Well, my information is about 10 years old, so I don't know what has changed. We went to one of the reputable furniture dealers and ordered about 22 pieces, including a custom made bed, tv cabinet, some interesting antique furniture, a 5' tall vase, screeens, china cabinet, chairs, etc. It didn't ship for about a month because the custom pieces were being made.

I am told that we used about 1/2 of a full-size container. We got very lucky on the shipping price because a friend knew a shipping company (the HK director of the company personally came to our hotel to take the order - our rate was 1/3 of the best we were offered anywhere else).

We live in Southern California so the furniture came to Long Beach by ship, and we paid to have it brought to our home (no paperwork hassles). My garage looked like the final scene in Indiana Jones in the warehouse. It was all crated in wooden boxes. One of the nails (not all of them - just one) was the size of a railroad spike.

Results: Everything was finished beautifully.

There were some minor scratches in one piece. The insurance company, on the first telephone call, sent a man who repairs oriental furniture for a living. Problem solved.

Most of the custom pieces were great. However, the bed wasn't made the way we agreed, and after a couple of months, it broke. We asked for a refund of the price of the bed. It took some negotiation, and finally it took a strong letter (in conjunction with an unrelated visit to the HK airport (in transit from Singapore to US)), but we got our refund.