Beijing announced last week that by the end of 2008, nearly 170 million automobiles had been registered in China. And in 2008 Chinese consumers bought 2.26 million imported cars, alone -- a 13 percent jump from 2007.

But the slowdown in the global auto market is biting Chinese auto makers and suppliers. "Capacity utilization is easily down to 10-20 percent in many auto part factories," according to Chen Wenkai, president of B2B publisher and trade show organizer Gasgoo.

On the toy front, at this week's Hong Kong Toy Fair -- the world' second largest toy show, a trade group official said that the number of toy makers in China dropped from 8,300 to 3,200 as a result of the global downturn, and 80-90 percent of the closed companies involved Hong Kong investment.

Dongguan city in Southern China -- one of the world's largest toy manufacturing bases -- said exports dropped 12 percent in November 2008 on a year-to-year basis. Guangdong province as a whole saw its toy exports for November tank 36 percent from the month prior, or 5 percent over a year ago.

(Sources: China's Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Commerce, China Securities News, the Consumer Daily)