World famous glossy magazine "Vogue" is dabbling in Chinese waters alongside other foreign fashion magazines who consider China a highly profitable market.

    BEIJING, July 21 -- One of the world's leading arbiters of high fashion is preparing to launch a Chinese edition. Zhao Feifei reports on the magazine that "waits until the market and its consumers have reached at a certain level of development" before it moves in.

    Under the bright neon lights of major newsstands along the busy thoroughfares of Shanghai, glossy fashion and lifestyle magazines - such as Elle, Cosmopolitan, Rayli - are all vying for space and the attention of passers-by.

    Come September, another heavyweight newcomer will join this cover-to-cover competition - the Chinese version of top-notch fashion magazine Vogue, launched by Conde Nast International Ltd and China Pictorial Publishing House.

    And for its premiere issue, Vogue plans to print and sell 300,000 copies around the country.

    Today, almost every foreign publisher wants a slice of China's expanding consumer market and the advertising revenue that goes with it.

    Hachette Filipacchi has a strong presence with Elle, Woman's Day, Car and Driver, and Marie-Claire.

    Hearst Magazines International introduced Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen to the emerging market. Gruner & Jahr publishes Parents, Fitness, and Car and Motor. McGraw Hill licenses Businessweek. Fortune is published out of Hong Kong and distributed widely. Harvard Business Review was launched three years ago. Forbes is also available.

    To be sure, the media regulatory environment in China has changed profoundly in the past few years and foreign magazines have benefited.

    China's media market reforms, in line with its World Trade Organization obligations to level the playing field and admit foreign competitors, have made this magazine bonanza possible.

    "The Chinese market is different from anything that's been seen in the world, maybe ever," says Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Conde Nast International Ltd, the publisher of Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, House & Garden, Glamour and The New Yorker.

    "Indisputably, this is a fast-growing and enormous market. It's hard for someone who is living in China to comprehend the intensity of interest in it. Wherever I go in the world, just having a conversation or at a dinner party, people always ask me, almost the first question, 'When are you publishing in China?' or 'When is the Chinese Vogue coming out?' There is tremendous interest in China."

    In addition to Vogue, according to Newhouse, the company is also going to publish additional titles in China in the next few years.

    The new generation of female readers, particularly those between 20 to 30 who are interested in high-end name brands and tips on the latest fashions and lifestyles, have led to the rise to Chinese fashion magazines.

    "The change of China's fashion magazine industry came together with the development of luxury businesses," says Angelica Cheung, editorial director of Chinese Vogue and the former editorial director of Chinese Elle.

    "That's why 10 years ago those magazines are very simple, because the luxury market didn't really exist. Then, you were talking about only Goldlion and Pierre Cardin. Now we are talking about Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Valentino. Magazine business reflects the evolution of the market. Now the magazines are thicker, because more brands are here, and more advertising pages."

    According to Zhang Bohai, director of the Chinese Periodical Association, today there are more than 8,000 magazines being published in China. Half are consumer or social science periodicals and half are scientific and technical journals, and circulation is mainly by subscription through the post office.