The Bling Dynasty: Why the Reign of Chinese Luxury Shoppers Has Only Just Begun

Chapter 6 Why Chinese Travel and Where To

Travelling ten thousand miles is better than reading ten thousand scrolls of a book.

—Chinese proverb

In this chapter, we explain why the vast majority of purchases in luxury from the Chinese are made outside of China and look at where Chinese travel. (See Figure 6.1.)

Figure 6.1 Travel Disruption

From France's Popular Front to China's Popular Pastime: Governments Supporting Travel

Between the two world wars, at the time of the rise of Hitler in Germany, France elected a government led by Leon Blum, the first Socialist to become prime minister. Blum's administration was formed under the Popular Front banner, a confederation of all parties of left and center that had been created in 1935. It saw a sweeping victory the following year.

Many of the social advances that France still benefits from today—and that have been criticized as well for weighing down the country's finances—come from that period. The Popular Front was in office from June 1936 until April 1938 only but managed in that short period to pass key elements of legislation that influence France to this day. One of the key advances was the very protective French social security system including the 40-hour workweek and remunerated holidays for workers (les ‘congés payés').

More than 60 years later, in February 2000, another Socialist government, this time led by Lionel Jospin, ...