This one Chinese factory makes millions of flags for the World Cup

Despite having no team in this year's World Cup, Chinese factories are working overtime to produce national flags for the football tournament.

Li Meihua's factory in Zhejiang province has been making flags for the World Cup and European Championships since 1999, with Germany and the UK alone making up around 80 percent of orders for five million flags this year.

Host Brazil's orders have amounted to less than 20 percent, Li puts this down to the state of the global economy: "Our sales of flags this year, not as good as (for) South Africa (in 2010), is expected to decrease by between 10 to 15 percent. Economic depression in Brazil would be a major reason for that."

However, with an order of two million flags from a Brazilian client early last year kickstarting the rush, it seems Li doesn't have too much to complain about as sales from orders this year alone are already over eight million yuan ($1.3 million).