Breast masseuses like Xaiohong are indeed neck deep in money and the rich, creamy breast milk they massage out of new mothers. While it’s not uncommon for new mothers to experience pain from clogged milk ducts or resulting infections such as mastitis, mothers-in-law and maternity maids usually carried out the boob-rubbing duties. China’s coy flirtation with capitalism, however, has led to the relentless search for new and expanding markets, and specialized breast masseuses boasting accreditation across the spectrum of legitimacy have become very popular with young Chinese mothers who are rushing to have children during the auspicious Chinese Lunar Year of the Dragon (“yuesao,” a traditional name for these masseuses, literally means “moon sisters-in-law”).

Older methods for relieving new mothers from the pain of block ducts included running a wooden comb over or placing fermented dough on the breasts to increase energy and blood flow. An increasingly popular modern technique calle cui rui shi (“push milk teacher”) utilizes acupressure points to increase milk flow. Specialists can make as much as $1,270 a month in this brave new market, double their average monthly earnings in 2007 when the practice was really starting to catch on.

With the sudden increase in demand for these massages, though, comes the ever-present danger that some charlatans are going to photocopy themselves a “lactogoue” certificate and try to make money with little more knowledge of proper breast massage than that possessed by a teenage boy frustrated with what might as well be a Rubik’s cube bra hook. Doctors caution new mothers to exercise discernment in finding the best possible specialist to professionally rub their breasts, explaining that while a massage performed correctly can indeed relieve pain associated with stymied milk flow, incorrect massage can worsen the condition and even precipitate a mastitis infection. In other words, when it comes to breast massage, it really takes a professional set of magic fingers.

Until now, such campaigns have always been unveiled in Australia.

The first screening in China is a response to big shifts in the inbound tourism market. Tens of thousands of people from China’s burgeoning middle class are coming to Australia each month.

Tourism Australia’s managing director, Andrew McEvoy, said the ads would include a focus on scenery, emphasising the ”reds, blues and greens” of the natural environment.

”Europe for the Chinese represents luxury and tradition, the US is sort of wealth and popular culture, and Australia is our incredible environment. That is the differentiator for us, and these ads will certainly demonstrate that.”

Chinese visitors tend to spend more time in capital cities than other visitors, so he said the ads would also depict Australia’s cosmopolitan centres.

Mr McEvoy said Asia, and China especially, presented a growth opportunity for the tourism industry, which is battling the high Australian dollar.

”The whole industry is one in transition. If you look at the numbers, Asia generally, China included, was probably a few years ago worth less than 40 per cent of the total business to Australia,” he said. ”But by 2020 it will be probably more than 53 per cent or 54 per cent of the business.”

The current campaign is ”There’s nothing like Australia.” Past campaigns to market Australia have stoked controversy at home for their use of stereotypes.

Latest figures show heavy yearly falls in visitor numbers from Britain, the US and Europe, a trend blamed on the high dollar and economic woes overseas. The number of visitors from China increased 14 per cent in the year to February.

The tourism industry has been playing an increasingly important role in stimulating domestic demand and generating jobs. Rising domestic living standards and the country’s unremitting efforts to open wider to the outside world will provide fresh opportunities for the development of the tourism sector, Shao said in the statement.

Meanwhile, over 400,000 mainland travellers visited Taiwan during the first quarter, up 53 percent year-on-year. Currently, 41 mainland cities offer direct flights to Taiwan, according to the statement.

Air France was the first European carrier to start services between Europe and China when it inaugurated its Paris-Shanghai service in 1966. The Air France-KLM Group, together with its SkyTeam alliance partners, China Southern and China Eastern, now offer 135 weekly flights to nine destinations in Greater China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Wuhan and Taipei) including onward services to Chinese provinces. The Air France-KLM Group is the leading airline group to China, meeting burgeoning demand for travel to the region. Last year the group carried almost two million passengers on the routes.

Only three destinations within Greater China are served directly from London-Heathrow: Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The new Air France service to Wuhan will depart Paris on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, returning from Wuhan the following day. Flights will operate with a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, configured with 35 Affaires (business class) seats, 24 in Premium Voyageur (premium economy) and 250 in the Voyageur/Economy cabin.

All aircraft serving Wuhan are equipped with the full sleep Business class seat, which is longer, wider and more spacious. This new seat has drawn positive reviews from over 90% of Air France customers who appreciate the quality of sleep provided during the trip, its horizontal position and additional legroom.

What I saw took me back in time when wooden stoves, charpoys (stringed beds) and darris (floor spreads) were still in vogue. It was hard to believe that it was all a re-enactment of the real thing, so authentic was the depiction. Stalls depicting the different provinces offered an indigenous cultural look and the food sold would put any restaurant to shame. With prices so reasonable and helpings so generous, I stocked up a few containers for family and friends. Saag, Makai roti and Chappal Kebabs with live barbeque were the highlights.

Having satisfied my patriotic spirit, I walked towards the Chinese enclosure. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that it felt like being in “China Town” in Sydney or “Little China” in New York. Everybody was too busy to answer any questions or I would have asked how they managed to bring such a true-to-life atmosphere. Chinese music in the background, Chinese wall hangings, chopsticks, cookies and a sprinkling of Chinese guests transported me to a make-believe city of China. The Chinese commercial counsellor and commercial attaché from the embassy were comfortably roaming around enjoying the Chinese and Pakistani food.

Live performances by young Schola Novians on national and Chinese songs were a delight to watch. Looking for answers, I finally managed to talk to the principal who informed me that they had decided to blend the celebrations of spring and March 23 with our everlasting friendship with China. And what a celebration it was: colours of spring, love for Pakistan merging with the evergreen Pak-China brotherhood.

The short trips are being marketed by Guangzhou-based GZL International Travel Service.

GZL project manager Liu Xiaocong told the Herald that “boutique” excursions were popular with younger “style-conscious” Chinese who wanted to spread their time between learning how to ski, “free-time skiing” and team-building activities..

The company designs the trips around its customers’ needs. But its major consumer group is middle-class families aged between 35-45 and retired couples who have more flexible time.

The Chinese have fewer holiday entitlements than New Zealanders, hence they are more disposed to take shorter trips.

Says Liu: “There are not too many young tourists who have been to New Zealand, because they can’t afford the cost and don’t have such a long annual leave.”

A typical New Zealand itinerary of 8-12 days costs $3000 to $5000.

The latest Chinese Luxury Consumer White Paper points to tourism as a major consumer field with 19 per cent of those surveyed listing it as a “must have”.

Unlike the US market, luxury lodges are not a popular destination for Chinese.

They prefer to stay in hotels among plenty of people.

Auckland International Airport strategist Glen Wedlock, who is credited as one of the key members of the brains trust which is developing the airport as a major international hub, says it is essential that New Zealand leverages the big geographical shift in tourism trends.

Forecasts show a definite switch away from the European tourists, who used to sustain New Zealand’s tourism. The big growth trend is in Asia – particularly China, where Wedlock predicts tourism numbers will swell by an additional 164,000 between 2010 and 2016.

Other growth destinations include South Korea and Malaysia.

Wedlock – who is formally titled General Manager (Aeronautical and Commercial) – says the airport aims to help major clients like China Southern market New Zealand as a key destination.

Premium China travellers are a key segment.

The affluent travellers are predicted to soak up 41 per cent of the share of total travel spending by 2020 – almost double the current rate.

By contrast the mass market is more stable and inexperienced travellers will decrease.

Most Chinese travel to Auckland is short stay (typically four nights) and indirect (typically via Australia).

Wedlock believes New Zealand has a great opportunity to gain more value from an Auckland Airport “hub” as airlines like China Southern move to increase through routes to destinations like Latin America.

There is also an opportunity to increase freight capacity on the New Zealand-China routes.

Auckland Airport is working with customers – particularly China Southern – to assist to attract more high-value customers to its business class seats.

Air New Zealand is suspending its Auckland-Beijing twice-weekly service in favour of increasing its Shanghai service to five flights weekly. It is also helping Chinese travel agents with marketing collateral, and incentive holidays are also being offered.

Last week, China protested the planned construction of a beaching ramp by the Philippines on the coral-fringed island, the second largest in the Spratlys and the biggest occupied by the Philippines in the contested region.

The 37-hectare (91-acre) island, known internationally as Thitu and in the Philippines as Pag-Asa, is habitable, boasting fresh water and a small population of a few hundred people.

Beijing, which claims the South China Sea as its territory based on historical records, said last week that China had “indisputable sovereignty” over the area.

The development of Thitu comes as a territorial squabble over the South China Sea enters a new and more contentious chapter, with claimant nations searching deeper into disputed waters for energy supplies while building up their navies and military alliances, especially with the United States.

Proven and undiscovered oil reserve estimates in the South China Sea range as high as 213 billion barrels of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a 2008 report. That would surpass every country’s proven oil reserves except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review.

U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to reassure regional allies that Washington would serve as a counterbalance to a newly assertive China in the South China Sea, part of his campaign to “pivot” U.S. foreign policy more intensely on Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Spratlys, a group of 250 uninhabitable islets spread over 427,350 sq km (165,000 sq miles), are claimed entirely by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

A Philippine navy commander said local authorities planned to transform military-held areas of the Spratlys into tourist attractions, including potential diving spots.

In the 1990s, Japanese tourists frequented the area for its pristine beaches and coral reefs, ferried by yacht from Cebu Island in the Philippines.

But the military will first build a pier on Thitu, possibly by the second half of the year, Juan Sta. Ana, head of the Philippine Ports Authority, told Reuters. A panel of defence, tourism and transportation and communications officials will finalise a development plan for the island after April 8.

“We’ll know, by that time, when we will actually start and how long would it take for the pier to be constructed,” he added.

Three years ago the Chinese government barred airlines from buying crude future contracts – an essential form of protection against rising fuel costs.

This hardline stance was based on the view that the airlines had been duped by western bankers when they suffered big losses in 2008 after the value of their crude futures collapsed alongside the price of oil during the global financial crisis.

Airlines sought to claw back some of their losses from the banks, alleging that they had been “maliciously” sold hedging products which were overly complex.

Since then the airlines have let their existing hedging arrangement expire and have not entered any new ones, according to financial statements published this week by Air China and China Eastern Airlines.

“All the contracts signed in past years were settled by 31 December 2011,” China Eastern disclosed in its full-year results.

Air China said: “As at 31 December 2011, the fuel derivative contracts of the company all expired, and no new position has been established.”

That lack of protection against oil prices has made them extremely vulnerable.

Air China’s jet fuel costs were Rmb34.7bn last year, accounting for nearly 38 per cent of overall expenses. Its hedging positions – holdovers from before the ban – allowed it to recoup a mere 0.2 per cent of those costs. Typically, airlines try to hedge about a third of their fuel bills.

Air China’s 2011 profits fell 38.8 per cent to Rmb7.5bn ($1.2bn), worse than expected.

China Eastern’s profits last year were down 9.1 per cent to Rmb4.9bn and it posted a loss in the fourth quarter.

“As an airline, rising crude costs are what we most dislike seeing,” Liu Shaoyong, China Eastern chairman, told the Financial Times.

Regulators have not announced a change in their futures policy, but Mr Liu said that they were beginning to row back from a blanket prohibition on hedging.

“They have given us permission to buy hedging contracts for jet fuel. These will be about 20 per cent of our overall [fuel cost]. We are now looking for appropriate market opportunities,” Mr Liu said, adding that they had yet to enter any new contracts.

China’s state-owned companies used to be allowed to trade futures on global markets relatively freely, under the supervision of the country’s securities regulator. After the airlines’ losses in 2008, the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission took over the job of policing derivatives trading by state-owned firms.

A very conservative agency, it quickly clamped down, ordering companies to exit risky contracts and to report their futures positions every quarter.

That, in turn, has made the airlines more cautious.

Fan Cheng, executive director of Air China, said last August that his airline had received permission to resume hedging, but that oil prices were “too volatile”.

“We’ll wait for better timing,” he said. Brent crude prices have since risen about a fifth.

Among the reasons are ailing Kingfisher Airlines pulling out flights and the financial problems of carriers, leading to reliability issues.

International passenger carriage by Indian airlines — Air India (AI), Jet Airways, Kingfisher, SpiceJet and IndiGo ply abroad — rose during 2010 by 16.2 per cent. Directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) data shows they carried 13.2 million passengers on flights abroad in 2011, a rise from 12.9 mn in 2010. Or, a percentage rise of barely three per cent.