Chinese database content within dynamic PHP pages using CodeIgniter

[eluser]JoeWa[/eluser]
I'm trying to pull Chinese database content to some dynamic PHP pages within our CodeIgniter website. The PHP files that make up each page are encoded as UTF8 which displays static Chinese text correctly. However, all Chinese content from the database is rendered as question marks.

For example:

Code:

中华人民共和国

...shows up as:

Code:

???????

As with the PHP code, all tables are collated as:

Code:

utf8_general_ci

The data shows correctly in the database. Any ideas? Many thanks!