Shanghai, like many Chinese cities, has been invaded with Christmas trees and large shiny decorations. There seems to be more signs of Santa each Christmas I’ve been here, as the Chinese grow increasingly affectionate towards western culture and use any opportunity to hang more bright lights and tinsel. Many of the decorations are thinly guised advertising, as foreign and local companies work to increase their brand association with western culture. Curiously, it’s not just happening in China; even the Brits are doing what they can to lure a few Chinese tourists to do their Christmas shopping there. Last year, 150,000 Chinese tourists went to the UK on Christmas shopping sprees and spent $390 million. Chinese tourists doing Christmas shopping in the US and Europe have grown 20% this year.

Shanghai, Beijing and China’s other first tier cities probably spring to mind when you’re thinking about opportunities in China. Their consumers have more western tastes, buy more western goods and are generally easier to reach than consumers in China’s ‘smaller’ cities. The megapolies also have better networks, infrastructure and facilities for western businesses. However, China’s smaller cities, most you’ve probably never heard of yet, often hold much more opportunity for western businesses with Chinese aspirations, here’s why:

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. China has long been as a cash society; large wads of red bills changed hands, counted with spectacularly fast fingers. But those Chinese who stash their savings under their mattresses are becoming less and less common.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. The Chinese have enjoyed a tipple for more than 5,000 years. Baijiu, the white spirit distilled from sorghum or rice, has been the mainstay of many festive evenings in China. Following the arrival of the Germans in the late 1800s, beer consumption has increased at such a rate, China is now the world's largest beer market. There was once a time, when China's borders were pretty well closed, when Tsingdao beers accounted for more than 90% of China's total exports; predominantly supplying Chinese restaurants housing thirsty Chinese expats around the world.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. There are many stats bandied about for China’s middle class, said to number in the hundreds of millions; more than the US population. Unfortunately the definition of middle class is both inconsistent and misleading. Some measures would classify someone earning $7,250 annually as middle class in China, but with the cost of living in cities like Shanghai, there wouldn’t be a lot of extra cash to go around.

Welcome to this week’s skinny on China. It’s been the Four-Hundred-Million week. That’s how many registered users are now on Weibo, according to Sina’s quarterly results reported on Friday. It’s not to be sneezed at given Weibo’s influence on China’s affluent consumers – the one’s who buy western products. 95% of China’s online population trust a brand more if they’ve heard about it on Weibo and 27% actually search for brand info Weibo. If you’re selling in China and you’re not on Weibo, you’re likely to be missing plenty of opportunities. But there’s a lot more to marketing in China than just Weibo, and you’ll find out about some of it below. I hope you find it helpful!

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. Just three days ago, Chinese consumers broke more world records, this time online. Single's Day on Nov 11, or 11,11, saw China's online retailers promising discounts as large as 70% to woo shoppers. And woo they did. China's leading eCommerce sites, Alibaba Group's TMall and Taobao, turned over $3 billion on the single day, eclipsing the much-celebrated $1.25 billion US retailers did on Cyber Monday. Chinese consumer's appetite for online shopping, coupled with increasing consumer confidence last quarter points to good times ahead for those getting their Internet mix right in China. In the Internet section below, you'll find some good news about Alibaba Group working on global procurement to make it easier for western companies to sell to Chinese consumers within two years. There's also news about eBay's reentry into China, partnering with Xiu.com to open doors for more western companies. I hope you find it helpful!

Online shopping is huge in China. It is the forth most popular online activity and the fastest growing. Every 60-minutes, Chinese consumers make three million purchases just on Taobao, China’s Amazon-cum-eBay-giant. While nearly 200 million Chinese consumers regularly shop online, that accounts for only 38% of China’s 513 million online population. By comparison, North America and Western Europe's online shopping portion is close to 80%, so there’s plenty of room for growth. By 2015, 350 million consumers, half of China’s forecasted 700 million Internet users, are predicted to shop online – more than the US, India, Japan, Indonesia and Russia's online shoppers combined.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. And what a week it is. With the process to determine the leaders of the world's two largest economies both beginning this week, the outcomes could have a bearing on all of us. There's been no shortage of talk about China in the lead up on both sides of the Pacific. With 46% of Americans believing that China's growth will have a negative impact on the US economy, there was a lot of anti-China hot air to win cheap votes. Fortunately, there were also some intelligent articles written about how Americans can benefit from the rise of China, which I have little doubt both Obama and Mitt are well aware of. See our first link below.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. Legend has it, about 1200 years ago, a goat herder in the Ethiopian Highlands noticed his animals getting frisky after eating berries from a coffee plant. Intrigued, the herder picked some fruit and took them to a nearby holy man, who wanted nothing of it, tossing the berries into a fire. But the sweet scent of the roasting coffee soon became irresistible, and the men raked up the embers, grounded and dissolved them in hot water, creating the first cup of coffee. By the 17th century, the good drink had spread up the Nile to north Africa and across to the Arabian Peninsula, before making it’s way to Europe and then much of the world. But not to China.

Sina Weibo's 368 million registered users represent the most educated and highest earning portion of China's population, and the consumers who are most likely to buy western exports. Given 95% of Chinese consumers trust a brand more if they've seen it on Weibo, it's a good idea to understand Weibo user demographics when marketing to them.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. Below you'll find a couple of articles about less mainstream and customizable products making headway in China. It's another signal that Chinese consumers are maturing and becoming increasingly adventurous, with a bigger appetite to deviate from the conformists. That's great news for niche products, especially online. It's still not easy, but it's getting easier for smaller businesses with unique products hoping to make inroads in China. Following are the usual insights into China's consumers and the Chinese market. Enjoy!

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. With most Chinese having returned from holiday and back to the normal routine, we're starting to see the data for one of China's most important periods. Golden September and Silver October are traditionally China’s strongest months for residential real estate, yet sales have been subdued so far this year. While the property folk may be grieving, the travel agents are thrilled – China’s consumers spent 44% more than last year on tourism during October’s Golden Week holiday, with a 41% increase in visitors to the nation’s top attractions. For those travelling overseas, transactions increased by 33% on Union Pay, China’s bank card payment system. Although the numbers were boosted by combining Mid-Autumn Festival and October National Day, it's not bad growth, even by China’s standards.

Weibo has influenced the way Chinese consumers find out about brands and share their own experiences and is currently the most influential social channel. Here’s an infographic about how China’s top social networks currently stack up.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. The holiday that started on Monday is one of the biggest of the year in China – the Mid-Autumn Festival and October National Day rolled into one long week. Unlike Chinese New Year when billions of trips are made as Chinese return home to their families, this week is often for pleasure travel. 660 million Chinese are picked to travel, up 8.8% from last year. So wherever you are, whether it's Shanghai or Sydney, it's likely you'll see more Chinese tourists than usual – including an increasing number of independent Chinese travellers. Hopefully those tourists are buying what you're selling. Enjoy this week's skinny…

There's been a lot of talk this week, and for many weeks now, about China's slowing economy and how it translates to doom and gloom for businesses exporting to China. While a number of brands have lowered sales forecasts in China, there are still many businesses seeing runaway growth in China.

There are 368 million registered Weibo users, more people as the population of the United States. Yet with more than 1.34 billion people in China, that still leaves almost 1 billion on the other side of the Weibo-divide. So just who are the 368 million Weibo-haves?

Anti-Japanese sentiment has been all over China this week. The 81st anniversary of Japan’s invasion into China, coupled with the poorly-timed Japanese Government purchase of the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, has seen tempers flare on the mainland. Street protests in more than 80 Chinese cities, burning Japanese flags and the odd trashed car has seen many Japanese companies halt business in China and kept expats barricading themselves indoors.