Chinese shoppers have become a fixture of the luxury retail scene in the US and Europe, drawn by prices that can be up to 50 percent lower than tax-elevated levels at home. But many upscale brands have yet to bond with the truly wealthy – China's million millionaires.

According to provisional figures from the Chinese Tourism Academy, Chinese took 70 million overseas trips in 2011 and spent a total of USD69 billion, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year. They are also increasingly discerning.

Even when luxury brands get the basics of hiring Mandarin speakers and accepting the China UnionPay credit card, misunderstandings with the wealthy can still arise.