Toys for big boys

He says, however, there was a lot of evidence of China's new moneyed classes at the show.

"Some of the wealth here is astonishing. What is an inordinate amount of money for most people is a drop in the ocean here."

He recently sold 10 cases of Petrus of 2000 vintage to a China property developer for 42,000 pounds (47,700 euros) a case, a total of 420,000 pounds.

"He is going to drink it. If you see some functions here you could easily get through 10 cases of wine in a single evening," he says.

Rumsam, whose average sale per case is 1,500 to 2,000 pounds, says the Chinese rich in his experience are actually price sensitive.

"They will have their secretary on the phone to a few wine merchants and checking recent auction results and within half an hour they will have a fairly good handle on what the market price is," he says.

He also insists stories of the Chinese buying expensive vintages and pouring lemonade in them for show are merely apocryphal.

"I have been doing this for four years and traveling all over China and doing dinners and I have never ever seen anyone pouring any soft drink into a bottle of wine have served or seen it at a neighboring table. The speed of awareness is faster than anywhere I have seen before," he says.

With all this money sloshing around the harbor front at the exhibition, one might assume there would be major resentment among many locals about this display of wealth.

Wang Weishan, 24, a tax driver in Sanya but originally from Fuyang in Anhui province, was one who liked this influx of glamour, particularly the models in bikinis used by some exhibitors to adorn their yachts.

"I like the beautiful women it brings here. The girls from the mainland are so much better looking than Sanya girls," he says.

Wang saw nothing wrong with this show of wealth by China's moneyed elite.

"It is okay. They have worked hard to get their beautiful cars and yachts. It is a dream for us all to be able to do the same."

Some exhibitors at the show, however, felt some of the wealth at the show was as thin as some of the models.

The charge for entry was only 180 yuan and many in Sanya, particularly those who attended on the Sunday, had free passes.

Syd Hu, Greater China sales and branding manager for Jingdezhen Franz Collection, based in Shanghai, which sells luxury porcelain items from companies such as Bernardaud from France, says he even saw an elderly lady wearing a VIP badge rummaging through rubbish for bottles for which she would get one jiao (a tenth of a Chinese yuan).

He says they ought to have made the entry more exclusive such at similar shows in Singapore where they charge higher entrance fees or restrict entry to private invitation.

"You see a lot of kids and that is why we haven't brought some our more expensive items. Chinese kids are not always the best behaved. I think overall, however, the organizers have done a good job and we will be back here next year."

Michael Breman, sales director of Lurssen Yachts, the German manufacturer of larger yachts, says it is a slow burn selling yachts in China.

He is in year eight of a 10-year plan to establish a brand in the country but has yet to sell a yacht.

"I haven't been very successful," he jokes. "You measure success by the amount of contacts you make and you achieve success by continuous contact that takes time to mature."