Sixty-two percent of visitors from Hong Kong said they were most interested in buying local food products, while Australians, New Zealanders and Singaporeans said they were more likely to opt for buying clothing in China.

The survey revealed that 36 percent of the Japanese questioned and 49 percent of Koreans placed Chinese tea on the top of their lists.

Sixty-three percent of Malaysians said silk would be their souvenir of choice, while 46 percent of Taiwanese and 60 percent of Indians said they would chose electrical products.

Tourists who had visited China before said they were more likely to buy local food products than those who were coming to China for the first time. 17 percent of returnees said they were interested in buying Olympic Games souvenirs, compared with 11 percent of people who had never visited China before.

First-time visitors to China are more likely than repeat visitors to spend their money on clothing (30 percent as opposed to 20 percent), antiques (23 percent as opposed to 13 percent) and electronic products (23 percent as opposed to six percent).

Fifty percent of all those who had not yet traveled to China said they expected electronic payment cards to be generally accepted at some but not all merchants in China.

"A reliable and international-standard electronic payment infrastructure is a fundamental need to ensure that visitors to China - before, during and after the Games - can purchase their souvenirs from China using the same payment facilities they are used to at home, " Chang adds.