Chen Xiaodong shares a special tobacco made by himself with his friend Zhang Xingyu in a pipe and cigar club on the ground floor of the Peninsula Hotel in Beijing. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

For clients from China, Sun says, foreign pipe brands like Dunhill make pipes featuring Chinese elements. For example, exported pipes feature patterns of dragons, tigers, zodiac animals and even Chinese characters.

Last December, Mastro de Paja, an Italian pipe brand, held a private event for fans in Beijing - with craftsmen to produce pipes for its guests on the spot.

"China is the most important market for us in the world. The sales rise every year. Last year, China alone contributed 30 percent of our global revenue, up from 10 percent in the previous year," says Alberto Montini, president of Mastro de Paja.

Chinese culture, Chen notes, has a long tradition of well-educated men collecting things like snuff bottles, jade sculptures and even walnuts for amusement. He says pipe-smoking helps him to relax. However, when he puts his dozens of pipes in a special cabinet, they become artistic woodcarvings.

Chen bought his first pipe at 19. His grandfather and his father smoked pipes.

Chen's father was a soldier in the 1950s and '60s, when pipe culture took off among Chinese soldiers because US general Douglas MacArthur was always photographed with a signature corncob pipe at his Asian posts.

"My father and his peers admired the legendary general. So they all followed and smoked pipes at that time," says Chen.

MacArthur is not the only notable Western pipe fan whose deep influence lingers like smoke in China. Images of Mark Twain, Sherlock Holmes and even film star Clark Gable stimulated Chinese people's curiosity about pipes when China opened its door to the world in the 1970s.

Zhang Xingyu, a beginner, says he turned from cigars to pipes because pipes create the impression of being wise and well-educated. Many of his artist friends are pipe smokers.