Monday was China's "Singles' Day", and it was also the biggest one-day online shopping day in the world. In 24 hours, consumers clicked their way to a record 35 billion yuan-plus ($5.75 billion) on the shopping platform Tmall, which is owned by China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba Group. The figure is nearly double that of last year.

The provinces of Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu each accounted for nearly 10 percent of total sales. Shanghai and Beijing rank after the "big three."

Internet retailers saw smartphones and home appliances, among other goods, fly off their virtual shelves in record-breaking numbers. Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi's flash sale of 550 million yuan ($90.31 million), was top among all retailers.

Singles' Day shopping in China dwarfs U.S.'s Cyber Monday, which comes on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. Online sales from Singles' Day are more than twice the projections for this year's Cyber Monday, which falls on December 2.

(CNTV.cn November 12, 2013)