PICTURE CHINA

Nanjing Road runs through the center of downtown Shanghai and is one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. At all hours of the day this alter to consumerism is packed shoulder to shoulder with Chinese shoppers at its hundreds of up-market shop and malls.

As Shanghai, and China as a whole, has become wealthier over the past decade, its citizen’s appetite for everything from electronics to clothing to cars has exploded. For the first time in China’s history an emerging upper and middle class has been faced with excess cash and their reaction as been to spend. This phenomenon has not been lost on the business world and more and more international companies are looking to China’s huge consumer market to drive their businesses forward.