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A resident enters an Oppo smartphone shop in Pinghai, a small town in China's Guangdong Province. 
The Big Story

China's villagers get a taste for Gucci

Rural spending rises even as city dwellers tighten their purse strings

COCO LIU, Nikkei staff writer | China

HONG KONG -- It would be hard to guess Zhang Jianchang's profession from his spending habits. He is a big fan of Gucci. He drives an SUV worth $43,000. And after enjoying his first overseas trip to South Korea in 2015, Zhang made up his mind to travel abroad again -- this time, his destination was Osaka, Japan.

But Zhang is not a white-collar worker in one of China's big cities; he is a shrimp farmer in Pinghai, a small town in the southeastern Chinese province of Guangdong.

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