Since the days of Marco Polo, China has been stuck with the label of the world’s largest untapped market. While the success of Louis Vuitton, General Motors, KFC and others has chipped away at that notion, there is one place the description remains apt: the bond market.

At roughly $4tn, China’s domestic bond market is the world’s fourth largest after the US, Japan and France, and far larger than the Shanghai equity market’s $2.4tn. It is also growing at about 30 per cent a year, according to HSBC.

Yet for global investors, Chinese credit has been almost entirely off limits, with opportunities limited to relatively small offshore markets – whether in US dollars or renminbi – where a small number of mainland companies have chosen to borrow. But change is afoot as financial reforms crack open the door to domestic Chinese bonds.