Originally Posted by jpdx
I'll be in HK, Beijing, and Shanghai over the next few weeks. Where will I find the highest quality/lowest prices?
Best quality is in HKG (depending on the item, some fakes are better made than the original, however that isn't common). Good fakes are not cheap though (in this context it means USD 100 for a USD 1000 original). You do have to know what you are doing though (e.g. a common problem with fakes are to use iron parts which rust instead of brass/gold/stainless steel, you get the idea). Prices are lower in mainland china (sometimes much lower) but quality is also worse. I find the best items to be textiles and items with a lot of hand labour. You can get some very fine workmanship (often not counterfeit, they don't need the label or image).