Hong Kong's retail sector has benefited greatly from the strong inflow of the "consumption engine," Chinese mainland tourists, since October 1, the start of the seven-day National Day holiday or the Golden Week.

According to the latest figures released by the Immigration Department on Saturday, a total of 293,486 people arrived in Hong Kong via the special administrative region's land, sea and air check points on Friday, and 147,009 of them came to Hong Kong via Lo Wu Check Point. Among them were a number of tourists traveling under the Individual Travel Scheme for shopping.

Digital cameras, MP3 players and new varieties of mobile phones continue to be the favorite shopping targets of quite a number of Chinese mainland tourists. Their per capita expenditure in electrical appliance shops in downtown areas such as Mong Kok and Causeway Bay average between reached HK$3,500 (US$450) to 5,000(US$640).

Brand-name watches and jewellery feature prominently on other tourists' shopping lists.

Lei, a district manager of Chow Tai Fook in Kowloon, told Xinhua that the average number of Chinese mainland consumers and sales volume at each shop increased by 20 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

He said 50 to 60 per cent of consumers in some shops in Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui on Friday were Chinese mainland tourists. The tourists also bought jewellery pieces after watching fireworks displays on Friday night. Each consumer spent UK$1,000 (US$128) to HK$5,000 (US$640) on average.

Fashionable, brand-name handbags are always" necessities" for modern women. Big shopping malls such as Times Square and Sogo opened bazaars to attract customers.

Zhang from Beijing saw a Lancel bag being sold at a discounted price. She knew that in Beijing the same sort of product was sold at triple price, so she bought the milk white handbag without hesitation.

(China Daily October 4, 2004)