Rosewood furniture sellers have a bumper year

The growing middle classes in China are also demanding the best.

But added to that there is an increasing appetite for the traditional rather than modern when it comes to furniture, says Li Liming, and rosewood furniture fits the bill perfectly.

"There are generally two types of customers of rosewood furniture: collectors of highend pieces looking to make an investment, and young people who are buying medium-or low-end items for their own homes," he says.

Xiao Pingping, a researcher with the Beijing-based China Industrial Research Network, agrees.

"Young people, particularly those armed with better education, a more mature sense of taste and higher salaries, understand the value of rosewood furniture far better than their predecessors," she says.

According to a survey conducted by the network, people aged between 30 and 35 now account for more than 40 percent of the rosewood furniture bought in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Nationwide, medium-and low-end rosewood furniture sales are becoming the driving force of the industry, says Xiao.

Thirty two-year-old Yang Guannan is a typical buyer.

She is in the middle of decorating her new apartment in Shanghai and has driven 300 kilometers to a Dongyang market to place her order for a set of rosewood furniture worth 80,000 yuan.

"My husband and I think rosewood will never be outdated. Compared with Western-style furniture, it looks a lot more elegant," she says, and that is an opinion shared by many of her friends, she says.

"We were actually inspired by a friend of mine who buys only rosewood furniture. The combination of traditional Chinese style with the modern aspects of her apartment is stunning, and I just couldn't get it out of my head," she says.

Her order includes a sofa, a dining table, six chairs, a four-drawer closet and a queen-size bed.

"The really high-end rosewood items are too expensive for us. We've seen a bed that costs more than 100,000 yuan and it was gorgeous" she says.

"But we chose the relatively cheaper ones, which are still fantastic."

Xiao from the research network says that domestic sales of medium-and low-end rosewood furniture are expanding fast in second-and third-tier cities.

"The market used to focus more on producing high-end products for mega-cities. In recent years, however, we have seen a shift from big cities to second-and third-tier ones," she says.

Bao Ming, the general manager of Baimutang Rosewood Furniture Co, also in Dongyang, has been focusing on the second-and third-tier markets for the past three years and says he has left the sale of really high-end products to the collectors and investors.

"There are very few people who can afford expensive furniture just for pure collection or investment; but it is a totally different story at the lower end of the market where customers are a lot more pragmatic in how they use their furniture," Bao says.

"High-end collections often present more exquisite carvings on the wood, but products targeting the lower ends are designed to be easy to clean and maintain."

"Rosewood furniture has been a symbol of high social standing and wealth in China for centuries," Bao says.

"But that exclusive luxury is rapidly becoming a lot more affordable to us all."

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