For the Bentonville, Arkansas, crowd, the new rules have triggered a surge in new construction plans. The Simon Group has just agreed to build a string of new malls with Wal-Mart as an anchor tenant. Hangzhou, near Shanghai, is slated for the first new mall, one of 12 projects planned that will cover a total of eight million square feet. Other retailers are jostling their way into the market as well, anxious to create a name in the most populous country on earth - which is set to hit 1.6 billion people by 2030.

Carrefour, the French food and retail giant, has already made a name for itself in China. Fast-food purveyors like McDonald's have made American takeout an enormous success, with hundreds of KFCs feeding a new appetite for fried chicken. Even Hooters has been welcomed. And inspired by the invasion of Western shops and salesmen, Playboy has begun suiting up its first cotton-tailed bunnies in 18 years, with plans to open a new, members-only club in Shanghai.

Befitting its size, China has already built four malls that are each bigger than the Mall of America, which is seven and a half acres of retail heaven in Minnesota. By 2010, retail analysts say that China will be host to six of the 10 biggest malls in the world.

Their arrival is working a new Chinese cultural revolution - in retail. For decades, China had been a bustling hive of small stores operated by some of the surliest clerks that ever stuck their hand out for payment. Now the spit is gone, and polished service has taken its place. And in the process, Chinese consumers have adopted Western shopaholic standards with relish.