Photos

Perhaps this posting is a little un-seasonal but the fact remains that due to China’s booming economy, the Christmas phenomena has arrived here too.

From the high street to the local barbershop, a traveler to China in December will find every color and stature of Christmas decoration and tree. Giant trees are erected in shopping plazas and hotel and restaurant staff donning Santa hats are easy to spot. Walk anywhere in a large city in China and you hear Christmas carols blaring from loudspeakers.

It is a little bizarre to be surrounded by so much of the accoutrements of Christmas without any of the religious beliefs associated, but that’s the way things going in China these days. The ever-increasing middle class Chinese are heading down the Western road of consumerism.

I captured these two young beauties out and about, Christmas shopping last December; the red lanterns are just a Chinese touch to all the Western Christmas paraphernalia and placed there by a big department store.