There is an obvious coals-to-Newcastle element to it: Accessorize, the British purveyor of cheap Chinese-made trinkets, has a grand plan to sell bits, bobs and bangles in the country that made them, opening branches in two of Shanghai’s most fashionable shopping centres.

Shanghai is by no means short of cheap trinkets at the moment: they are sold on every street corner, down every alley, even inside crowded subway stations. How can Accessorize possibly hope to compete? Certainly not on price: with a pocketful of change, the average Shanghai teenager could meet her accessory needs for a year.

China may have a long history in drinking tea but the country is becoming the latest battleground for the world’s coffee chains.

This week, China Resources Enterprises, a Beijing-backed conglomerate, pledged to turn Pacific Coffee, a Hong Kong-based chain, into China’s biggest, surpassing Starbucks and all the other coffee houses on the mainland.

In Hong Kong, Pacific Coffee, founded in 1992 by a US businessman in search of a cup of good coffee, is neck-and-neck with Starbucks. They have similar numbers of stores (Pacific Coffee’s 83 versus Starbucks’ 111), often in similar locations (it is not uncommon to find a Pacific Coffee and a Starbucks in the same mall). Prices are comparable, while decors are not very different. If the armchairs at Pacific Coffee were not red, one could easily be mistaken for a Starbucks.