A fashionable young woman in socks, platform sandals and a mini-skirt tosses a waterfall of straight dark hair over her shoulder and eyes up an £850 golden handbag in the shape of an apple, sitting alone in a perspex cabinet.
Nearby, a middle-aged woman with a bored, silent husband, stares at a £2,000 Celine handbag, intermittently snapping pictures of the object of her desire on her iPhone.
The distinctive strains of Mandarin chatter fill the air as an immaculate woman clad all in black wafts past in a cloud of scent, trying to convince a young couple of the merits of the latest designer perfume.
Bling rush: Hordes of Chinese shoppers are to flock to the West End's designer stores during a national holiday
Meanwhile, a man hands over his credit card to a female shop assistant, who clutches it carefully between both hands as if holding a gift, lowers her head reverentially and makes an elaborate show of averting her eyes out of respect.
His parcel neatly beribboned in a yellow carrier bag, he leaves the shop and follows the droves of customers heading into a nearby shop, enticed by large Chinese language signs proclaiming 75 per cent off sales.
It could be an ordinary day on any luxury shopping street in Shanghai — but this is the heart of London’s West End.
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