 323 million nine-liter cases in 2012, followed by France with just over 303 million cases, and Italy with about 297 million. Germany is in fourth place with 278 million cases, then China with 172 million and the UK with 135 million. (2)
In terms of high-priced wines, China's drinkers are now the second-biggest consumers of high-priced wine in the world. They trail only the US in their willingness to spend US$10 or more on a bottle of wine. (3)
Jack Dini
Livermore, CA
References
David Shambaugh, China Goes Global, (Oxford University Press, 2013), 256
Kim Willsher, “China becomes biggest market for red wine, with 1.86 billion bottles sold in 2013,” theguardian.com, January 29, 2014
Mischa Moselle, “China becomes world's second biggest consumer of high-priced wine,” scmp.com/news/china, April 9, 2014
Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.
