The National Day Holiday at the beginning of October has been a watershed retail experience for shops and consumers alike. Never before have I seen truckloads of appliances hauled in through the gates of this and other apartment blocks in such numbers. Chinese people buy appliances in bulk, based on brands they’ve seen in their relatives’ homes, or heard they’re good because they’re German (or Japanese or Korean or American et al). They buy “packages” of white goods to place in their showrooms: refrigerators from Siemens and Haier; air conditioners from Panasonic and Midea and Gree; 42- and 50-inch flat-screen TVs from LG and Samsung – all still embedded in sturdy cardboard boxes fit snugly in the back of great open-air blue trucks that roll into the apartment complexes daily. Smelly workmen unpack and install the trappings of affluence with Chinese characteristics, and the family – usually newlyweds – move into their newly adorned nest. Instantly modern.