The UK's market-leading retailer, Tesco, is planning to quadruple its sales in China to GBP4 (USD6.4) billion by 2015, adding another 200 hypermarkets and 50 malls as it taps into consumer growth of 8% year-on-year.

Analysts on a three-day tour of the company's main overseas markets were told by the third-largest [behind Wal-Mart and Carrefour] global retailer that China represented an 'unrivalled opportunity in a large, rapidly growing market'.

Indeed, by 2025, 221 cities in the Asian nation are predicted to be home for a million people or more - that compares for example to the 35 in Europe now.