I did not buy it in a tourist trap - am very aware of this as family does business there. I believe I was in this mall: http://tinyscreenfuls.com/2008/04/photos

I did not buy it in a tourist trap - am very aware of this as family does business there. I believe I was in this mall: http://tinyscreenfuls.com/2008/04/photos-shanghais-pc-mall-5-stories-of-computer-and-electronic-goodness/ http://tinyscreenfuls.com/2008/04/photos-shanghais-pc-mall-5... Pretty much nothing but locals. If you wanted to buy a PC, they'd sit you down on a little stool and offer you a drink, then fill out a form with you in Chinese. (Surprisingly, it turned out the prices were within 10% of the cheapest Australian importers [MSY/CPL] for many things - even as I was walking away they couldn't go lower!) I did buy it from a smaller stall similar to photo #6. But it was still quite surprising to find it was dodgy - the mall didn't even sell pirated software! Perhaps if they can tell you're not local they pull out the knockoffs. Good point about the lean manufacturing - although the number of people who've encountered this online is what implied to me that it's a reasonably large operation. Hard to say, really.