"It was the wedding aspect that propelled China to the top," said Van Campenhout, drawing a comparison with a tradition that is hugely popular in the United Kingdom.

"In China it is common to get married with diamond rings based on the idea that the bigger the diamond is, the bigger the love is."

The Shanghai Diamond Exchange, the largest in China, saw trading volume spike to $1 billion in the first five months of this year, up 84 percent from the year before, according to the exchange's president Lin Qiang. It grew 10.5 percent year-on-year in 2009.

Now Antwerp officials hope to stimulate further growth with a raft of measures that include the building of a Chinese gate on the mainland for Antwerp's Chinatown, and 3D models so Chinese customers can literally view their purchases on their laptops from thousands of kilometers away.

This new focus is highlighted by a special exhibit at the EU-Belgian Pavilion featuring the famous Antwerp Twins, a trophy tennis racket made from gold and 1,617 diamonds (donated by retired US tennis player John McEnroe) and scores of 1-carat diamonds that visitors can buy for upwards of 60,000 yuan ($8,820).

Judging by the reaction from domestic tourists, work still needs to be done in the realm of trust-building and brand awareness.

An elderly lady mistook the 1-carat diamonds for chic SIM cards, while several teenage girls assumed they were fake as they photographed them on their camera-phones.