The fashionable youths in hot pants flocking to high-end department stores in London and bankers in dark suits walking in and out of skyscrapers in the financial district have one thing in common, a growing interest in the yuan.
With the London Olympic Games drawing near, Chinese Internet companies, mainly Web portals and online video providers, are gearing up to cash in on the event.
Britain is hoping for more Chinese investment into the legacies of the London Olympic Games, as the UK is struggling to emerge from a double-dip recession, after two consecutive quarters of contraction in GDP.
London's retailers have long been wooing big-spending Chinese tourists, but this year's Olympics has made them ever keener to introduce innovative offerings, to capitalize upon so rare an opportunity.
China Network Television (CNTV) in Shanghai announced its new media plan for the London Olympic Games on Friday.
"China has become the third largest investor in London," said Paul Bromelow, the global sales director of London & Partners, the official foreign direct investment agency, Shanghai Securities News reported Friday.
London's luxury estate agents have been busy recruiting Chinese-speaking employees thanks to the increasing number of rich Chinese buyers.
London Luxury Quarter (LLQ), a new luxury shopping district promoted by United Kingdom-based New West End Co, is targeting rich Chinese to support future growth.
Property buyers from the Chinese mainland have become the biggest spenders in the prime central London property market, the Financial Times reported.