[originaltext]Little old ladies competing at dumpling-making contests, butchers

Little old ladies competing at dumpling-making contests, butchers chopping large chunks of meat basketballs by the dozen. Five million people a week shop at Wal-Mart stores in China.And if the American retailer has its way, there will soon be millions more. The company is said to. be close to buying a retail chain there that could make it the biggest food and department store network in the country. The Wall Street Journal quotes sources saying the world’s largest retailer has agreed to buy the retail stores of Trust-Mart, a Taiwanese supermarket chain for 1 billion dollars. Ever since China opened the door to international competition, foreign and domestic retailers have been slugging it out to dominate the world’s fastest growing economy. Wal-Mart says in 20 years it hopes to be as big in China as it is in the United States. One major difference: Wal-Mart allows labor unions into nearly all its Chinese stores, something it’s loath to do in the US. But as in the US, Wal-Mart intends to make its presence and discounts known across the Chinese countryside.