You can dilute the Hoisin sauce (海鲜酱) w/warm water.

I was originally thinking that I wanted A LOT of the stuff, but I have scaled back my consumption of fried rice here a great deal in recent weeks because one of my chef friends scared me when he explained to me that 95% of the Chinese restaurants in Nanning use 地沟油 (borderline toxic recycled oil). Apparently, this is common knowledge.

However, if you could grab me a nice handful between now and your trip, I would be most happy. Since I don't believe duck sauce is very expensive, I'm thinking adding an extra $3 to the tip would be sufficient, which I'd figure out a way to cover. I won't be in Shanghai then, but I could arrange to have one of friends stop by the Hilton. A lot of them are coming down here for the ASEAN Expo later that week. Many thanks!

Peking duck dipping sauce is sweet bean sauce 甜麵醬 base thinned out with water plus others.

The duck sauce mention by Moondog is plum suace thinned out with water and additives.

Would you like some Canola oil from the good olde US of A?

Anyways, I sourced out the plum base packet duck sauce. The packaging service buys plum sauce in barrels, add water, cooking rice wine and then pack them. The could give me the exact proportion but they will have to kill me.
Give it a try since you are now a "Southerner" 南方人

It's funny that you mention that because I recently picked up several different types of oil from the Ole in the Mixc that I am planning on bringing to my local haunts for them to use when they prepare my food. The oil was expensive, but I want to give it a try because I'm really scared of 地沟油, and I can't do McD's 2x per day.

Grapeseed and peanut oils are recommended if you are careful about the oil in your diet in Chinese cooking. They have higher flashpoint for high "wokkee" stirfry in the South

You need to have enough trust with them not to keep the oil for their own children's consumption.
I have heard of border officials who haven't bough any formula for their babies.

I'm going to try olive oil on my 串 this evening. While I understand that olive oil is not well suited for high temperature cooking, I figure it's never been done before... I will be a pioneer and report back!

Is that gutter oil, or a grade above?

地沟 does, in fact, translate to gutter, but it's even worse than your imagery could possibly make it out to be. My chef friend claims to have witnessed the oil people extracting the excess (already recycled) oil from restaurant trash bins in the wee hours of the morning and mixing it with the rest of their stock, which they deliver in large vats several hours later. This practice seems to be commonplace throughout China, but in Shanghai, I have numerous higher priced options at my disposal. While I suppose it's nice that my daily spend in NN is very low, my stomach doesn't care for this city so much.

I might actually have to start cooking my own food! (Unheard of in Shanghai.)

Gutter oil is really gutter oil.

At nigh in areas with heavy concentration of restaurants there would be oil in the waste water. oil floats to the top so the gutter oil merchants will scoop up the top layer of oil from the sewers, boil them and filter out sediments and resell as cheaper oil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozCN8WPeH6g
Video form HK TV documentary, video should explain what is happening

As a Chinese person, I've only tried the duck sauce once and I can't really imagine anyone really liking that for everything.

That said you can buy in the supermarket here.

A similar version is widely used as a dipping sauce for Cantonese roast duck /goose in southern China, Hong Kong and authentic Cantonese restaurant in North America.

But my son, when he was young would only eat Yang Chow fried rice when it is soaking in the sweet and sour pork sauce. :rolleyes:

Got sauce !

PM friends name and I'll leave at concierge desk.

You can buy me a beer next time I'm in town.