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Cigars have never been foreign to Chinese.
Decades ago, Chairman Mao appeared in pictures smoking cigars. But it's in recent years that such luxury items - the consumption tax imposed on cigars is about 25 percent - have attracted new fans among the rich and the rising middle class.
It's easy to find a cigar store inside the five-star hotels of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, where many showcase premium smokes from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. But until about 10 years ago, dealers say, most cigars sold in China were purchased by foreigners. Americans, who still cannot buy Cuban cigars at home because of the decades-old political embargo, have been particularly attracted.
Peter Tang, 55, who owns several restaurants in Beijing, recalls that when he had his first Cuban cigar in Hong Kong in 1985, it was very difficult to find cigar stores in China and few Chinese smoked cigars then.
Tang says many years ago, when he went to Kunming in Yunnan province, he was the only one who smoked cigars while his friends there favored cigarettes. One year later, when he went back, almost all of them were puffing cigars.
"After I have a good dinner - or when I want to read books quietly - having a cigar is perfect," says Tang.
Many of his friends fly more than 20 hours to Cuba only to take part in the annual Havana Cigar Festival.
In a cigar store on the ground floor of the Peninsula Beijing, a middle-aged man is buying cigars while two young men are waiting nearby to try various types.
Chen Xiaodong, VIP client manager at the Ligero Pipe & Cigar House, says local buyers now account for half the market.
"Cigars are a sign of a good lifestyle, and Cuban cigars are of the best quality among all cigars," says Chen. With the rising popularity of Cuban cigar culture in China, Ligero has invited a Cuban cigar maker to Beijing to hand-roll tobacco in the store.
According to the economic section of the Cuban embassy in Beijing, 285,000 Cuban cigars were shipped to China in 2013.
Habanos S.A., the arm of the Cuban state tobacco company, proclaimed an 8 percent jump of its global sales in 2013 due to strong demand from the Chinese market, even while the world still faces both economic crises and antismoking campaigns.
Before 2012, the number of cigars allowed to be imported was 800,000 - a quota that changed to 1.3 million in 2013.
Chen, the cigar salesman, says many rich Chinese turn to cigars because they believe they are heathier than cigarettes, though health experts have different views on that.
He adds that cigars have become more popular as gifts in China as the country's large-scale anti-corruption campaigns have greatly squeezed the market for expensive wines and watches. A very fine cigar is not as expensive as more traditional luxury gifts, Chen says.
The potential cigar market has stimulated Chinese cigar producers, too. South China's Hainan province has introduced Cuban tobaccos to one of its counties. The 200-hectare tobacco planting base in Danzhou, for example, generated revenue of 74.84 million yuan ($12.07 million) in 2013.
However, Peter Tang, who has smoked Cuban cigars for 30 years, says he doesn't buy any cigars produced in China.
"We can plant tobaccos, but we can't produce the cigar culture like Cuba has spread across the world," he says.
dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn
