When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Economy

Tourist Shoppers Abroad Demonstrate China's Economic Might

CHINA TIMES (Taiwan), APPLE DAILY (Hong Kong), DAILY MAIL (UK)

Worldcrunch

BEIJING - One week after the end of the Golden Week holiday, when more and more of upwardly mobile China travels abroad, the bills are rolling in. And once again, Chinese purchasing power is stunning the world.

During the nine-day-long holiday, which this year encompassed both China’s National Day and the Moon Festival, Chinese tourists and shoppers spent 48 billion RMB ($7.7 billion) abroad, according to estimates of the World Luxury Association, the China Times reported.

The report noted that Chinese holiday-makers using credit cards for overseas consumption has soared 33% in comparison with the same period last year.

Chinese tourists spend most of their spending in Europe, the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Affected by the on-going Diaoyu Islands dispute, travel to the traditionally popular destination, Japan, virtually dried up over the holiday earlier this month.

A source at the Paris Tourist Bureau said that about 150,000 Chinese tourists had visited the city and more than 2.6 billion RMB ($399 million) in total during this period, which represents an average consumption of 17,000 RMB ($2,712) per person.

As for the United States, the China Times report quoted data from Ctrip.com, an online travel agency, that 210,000 Chinese visited the country, two and a half times more than during an ordinary period. It’s estimated that they had contributed 9.3 billion RMB ($1.4 billion) to the American economy.

Two weeks ago, the founder of Zadig & Voltaire, a French fashion retailer, sparked controversy by announcing its new boutique hotel will not be open to Chinese tourists, who apparently are not chic enough to check out his wares, the Daily Mail reported.

Meanwhile, back in China, photos have been circulating on the Internet in China that were taken by passersby in the Galeries Lafayette, one of Paris’ top addresses for branded goods. In the images, we see various Chinese tourists squatting while wolfing down their take-away lunch out of styrofoam boxes just outside the DeBeers’ diamond show room.

While some Chinese were embarrassed by the images, another wrote “Don’t laugh! They’ll empty out the Louis Vuitton counter when they've finished eating!” the Apple Daily reported. Unlike the folk at Zadig & Voltaire, no one bothered the Chinese visitors. In the face of the global recession, even snooty French shopkeepers are not going to push paying customers away.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

eyes on the U.S.

Indicted! World Reacts To Trump's Entry Into Dark Chapter Of U.S. History Books

Media outlets from Mexico to Montreal, Germany, France, Spain and beyond zeroed in on the long-anticipated news that Donald Trump will become the first current or former U.S. president ever to be charged with a crime.

Photo of a person holding a sign that reads "TRUMP IS GUILTY" in New York on March 30

Scene in Manhattan after Donald Trump's Indictment was announce

Ginevra Falciani and Renate Mattar

The news began to spread Thursday afternoon from New York, to all points east and west, north and south: after years of investigations on multiple fronts, former U.S. President Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury following a probe into alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

To receive Eyes on U.S. each week in your inbox, sign up here.

The specific charges, not yet known, will be revealed with Trump's arraignment expected early next week. But the very fact that Trump will be arrested (replete with finger-printing and a mug shot — and perhaps handcuffs too) filled front pages around the world on Friday, including Colombian daily El Espectador, which featured a blown-up image of a worried-looking Trump, alongside the single word “Tormented."

Mexican daily La Prensa and Canada's Le Journal de Québec to Le Monde in France and El País in Spain, and dozens of others featured Trump's impending arrest on their respective front pages.

“Donald Trump, an indictment for history,” titled French newspaper Libération.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest