China's per-capita ownership of gold coins and bars are still much less than that of Western countries, meaning there is ample room for growth, said Wang.

Textile Gloom

With cotton prices skyrocketing, China's textile industry seems to be caught in a tight spot.

The China Cotton Index, a gauge of nationwide spot market prices, has gained at least 35 percent so far this year, as gold output shrank while demands strengthened.

"The surge in cotton price is putting enormous pressure on textile manufacturers," said Wang Wei, Deputy Director of the Department of the Consumer Goods Industry under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"A cotton shortage will become a serious concern if supplies continue to plunge," he said.

China's cotton output totaled 6.4 million tons in 2009, diving 15 percent year on year as farmers reduced their harvest after suffering rock-bottom cotton prices in 2008.

Textile manufacturers are expected to pass the cost burdens on to consumers, but this would not be an option for exporters. Most exporters are small manufacturers with low-technology and labor-intensive production lines, and therefore have less pricing power in international markets, said Dai Ling, a senior analyst at the Webtex.cn, a Shanghai-based textile industry information website.

Complicating matters is the appreciating yuan, a reduction in export rebates and the threat of trade protectionism, said Dai.

China's textile exports came in at $35.7 billion in the first half of this year, growing 32.3 percent from one year ago. But the euphoria may fade as impact of the cost inflation starts to be felt, she said.

It is necessary now for the industry to improve technology innovation and brand recognition for greater creations of value-added, said Xu Wenying, Deputy Director of China Textile and Apparel Council.

Industrial Profits

China's industrial boom has lost some steam compared with the first half, as government efforts to cut emissions gain traction.

From January to August, industrial enterprises with annual sales exceeding 5 million yuan ($746,194) generated profits of 2.6 trillion yuan ($388.1 billion), surging 55 percent year on year, compared with 81.6 percent in the first five months, said the National Bureau of Statistics. Their revenues totaled 43.1 trillion yuan ($6.4 trillion), up 33.4 percent, 4.8 percentage points lower than the January-May period.

Among the 39 industrial sectors, 36 saw their profits increase from last year. The best performer was the non-ferrous metals smelting and processing industry, which experienced a 130-percent surge in January-August profits. But this still represented a sharp decline from the 330-percent growth in the first five months.

The measures to cut emissions affected the profitability of some industrial enterprises, especially the energy-intensive firms, said Zhuang Jian, a senior economist at the Asian Development Bank.

Zhu Jianfang, chief economist at the CITIC Securities Co. Ltd., said the industrial profits are expected to decline further, mounting financial pressures on the firms.

Hanvon's Taiwan Debut

Hanvon Technology Co. Ltd., the largest e-reader maker on the Chinese mainland, opened its first subsidiary in Taiwan as part of its effort to expand overseas on September 27.

The subsidiary would carry out product development, research and sales, and seek opportunities to work with the island's content providers, said Zhang Ray, chief strategist of Hanvon Technology.

"The establishment of the new platform in Taiwan is an important step to tap into the overseas market," he said.

The mainland company teamed up with a local distributor, Xander, to build its sales network on the island. It also opened the Taiwan site of its online bookstore, which would allow users to download books.

Hanvon is now the world's second largest e-reader maker, and controls more than 60 percent of domestic market shares. It raked in a profit of 86.88 million yuan ($12.8 million) in the first half of this year, soaring 321 percent from one year ago.

Wine and Commerce

The fourth Yantai International Wine Festival was held September 22-35 in Yantai, a coastal city of Shandong Province, attracting more than 100,000 businessmen from home and abroad. The festival is widely considered an important international platform for exhibition, investment and trade cooperation in the wine industry.

This year, a total of 47 foreign investment and trade deals worth $2.24 billion yuan were made.