The 30-meter statue of late Chairman Mao Zedong overlooks beautiful Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province dotted with ad posters and boards, as it stands loftily at the city's central square.

Chengdu is a major city in west China as well as one of the few cities that still retain in place statues of Chairman Mao built in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when the late Chinese leader was revered and highly esteemed and his statues sprang up almost everywhere across the country.

Instead of political slogans, the white-marble statue of Mao is now surrounded by huge billboards of advertisement that had been cited as something "capitalist" against the Mao's planned economy, in which production and sale of goods were controlled by government plans.

Now the venue where Mao's statue stands, at the heart of Chengdu, has become the hot spot for both domestic and foreign investors to show off their corporate images and brand-name products.

Advertisements have become increasingly part of life in the contemporary China. With more options to shop and buy, a growing number of Chinese customers have preferred turning to the choice of brand-name goods.

Around Mao's statue, posters or boards with advertisements on home-made products are competing with those of foreign or foreign- funded companies such as Kodak of the United States and Sumsung of the Republic of Korea (ROK).

Right behind Mao's statue, a banner streamer is hosting 10 meters above Sichuan Exhibition Center, where a large-scale shopping fair for traditional Spring Festival goods is in sight.

In Mao's era, food supplies were rationed in China for some two decades and the people had to use coupons issued by their government then to buy food and other daily necessities in short supply. Now they can buy whatever they like and afford anything to their taste for the imminent New Year and the ensuing Spring Festival, or the Chinese lunar new year, at this fair. A variety of other goods fairs were held all year round. And a wide range of commodities were shipped in from all over China and elsewhere in the world like the United States, Japan and the ROK for consumers' choices.

The listing of companies on stock markets was something unheard of during the era of late Chairman Mao. But today, an opening market-oriented Chinese economy has turned the decades-old Chengdu Department Store a listed one whose building, just opposite to Mao 's huge statue across the city's main street, was festooned with varied ad banners atop its roof and outward the buildings.

A lottery business ad, designed to raise funds for sport events and public welfare, was especially eye-catching in front of the department store. In the past two years, the business made nearly 100 local residents in this southwestern province millionaires through lottery buying, which was, however, unimaginable and banned during Mao's era.

Moreover, huge advertisements of China Mobile and cell phones of Simens were put up around an outlet store of China Mobile at the right side of Mao's statue.

So far, the number of cell phone users in China has topped approximately 250 million, ranking the first in the world. But for a nation with a population of 1.3 billion, it still has great market potential for telecom firms and cell phone makers both at home and abroad.

On the same side of the statue was a billboard of China Telecom 's broad-band services of ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Loop).

To date, China boasts 78 million Internet users, ranking the second in the world. People could only listened to radios and read newspapers in Mao's times, whereas at present, easy access to the Internet enabled Chinese to keep themselves informed on the latest developments worldwide.

Around the square are also vivid shops of McDonald and KFC, whose globally known logos were the best identity for publicity. The two fast-food restaurants have turned out to be a great success in China, attractive not only to kids but also to some of their parents who were reared up in Mao's era when they were denied any chance to taste foreign cuisine.

On the left of Mao's statue three major Chinese insurance companies, China Life, China Pacific and Ping An, were touting their services in huge enchanting advertisements.

China set up a government-afforded public welfare system for million upon million of its people under the era of the planned economy, and insurance business was foreign to them as they then could enjoy basic housing, medical and pension benefits from the government. Insurance premium had grown nearly an average of nearly 40 per cent a year over the past two decades. Total capitalization for China's insurance sector was expected to be over 1000 billion yuan (about US$120.5 billion) in 2003.

On the Remin (People) Road, a trunk road south to Mao's statue, advertisements of a dozen real estate developers were competing each other for house selling. Chengdu witnessed a booming housing market like other cities around China. To make way for the construction of a central business district, the Chengdu municipal government, used to be adjacent to Mao's statue, moved to the brisk and fast-expanding business center three years ago.

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