Be warned… China is notorious for fakes, forgeries and counterfeits. Counterfeiting is now so big from a manufacturing point, officials are reluctant to shut it down completely, since it provides millions of badly needed jobs.
This incomplete historical list is just to give you insight into the breadth and array of the type of things to watch out for….
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Fake Adidas Shoes Known as “Dadiads” or “Adivon” or “Adidoss” or “Adddis” of “Abcids” or “sdidsa” or “Adiads” of “avivas” or “adibos” or “abibas” |
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Fake Alcohol Various estimates suggest around 70% of all alcohol in China, rising to 80% in Shanghai, is fake. |
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Fake Apple Shops Over 22 fake Apple stores plastered with Apple’s trademarks, layout, furniture, materials design and down to the staff t-shirts and ID tags. The illusion was so perfect that even the employees thought the place was legit. |
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 Fake Apple Watchfake smartwatches copying Apple’s design started popping up in China the week of launch of the real thing. The Smart Watch by Hyperdon copies the design of the Apple Watch. In fact, it was able to connect to the iPhone, take calls, play music and more. |
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Fake Armani known as “Anmani” or “Armwni” or “Girgio Armwni” |
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Fake Auto Parts auto parts made in China are unreliable, dangerous knockoffs of well-known international brands. The result is shoddy goods that often make their way around the globe. |
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Fake Baby Formula In 2004, 47 people were accused of producing fake instant baby formula that led to dozens of children dying in Fuyang, China, reported CBS News. The formula contained very few nutrients, was likely made of chalk, and made the children develop a “big head disease,” which made their heads swell and the rest of their bodies slowly deteriorate. |
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Fake Baking Soda “Arm and Hatchet” |
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Fake Bananas Truckloads of fake Dole Bananas called Bole Bananas were seized in 2014 in the south of China. |
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Fake Banks Occasionally, a 2nd or 3rd tier city businessman, creates a replica storefront of a major bank, and invites locals to come and deposit money. |
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Fake Batteries One-fourth of the Duracell and Energizer batteries are bogus and may only work for two days before they cut out. |
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Fake Beef (from Pork) Because pork is less expensive in China, some restaurants have sold it instead of beef – but not before they performed some chemistry on it. What they use are a beef extract and a glazing agent to “marinate” the meat in for 90 minutes. Doctors have advised people to stay away from this fake food product as its long-term use may cause “slow poisoning, deformity, and even cancer.” |
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 Fake Beef (from Rats)For years, thousands of thieves have been arrested for trying to sell rat meat as beef meat by mixing rat meat with illegal chemicals to process the “beef”. Sometimes, minks, fox and dogs are used when rats are in short supply. In 2015, 382 cases were uncovered in 3 months with 20,000 tons seized. Further, the producers used banned chemicals to taint the already disease infected meat, and injected river water to pad up the weight. |
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Fake Beer Corona and Heineken in particular, the latter known as “Heimekem” – much of this beer is made from tap water and chemicals. |
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Fake Books Before the final Harry Potter book was released in 2007, J. K. Rowling knockoffs, including Harry Potter and the Crystal Vase and Harry Potter and Leopard Walk Up to Dragon, made their way to Chinese bookstores. |
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 Fake Boyfriends (or Girlfriends)TaoBao is the place to go to find a temporary boyfriend as men advertise companionship starting from RMB 1,000 a day. They even charge extra for romantic activities such as hand holding, going to the cinema together, cuddles, or joint Internet surfing. |
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Fake Burger King known as “King Burger” |
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Fake Calvin Klein known as “Calvim Klain” |
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Fake Cars Volkswagen, Fiat,BMW, Mercedes, Buick, Hummer and even Rolls Royce fakes are throughout the highways. |
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Fake CD’s Just a few years ago, entire shops, malls and every street corner had places to buy fake and pirated CD’s. They still exist in small numbers, and are now off the beaten track, due to the advent of internet enabled digital downloads and smartphones. |
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Fake Champagne far less faked than red & white wine, however the Moet, Dom Perignon, and Veuve Clicquot brands have seen a growing number of fakes in conjunction with their growing popularity. |
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Fake Chewing Gum Wrigley’s Doublemint becomes “Wrlgleys Doubiemlnt” |
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Fake Cigarettes Most brands, often use chemicals, human excrement, asbestos, dead flies and rats to try and create a similar smoke and smell. Chinese smoke around 2.2 trillion cigarettes a year. The state-owned Chinese tobacco industry actually brings in about 8 percent of the country’s annual budget. Currently, there are about 400 billion fake cigarettes being produced in China, enough to supply each U.S. smoker with 460 packs of fake Marlboros, Newports or Benson & Hedges. Surprisingly, about half of those all come from one place — Yunxiao, a county in the south of China roughly twice the size of New York City and home to 200-plus counterfeit cigarette operations hidden underground. The fake Chinese cigarettes often contain 80% more nicotine and 130% more carbon monoxide than the genuine article, plus occasional insect eggs and human feces |
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Fake Cities Replicas of Paris, London, Hallstatt, Holland Village, Sweden Town, Florence and Jackson Hole, Wyoming have been popping up by copycat developers choosing a very specific range of styles and countries to copy. The cities and landmarks copied are those associated with countries and cultures that oftentimes command a lot of influence. |
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Fake Cognac most notably the best brands like Remy Martin and Hennessey cognac, however, more and more distributors seem to be selling the real thing, rather than refilling old bottles with cheaper cognac. The problem remains at the individual bar level with bartenders swapping out the expensive for cheaper. |
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 Fake CondomsShanghai Police broke up a RMB 12 million manufacturing ring across 7 provinces of fake Jissbon and Durex condoms in 2015 |
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Fake Cosmetics Zhejiang police seize 1200 boxes of counterfeit cosmetics worth 827 million. Police in Taizhou city seized more than 1,200 boxes of the stuff from a number of underground warehouses in town. Inside the boxes were a range of different high-end make-up brand labels including Chanel, Lancome, Christian Dior and Estee Lauder. |
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Fake Crocs Footwear known as “Corcs” |
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Fake Dolce & Gabbana known as Docha & Cabanov” or “Dolce & Banana” |
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Fake Drivers Licenses & ID Cards originating from one company in Nanjing, insanely high-quality fake driver’s licenses and other IDs are available for every US state and many international countries. The fakes were so sophisticated, in fact, that they could fool not only bouncers and law enforcement officers, but also some bar-code readers. |
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 Fake DumplingsMaking fake meat dumplings in a garage out of leftover animal and bird carcasses by grinding everything together with coloring and extracts. Additionally, CNN uncovered a Beijing warehouse that used recycled cardboard boxes soaked with river water, and ground to pulp by barefooted old ladies to create dumpling fillings when mixed with coloring and seasonings. |
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Fake DVD’s Just a few years ago, entire shops, malls and every street corner had places to buy fake and pirated DVD’s. They still exist in small numbers, and are now off the beaten track, due to the advent of internet enabled digital downloads and live streaming apps in China. |
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 Fake EggsThe fake eggs were composed of gelatin, food coloring, and water, encased in a wax egg shell. |
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Fake Gillette razors known as “Gilnghey” or as “Gillehney” or “Gillehe” |
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Fake Ginseng A popular medicinal plant, used as a tonic in China for over 3,000 years. Clever vendors boiled the roots in sugar, which makes them much heavier and therefore more profitable, but because boiling ginseng in sugar stripped it from most of its medicinal values. The test showed that while natural ginseng has 20% content of sugar, this fake one is up to 70% sugar. |
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Fake Giorgio Armani Known as “Georgio Armani”. |
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Fake Gold Coins Hundreds of thousands of “gold coins” are being sold globally, but these are constructed of cheap alloys like tungsten, lead and zinc, with just enough gold to give them color. The coins are extraordinary artistic copies made with lasers to exactly replicate the look and shape of the real coin. And they even come in packaging that makes them appear genuine. |
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Fake Green Peas From Hunan and Guangdong, the peas are still hard after boiling, yet turned the water unnatural green color. Created with snow peas and soy beans, added with green dye and sodium metabisulfite (used as bleach and preservative). This dye is forbidden to use on produce because it may cause cancer, as well as obstruct the body’s ability to absorb calcium. |
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Fake Gucci. known as “Cuuci” |
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 Fake Honey60-70% of all honey sold in the mainland is fake, mixed with unknown chemicals. |
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Fake Hugo Boss known as “Huan Bsos” |
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Fake Ikea Store Meet 11Furniture, which has copied not only IKEA’s products but also its signature blue-and-yellow color scheme, 100,000-square feet warehouse complete with showrooms, mini pencils, and cafeteria-style restaurant! |
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Fake iPads Chinese company Goophone saw it as a great inspiration for its own tablet product, the $99 GooPad Mini. Not only is the physical design a complete ripoff of Apple’s own iPad Mini, the operating system is identical to Apple’s old iOS version. |
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Fake iPhones Apple is one of the biggest targets when it comes to Chinese smartphone knockoffs — it’s not uncommon to hear about a device being sold overseas that looks strikingly similar to the iPhone. |
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Fake Jellyfish A ton of man-made “jellyfish” has been seized in May 2016. a popular appetizer in China, the fake “jellyfish”, made from chemicals, from Zhejiang, had a high aluminum content, long-term consumption of which can damage bones and nerves, and lead to memory loss and mental decline. |
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 Fake KFCknown as “KFG”, or “OBC” or “OFC” of “KLC” |
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 Fake LambAccording to it’s own government, over 80% of lamb skewers in streets of Shanghai are fake, containing on average, 19.7% lamb. The rest are entrails of rat, cat and dog. |
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Fake Lee Jeans known as “Lgg Jeans” |
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Fake McDonalds Restaurant known as “McDnoald’s” |
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 Fake Milkin 2009, 53,000 ill infants were reported after drinking milk which was found to have Melamine. The said chemical is added to formula milk to enhance protein content, but comes with a fatal add-on. |
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Fake Motorbikes most of the Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki motorbikes are fake.. |
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Fake Museum of Fakes Forged artwork is nothing new, but a museum filled with forged exhibits? Only in China. The 60 million yuan ($9.8 million) Jibaozhai Museum opened with great fanfare in 2007 but closed a few years ago. Its 12 exhibition halls are packed with 40,000 exhibits of which 0.2% were authentic. |
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Fake News and Posts Well before Donald Trump hit the scene, designed to distract people away from a sensitive topic, or to commandeer support for something nobody was interested in, China’s propaganda department employs people to push out over 488 million fake social media posts a year who allegedly receive 50 Chinese cents for each post. |
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 Fake Nikeknown as “Nkie” or “Nire” of “Nibe” or “Hike” |
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Fake Nokia Mobile Phones known as “Nokla” |
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 Fake OrangesCustoms in HK confiscated 5,200 crates of oranges from Guangdong suspected of being grown injected with river water and fake Sunkist labels attached. |
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Fake Paintings an entire village called DaFen near Shenzhen is dedicated to copy artists creating fakes of modern and classic paintings for sale globally. |
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Fake Panasonic known as “Penesamig” or “Panosaonic” or “Passunic” |
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Fake Pepper Vendors in Guangdong collected local mud and sold it as black pepper, while their white pepper was mainly made out of flour. |
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 Fake PharmaceuticalsChina is believed to be the biggest source of fake medicines in the world. To cover their tracks, they often even fake the labels to say “Made in India”. |
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Fake Pizza Hut known as “Pizza Huh” |
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Fake Playboy known as “Pantboy” |
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Fake Playstation known as “Pop Station” or “PolyStation” |
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Fake Polo Ralph Lauren known as “Polo Ralpl House” |
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 Fake Porkin 2011 stated that a woman found her leftover pork dinner glowing in the middle of the night. One of the main ingredients of the meat was phosphorescent bacteria. |
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Fake Prada known as “Paradi” |
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Fake Prehistoric Fossils today China is one of the biggest suppliers of fake fossils on the planet. They can be made in a number of ways, including building skeletons out of chicken/frog bones or plaster and rock, to more authentic fakes made by mixing existing fossils into completely new animals, and sometimes even crushing them into a paste and sculpting new bones. |
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Fake Puma Sportswear known as “Tuna” or “Pmua” or “Fuma” or “Pama” |
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Fake Receipts To claim fake tax deductions and defraud employers for reimbursements, fake receipts or “fapiao” is big business in China – for example, employees of the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline managed to submit $6 million worth of fake receipts over 2 years. |
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 Fake RiceHuge amounts of fake rice has been seized in China, and it is believed that much of it is produced from potatoes combined with a synthetic resin, essentially plastic. The rice stayed hard after boiling and its long-term consumption could cause cancer. Further, it was estimated that three bowls of fake rice amounts to one plastic bag. |
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 Fake Rice Noodles50 factories near Dongguan, China were closed down by authorities due to the illegal use of rotten grain and potentially poisonous chemicals to manufacture approximately 1.1 million pounds of fake noodles. |
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 Fake SaltIndustrial salt is much cheaper, which is why 788 tons of it was sold over 13 years as table salt. The industrial salt (to melt snow on roads) can cause mental and physical issues, such as hypothyroid problems and reproductive system disorders. |
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Fake Shampoo that might burn your head |
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Fake Shure Microphones in 2011 Shure corporation along with officials of the Chinese government cracked down a case of counterfeit Shure products in Shenzhen. They discovered some 5000-odd fake Shure microphones. Now widely available as “Shupu” – what a difference a label makes. |
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 Fake Soft DrinksCoca Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Pepsi, Red Bull — all are heavily faked, often for sale in streets and in / around tourist spots. |
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Fake Software anything, any language, any version, and operating system — generally between RMB 10 and 100. |
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Fake Sony known as “Fony” or “Sonia” of “Sqny” |
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Fake Starbucks known as “Sunbucks”, “Starfucks”, “Buckstar”, “Sffcccks”, “Seayah”i, “USAbucks”, “Starbugs”, “pornstar”, “Starpreha”, “Stars & Bucks” and so many more…. |
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Fake Steamed Buns locals putting chemical-soaked recycled cardboard into the buns. The cardboard is soaked to soften it, before incorporating it with the pork filling. |
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Fake Sweet Potato Noodles a company in Zhongshan made at least 5.5 tons of fake noodles until people started complaining that what were supposed to be sweet potato noodles tasted strange. Further investigation revealed that the noodles were composed of corn with an industrial ink used to give them a purple color, and paraffin wax. |
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Fake Tide Laundry Detergent known as “Tids” of “Tihz” |
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Fake University 148 fake universities with millions of students spread across 12 provinces have university students finding out the hard way when they realize, often on the eve of their graduation, they have been attending four years of fake schooling. A man sent high school graduate admission letters to the Shandong Institute of Light Industry. The school was real, all right, but the letters were fake. The man then rented classrooms from the university and hired teachers to teach “college classes”. The charade went on for four years … until the students found out that they wouldn’t be getting their diplomas from the Shandong Institute because they had never actually been enrolled in it. |
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Fake US Military Microchips In 2010, the U.S. military unknowingly purchased 59,000 counterfeit Chinese microchips that could have been hacked and used to shut down the country’s missile defense system. |
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 Fake Walnutsthe manufactures collected empty walnut shells and filling it up with concrete, rocks and paper. |
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Fake Water tap water is commonly used to refill plastic bottles, and then use a handheld device bought on taobao to seal the lid — all can be done in less than 20 seconds |
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 Fake WineProducing fake wines is probably the most common fake food practice in China. |
Some More
Lesson learned, if it’s popular in China, it’s likely faked. Be wary and smart.. select from where, from whom, and when you buy anything, particularly anything you will digest. Strongly recommend initially eating/drinking in 4/5 star hotels and western restaurants initially, until you are more confident of the origin of goods.