Are Chinese firms capable of achieving excellence?

Last weekend, a friend and I were at a mall in Beijing's Dawanglu area that houses the world's finest superbrands of premium luxury goods. It didn't require much effort to discern that almost all of them were from continental Europe.

Enticed as much by their plush, bright and immaculate stores as their pretty, posh salesgirls with cut-glass accents, we found ourselves pulled toward the testers on the shelves.

Perfumes, oils, lotions, creams and other assorted products we didn't even know existed vied for our attention.