By David Ferguson

NE·TIGER hosted China Fashion Week's opening night for the 7th year in succession with their 2009 Hua Fu collection.

Raffles Hotel Beijing is an ideal venue for an NE·TIGER show. The opulent pillars and chandeliers speak of bygone times and older eras of luxury much as owner and chief designer Zhang Zhifeng's own Hua Fu collection does.

By 5 PM the hotel is buzzing. Joiners are building stages, installing paneling, and putting the finishing touches to the 6000 ft2 space for the show itself. The place is swarming with beautiful women – they could be models in mufti, hostesses, NE·TIGER employees, fashion journalists, TV presenters, or innocent passers-by.

NE·TIGER Chief Executive Zhang Bei is too busy to spare a word – at this stage in the proceedings she is carrying the whole event on her petite shoulders. It is all the more astonishing then that Zhang Zhifeng, seeing me taking notes, should stop what he is doing and take the trouble to come and spend a few moments introducing himself.

As the media arrive, it seems that the photographers and cameramen – they are mostly men – are involved in their own competition to outdo each other in scruffiness. By chance I find myself in conversation with a passing journalist who is part of the entourage accompanying the Duke of York – he is in Beijing this week in his capacity as a Trade Ambassador between Britain and China.