I Love China

I’m currently in Venice, Italy but there’s no escaping references to China. The city is swarming with teams of African guys selling fake designer handbags on the narrow streets, often right outside shops they are ripping off, such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton. But rumour has it that it is illegal to purchase counterfeit products in Italy (or at least in Venice) and there are signs outside big name stores like Gucci warning tourists and locals alike that they risk harsh penalties should they be tempted to buy a fake bag for a fraction of the cost of the original.

I was wondering if perhaps, by some small chance, these signs were the handywork of some of the designer shops, peeved that their not insignificant margins are being threatened by cheap imitations. That was until I saw THIS sign:

Now the first sign could have been a friendly warning to ignorant tourists who were unaware of the local laws on purchasing counterfeit goods, but this second sign is just a blatant and pathetic attempt to use guilt to discourage people to buy the fake products.

Yes, China is a major source of fake products, but I’d have to say that I doubt they are made by underaged slave labour – or at least, no more so than the legitimate products!

Shame on you Gucci / Prada / LV etc.  If you didn’t make about 5000% margin on your products, perhaps more people would consider buying them instead of the cheaper versions.

Both foreign and local news ran the story of fake buns being sold in Beijing that contained pork mixed with cardboard by unscrupulous vendors. A few days later there were stories suggesting that this story was itself a fake. And now (yes, you guessed it), there are people saying that the story about the story being fake is fake!

If your head isn’t hurting by now, you can read more about it here on Danwei.

Wow, time certainly flies by. It’s already been 3 or 4 days since my last post. People will start to think I have an actual job or something if I don’t start posting again soon, so I’m just gonna sum up the last few days as follows:

• Hot on the heels of Apple’s iPhone launch, the Chinese fake iPhone hit’s the shelves.
• To continue the piracy theme, ahead of the China release of Transformers, someone has already uploaded the movie to Youku, itself a rip off of another more successful video sharing website.
• Despite her best efforts to beg, steal and borrow votes, Shopgirl is falling behind in the China Blog Awards.  She’s currently on just 80 votes compared to Humanaught’s 103 votes.
• Police have raided a tea house close to my office on Nanjing Road after three French guys reported the establishment to the authorities, having been lured there by some young girls and then charged almost a thousand US dollars in one hour.
• And talking of over-priced beverages (oh yes, I don’t just throw these posts together!), after kicking up a fuss among patriotic traditionalists, Starbucks has finally been kicked out of Beijing’s Forbidden City.
• And finally, Nan Hai Nv Hai (Boys and Girls) Bar in Beijing’s Sunlitun bar street hosted the first ever China National Pole Dancing Championships. I was not able to compete because of prior commitments preventing me from travelling to Beijing, but I made my way to Judy’s on Tong Ren Lu where I managed to enjoy several very talented pole dancing displays!

Well, that’s all for now folks, come back soon for more of interesting and amusing China news.

Yes indeed football fans, I am currently travelling in China’s Sichuan province and I’m currently in the small city of Mian Yang, north of Chengdu, the provincial capital.

Imagine my excitement when I found this clothing store, opened by that famous Italian football player, Wayne Rooney. The shop sells Wayne’s personal collection of fine mens clothing and a full range of accessories, including a “Rooney” man’s underarm clutch bag which I am sure Wayne himself carries whenever he’s out in the bars and clubs with his girlfriend, Coleen.