If luxury means Bond Street or the Place Vendome for you, Hong Kong comes as a shock. Billboards touting Swiss watches and Italian shoes dominate the skyline. At shopping centres, high-wattage facades compete for space. Louis Vuitton's lights square up against Burberry's cinema screens. This Vegas-like glitter reflects the novelty of luxury in China, and the country's new importance to luxury. Today nearly one-third of all personal luxury goods sold worldwide are bought by Chinese consumers. Their spending is divided more or less equally among the mainland, the Chinese-speaking territories of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and the rest of the world. Mainlanders become familiar with the brands through marketing and shopping centres at home. When they visit Hong Kong they are "on a mission", says Pascal Perrier, chief of Burberry's Asian operations. The gaudy signage helps guide them to shopping destinations they have already picked out.
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