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The Hurun Research Institute released the Top Ten Gifts for the Chinese Luxury Consumer 2012, a ranking based on the choices of 503 Chinese millionaires interviewed face to face, and the Most Valuable Luxury Brands in the World, ranked by the dollar value of the brands. This is the eighth consecutive year that Hurun Report has published a report revealing the brand awareness and preferences, consumption habits and lifestyle trends of China's millionaires.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report said "Gift-giving is an essential part of Chinese culture. The money spent on gifting, especially at Chinese New Year, is staggering compared with the West."

LV, Cartier and Hermes are the most popular brands that Chinese millionaires like to give their friends and business contacts. The only 'Made in China' brand to make the Top Ten is Moutai, a baijiu brand. French brands dominate with five of the Top Ten, followed by Italy with two: Gucci and Prada. Apple came in at sixth.

The Top 10 Gifts for the Chinese Luxury Consumer 2012 is based upon the survey results of 503 face to face interviews with Mainland Chinese 'millionaires', defined as individuals with a personal wealth of Renminbi 10 million or more (equivalent to USD 1.6 million / Euro 1.2 million / GBP 1 million). Amongst them were 54 individuals with wealth of Renminbi 100 million or more (USD 16 million / Euro 12 million / GBP 10 million). Their average age was 41 years; the ratio of men to women surveyed was 3:2. The survey was carried out between April and November 2011. Hurun Research has carried out this survey now for eight years running, making this the largest and most authoritative survey of its kind in China.

The typical millionaire surveyed owns 4.2 watches and three cars. He is getting busier, being on the road 8 days a month.

China is home to over a million super luxury consumers based on research by Hurun Report in April 2011 which identified 960,000 'millionaires' with personal wealth of 10 million renminbi or more (equivalent to USD 1.6 million / Euro 1.2 million / GBP 1 million).

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2012

Moutai and Wuliangye, the two most famous Chinese baijiu brands, make the Top Ten of the World's Most Valuable Luxury Brands for the first time with brand values of US$12 billion and US$7 billion respectively. The Moutai brand is now worth more than household names in the West such as Mercedes-Benz and Chanel. A bottle of its best-selling liquor '53 Degrees Feitian Moutai' now retails at over RMB 2000 (equivalent to USD 320 / Euro 240 / GBP 200).

French brands dominate with four of the Top Ten, followed by two each for China and Germany. Burberry and Tiffany, the most valuable British and American brands respectively, did not make the Top Ten.

China would have had a third brand in the Top Ten with Chungwha Cigarrettes, an expensive and popular cigarette brand but Hurun Research did not classify Chungwha as a luxury brand. Were Hurun Research to have classified Apple as a luxury brand, Apple would have jumped to the top of the list.

Hurun Research calculated the brand value based on the present net value of the brand equity.