The Claus of Fu Manchu

WELCOME to the real Lapland - the secret city that puts the sparkle into Christmas.

The sprawl of workshops here supply a staggering SEVENTY PER CENT of the world's Christmas trees, dancing Santas, baubles and tinsel.

But Santa's factory isn't in Finland or the North Pole - it's in CHINA, where thousands of his little helpers (er..peasant workers actually) beaver away.

And forget goodwill to all men - this juggernaut rakes in a quarter of a billion pounds a year.

The scale of the operation in the southeast city of Yiwu is mind-boggling. The factory churns out hundreds of thousands of products a year, including 200,000 baubles. Last year 3,000 shipping containers of Christmas goods were sent to the UK, Europe and the US every day.

SLEIGH DAY: Plastic Rudolfs

On our visit, an order for 200,000 PLASTIC SNOWMEN was being processed in the main workshop - the size of ten football pitches - as well as one for 1.3 MILLION PIECES OF TINSEL. DIY chain B&Q has ordered 30,000 top-of- the-range trees, which they bought for just £5.30 each.

Yiwu - population two million and dubbed Christmas Town - is also home to the world's biggest wholesale festive decorations market, covering four million square metres, with 62,000 stalls selling 320,000 different products, bought to be sold in bulk overseas.

A synthetic tree you would pay £10 for in Britain costs just 20p. A dancing Santa that would sell for £20 is £1.20.

But Christmas comes at a cost to many workers in the city, who earn a basic wage of just £1.77 for a 13-hour day and sleep eight to a room in dormitories.

PICTURES: RICHARD JONES / SINOPIX

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