Self-confessed chocoholic Cai Xiao, 26, used to travel far afield from her Beijing home for her favourite fix.

The search took her to Nanjing, Jiangsu province, last year, where celebrated French chocolatier Debauve & Gallais had its only presence on the mainland, at a sales counter in a swanky hotel.

The prices were outrageous: 100 yuan to 180 yuan for a chocolate bar; 1,000 yuan for eight white chocolate golf balls; and 2,100 yuan for a box of truffles.

Ms Cai spent 360 yuan for an 80-gram box of pistoles - coin-shaped dark chocolates bearing the name of Parisian aristocrat Marie Antoinette, a fan of their wares. The cocoa content was up to 99 per cent, indicative of the highest grade.

"You can't possibly find the true dark chocolate in any other place in China," said Ms Cai.

Her second trip to acquire the chocolate of choice for French kings Louis XVIII and Charles X and literary giants like Marcel Proust was a lot closer to home after the 207-year-old Parisian chocolatier set up a booth on the ground floor of Beijing's World Trade Centre in December.

That time Ms Cai bought ecrin - a box of 24 assorted chocolates - for 1,200 yuan.

On her third visit, she plunked down 2,200 yuan for incroyables - a box of 40 pieces of dark chocolate mixed with nougatine, roasted almond grains cooked in caramelised sugar. Napoleon was so infatuated with their bitter-sweet flavour that he once ordered 2,000 boxes, but production is now limited, with only 1,000 sold globally each year.

"Mine was No302," Ms Cai said. "I felt I belonged to a very special club and had a great sense of satisfaction."

Ms Cai offers a glimpse of the mainland's emerging middle-class, which is choosing to consume upmarket goods and cultivate expensive hobbies. Their shared consumption patterns are a key part of an evolving elite culture.

Unlike their parents' generation, in which consumer choices are guided by practicality, the new middle-class urbanites are more concerned about the invisible values their purchases represent.

"A lot of prestige- and honour-buying is going on in China," said Guo Liang , assistant professor of marketing at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

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