During the Spring Festival break, Chinese consumers spent billions of yuan in overseas products, particularly household goods such as rice cookers, toilet lids, and even toiletries such as toothpaste and shampoo, according to an article by China Daily.
Experts believe that this trend should encourage domestic companies to improve the quality of their products.
A handful of people, however, believe that this predilection for foreign commodities can be pinpointed to the trend of Chinese people buying everything made in foreign countries.
For Victor Chan, managing director of Daming United Rubber Products, Chinese products are as good as any commodities from foreign countries.
Some Chinese consumers don't agree, such as 28-year-old Cai Jun, a bank clerk in Beijing. She traveled to Tokyo during the Spring Festival break, where she bought a rice cooker.
"The rice cooker I bought enjoys a good reputation in China. Many of my friends told me Japanese rice cookers have a special technology," Cai said in an interview with China Caily.
Wang Qing, another Chinese who makes the annual pilgrimage to Japan to buy products, echoed the same sentiments.
"I'm not crazy about foreign brands," said Wang, who went to Kyoto for the Spring Festival, "but the quality of many Chinese products means they are just not worth the price. Also, toothpaste made in Japan is double or triple the price in a Chinese supermarket."
"I stock up on necessities on my annual trip to Japan," Wang added. "It means I don't have to worry about product quality, while the price difference saves me the cost of a round-trip ticket."
This demand for high-quality products have put small and medium-sized Chinese companies in a rut, while other manufacturers have risen to the occasion. A number of Chinese companies have started to place emphasis on customer experience in making one-of-a-kind, high-quality products.
Meanwhile, Chinese innovation-oriented firms are also taking advantage of the demand for better quality products by using cutting-edge technology to create popular, high-quality ones.
"We believe the growing appetite for better quality products will give Hongda a push," said Wang Xin, chairman of the Hongda Hi-tech Group, which makes fingerprint-activated locks.