Like Bopping Gophers

The Shanghai City Government made a great show of closing down the Xiangyang Market, the center of counterfeit retail, a few months ago. They did indeed close it down and walled off the old outdoor market and the area is undergoing redevelopment as I write. As everyone expected however, the counterfeit pushers simply moved - into bigger and better quarters. Most of the counterfeit retailers have moved into a modern multi-storied building on Nanjing Road, the center of the shopping district in Shanghai. The same retailers and ripped-off intellectual property is now for sale in air-conditioned comfort instead of in the crowded lanes of Xiangyang. Trying to put an end to the counterfeiters business is like playing the popular amusement park game where you bop plastic gophers that pop out of holes - others just pop up somewhere else.

I won't give the address of the new location because I don't want to help them but one can easily spot the place by the super-aggressive fake Rolex, DVD and handbag touts that descend upon foreigners who happen to walk by. The touts assume foreigners are in the area to visit the "New Xiangyang" and want to beat the brick & mortar counterfeit dealers to the prey. I discovered the new location when I visited a restaurant in the area and couldn't get out of the taxi because the Xiangyang-style touts surrounded the car before I could even open the door.

Shanghai officials and police know about this resurrected Xiangyang but I can bet you they won't do anything about it until someone in a high place needs the space. But really, when it comes right down to it, China is awash in fake products. One new Xiangyang is just a drop in the ocean.