SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's taste for luxury goods, from Cuban cigars to decades-old brandy and posh cars, is spreading beyond its big cities to provinces as the economy booms, exhibitors at one of Shanghai's glitziest fairs said.

At Shanghai Extravaganza 2006 on Friday, financial advisers mingled with flamboyantly dressed models and purveyors of jewelry, spirits, luxury apartments in Monaco and Dubai, Mediterranean yacht charters, and golfing holidays.

Most were thinking much bigger than simply Shanghai.

"We began as a little club of cigar smokers five or six years ago," said Edward Jin, vice general manager of Cigar Ambassador, a Chinese company which imports cigars from Cuba and the Dominican Republic. It charges between 30 and 300 yuan ($3.80-$38) a smoke.


"In most places, people smoke cigars from their late 40s into their 60s, but here the average age is 35 to 50. Cigars stand for money here and they attract the nouveau riche," said Jin.

The company had 2005 sales of $30 million, and Jin expects a rise of 20 percent in the immediate future. What surprises him, however, is the parts of China which are fuelling growth.

"We recently had this guy in Shanxi province in north China who asked us to build him a humidor in his house.

"People over there are getting rich off the coal mines, so this guy spent 380,000 yuan ($47,380) on his 10-square-meter humidor. Then we had to fill it with cigars -- that part cost another three million yuan ($374,000)," said Jin.

Others agreed that consumers with big money to burn had recently begun appearing in unexpected places, beyond wealthy eastern cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

"These days we have clients in Hebei and Henan," in agriculture-dominated central China, said Dory Zhang, business development manager at Golay, a jewelry company with outlets in several Chinese cities.

For many luxury goods companies at the fair, staged at a glass-and-steel convention center in Shanghai's fast-growing Pudong financial district, China business is rising two or three times as fast as the country's Gross Domestic Product.

DRINK AND DRIVING

"Chinese started buying brandy in the early 1990s because it was seen as healthy and lucky, then the market took a dip in the late 90s after red wine made its first big impact here," said David Baker, director of Brandy Classics, a European company which specializes in old cognacs.


Sales have since turned upwards again, said Baker, with Brandy Classics now selling around 15 million bottles in China a year. Baker expects a 20 percent increase in 2006.

One item up for sale, and displayed through a photograph, was an 1801 imperial Massougnes cognac. Three quarters of a gallon, the bottle was priced at $68,000.

Around the corner, a racing green Range Rover was on display, priced at 1.39 million yuan ($173,000).

"We sold 300 cars last year in Shanghai alone. They're designed for offroad but most people just like the brand name, because it has a history and it's professional," said Wan Jinyun, sales consultant for Jaguar Shanghai.

Entry to the fair was by invitation only, and most of the roughly 100 guests were businesspeople and professionals. By midday, most had gathered near the stage, where models showcased new fashions as pop songs played over the loudspeakers.

"These days we have clients in Hebei and Henan," in agriculture-dominated central China, said Dory Zhang, business development manager at Golay, a jewelry company with outlets in several Chinese cities.

For many luxury goods companies at the fair, staged at a glass-and-steel convention center in Shanghai's fast-growing Pudong financial district, China business is rising two or three times as fast as the country's Gross Domestic Product.

DRINK AND DRIVING

"Chinese started buying brandy in the early 1990s because it was seen as healthy and lucky, then the market took a dip in the late 90s after red wine made its first big impact here," said David Baker, director of Brandy Classics, a European company which specializes in old cognacs.


Sales have since turned upwards again, said Baker, with Brandy Classics now selling around 15 million bottles in China a year. Baker expects a 20 percent increase in 2006.

One item up for sale, and displayed through a photograph, was an 1801 imperial Massougnes cognac. Three quarters of a gallon, the bottle was priced at $68,000.

Around the corner, a racing green Range Rover was on display, priced at 1.39 million yuan ($173,000).

"We sold 300 cars last year in Shanghai alone. They're designed for offroad but most people just like the brand name, because it has a history and it's professional," said Wan Jinyun, sales consultant for Jaguar Shanghai.

Entry to the fair was by invitation only, and most of the roughly 100 guests were businesspeople and professionals. By midday, most had gathered near the stage, where models showcased new fashions as pop songs played over the loudspeakers.