All hail the splurgers from the east

It's spend, spend, spend as the world drinks at the tap of Chinese good fortune XU LIN

They are the world's latter-day Julius Caesars, taking a leaf out of the history books in which the Roman emperor is recorded as declaring after a spectacular victory: "I came, I saw, I conquered."

Chinese travelers who have made their way to distant shores may have a little less to boast about, but their sense of conquest as they prepare to return home is no less palpable: "I came, I saw, I shopped."