By the end of this year, Mango plans to be operating a total of 65 stores in China with 22 new establishments opening this year to coincide with the Beijing Olympics, ten of which are on schedule to commence trading before the summer.

The Spanish fashion chain opened its first Chinese store back in 2002, and has not focused solely on major cities with outlets in far-flung towns and cities in the north and south such as Wuhan, Dalian and Chongqing.

In total last year, the company opened 152 new stores - 10 in Spain and 142 overseas.

Other European fashion chains have since followed their example in the world's biggest market (an estimated 1,300 million potential new customers) with Zara and H&M dipping their toes in the water for the first time last year.