New figures show that China has overtaken Japan as the world's second largest economy in the second quarter. The economic growth has resulted in an increase in the luxury goods market.
Xie Xiaoya is preparing herself for a cocktail party tonight.
After putting on her favorite Valentino evening dress, she carefully chooses matching shoes and handbag.
A Partner of an advertising agency in Beijing, 33-year-old Xie is single, she earns about 500 thousand yuan( 73 thousand US dollars) a year.
She says that at least one third of her annual income is spent on buying luxury goods .
"Brands bring to people a kind of self-confidence and social recognition. With this common sense people are all chasing luxury brands and if you don't have any, you will be questioned by others about your financial capability and others will wonder if you are living in a difficult situation." she says.
Xie is just one of the fast-growing wealthy middle class in China's high-speed economic development and they are now the core consuming force of the global luxury brands in the country.
In 2009, despite the global financial crisis, the enthusiasm of the Chinese for the luxury goods remained high, with a 30% increase in sales.
Last year the Chinese spent 9.4 billion US dollars on luxury goods and China surpassed the US to become the second biggest luxury market after Japan, according to luxury brand promoter Ruder Finn.
Jean-Michel Dumont, Ruder Fin's head of Asia operations, says that shoppers want to project their wealth and personality through their purchases.
"So this is really a reflection of society change, the economic trends of China as a whole. And in fact there is definitely a willingness of the Chinese consumers today to really go to the luxury segment of consumption and really buy products that reflect their new wealth and their own personality."
Lenux, a luxury dealer of European luxury brands such as Prada, Gucci, Fendi and Christian Dior, has opened two stores in China since the end of 2008.
Shop manager Ge Zing says that the growing demand for luxury goods means that expansion in China is good business sense.
"The economic setbacks actually did not have big impact on the high-end consumption in China. Looking around the world you can see that almost all the luxury brands are suffering from a shrinking market in all parts of the world except China where the market is still growing. Therefore we are very confident and that's why we decided to open the store in China. "
So far 80% of the world's renowned luxury brands have entered China and a survey from China's Social Science Academy revealed that in the next five years the Chinese will spent 14.6 billion US dollars on buying luxury goods.
"Now there is a new trend of consumers that are really looking at 'I'm different, I'm not like everybody else, so I need something that reflects my personality'. So some brands will really have to look at segmenting their collections to really tap into the segments. But it also opens the door for a lot of new enterers to this market that didn't make it in the last decade or so and who will come and be able to actually get into a niche and really be able to fill a need, that is adjust a new need." Dumont says.
China's consumers are now courted by global companies.
But the wealth gap between an elite and the country's poor is very big while China has dozens of billionaires, the average income for the rest of its 1.3 billion people is still low.
