The Chinese are starting to travel abroad.

Most first-time travellers from the mainland [Is this writer from Taiwan?--ed.] are deeply frugal. Typically, a Chinese tour group will choose the cheapest hotel—even if it is 50km (30 miles) outside a city—travel by bus and eat only Chinese food.... They visit only the most famous attractions and even these often get only a cursory glance...

At a recent conference organised by the European Tour Operators' Association, hotel owners complained that the Chinese were pushing down room prices.

Chinese tourists are willing to put up with hard beds and cold noodles for a reason: they are champion shoppers who prefer to concentrate their spending on luxury branded goods, which are cheaper than back home and guaranteed not to be fakes. In 2005 they spent more on shopping, per day and per trip, than travellers from Europe, Japan or America.

The biggest winners of the Chinese tourist boom are therefore likely to be international retailers and luxury-goods manufacturers. In Germany the second most visited place by Chinese tourists after Berlin is Metzingen, a small town in the Black Forest unknown to most Germans, but home to a giant Hugo Boss discount store—since joined by another 20-odd factory outlets for designer labels. Big, diversified luxury-goods groups—including LVMH, Richemont and Swatch—which are present in duty-free outlets and big cities worldwide and have established brands in China itself, should also do well....

Those that do best, though, understand that Chinese shoppers can be tough customers, says Mr Arlt. "Compared with the Japanese

[What to the Japanese have to do with it? Don't tell me you thought all East Asians were the same!--ed.]

, Chinese mainland tourists coming to Europe for the first time are ruder, louder and more demanding," he says, citing a tendency to smoke under "no smoking" signs, haggle over prices and rip off packaging at the checkout to be sure that everything is in the box. "All that makes sense in China, but European salespeople think it is very rude," says Mr Arlt.