> Having never lived in China, I'm not sure how difficult is it to buy a Western-produced good (e.g. iPhone), but I know from trying to buy an Xiaomi product in

> Having never lived in China, I'm not sure how difficult is it to buy a Western-produced good (e.g. iPhone), but I know from trying to buy an Xiaomi product in the past, it's rather difficult. Not hard at all, as most of the options are by Western brands. Samsung is huge, Apple is too. Usually the OS (for mobile devices) is tweaked by removing Google services from Android (all Google services are blocked in mainland China, but not in HK/Macau/Taiwan) and replaced with a domestic equivalent. Physical stores are usually not branded by manufacturer, but by mobile service provider (China Mobile or China Unicom), with a range of domestic or international brand names inside. Online stores: See 139shop.com as an example of what's available.