Buying Luxury Goods in China

The short answer is “don’t do it”.  The import duty on them makes them extortionately expensive compared to Europe.  In fact I read an article in the local English language paper (China Daily) that claimed that over half of the luxury goods sales in Europe came from the Chinese flying in to buy.

There’s a shopping mall in Beijing that seems to be dedicated to counterfeit goods – there’s 5 floors packed with designer labels and the choice is whether they fell off the back of the truck when they were being loaded to be sent to Europe or if they’re real counterfeits.  I took one look and left – I didn’t even hang around long enough to ask.

The car park is another matter though – there’s a large number of people trying to flog Gucci et al handbags and accessories.  They won’t stop bothering you until you mention the words “counterfeit” or “fake”.  I found that was the only way to stop them pestering me.

When I was in Shanghai I found a government notice in Chinese and English on a wall that said that certain brand names were off-limits to counterfeiters (and listed them).  Obviously Beijing hasn’t got the message yet.