A Chinese vendor sells foreign brand cigarettes at a street corner in
Shanghai July 9, 2003. Dancing Butterfly, Seven Wolves, Viagra, and
Double Happiness are just some of about 1,100 brands frustrating for
years foreign tobacco's efforts in China, which accounts for nearly a
third of the global industry by cigarettes smoked. China is the top
cigarette market in the world with smokers lighting up about 1.7
trillion cigarettes a year. Smokers face a bewildering array of bizarre
names in all colours and sizes. Foreign companies now have a market
share of only six percent. Beijing is moving to overhaul the fractured
industry ahead of a gradual opening as part of its WTO commitments.
REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV TO MATCH FEATURE TOBACCO-CHINA-REFORM

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