A couple of years ago my family vacationed to China (Beijing and Shanghai). The Great Wall and the Forbidden City were fun and all, but I was particularly intrigued by the fakes malls. I knew lots of fakes come from China, but I wasn’t prepared for the scale and flagrancy. We shopped in the mall below. Five stories of fakes -computer parts, cosmetics, skin and hair care products, shoes, jewelry, any and every brand name product you can think of. The effect on me was that I don’t look for deals on eBay anymore. I suspect I’m as likely to get a fake as the real thing.
The inside of a fakes mall in Shanghai.
Wanna buy a watch? Patek Phillipe, Rolex, Cartier…
Tiffany fakes. You’re handed a real catalog, asked to pick something out, and the helpful clerk finds it on the wall.
Fake Louboutins.
A lot of those fakes are slick. Here’s a mixture of real stuff and fake (yes, I bought some). Bet you can’t tell which is which. 🙂