You bought that beautiful bag in the USA?

The Shanghai daily newspaper reported today that thousands of fake luxury bags and purses have been confiscated and 73 suspects detained in southern China in a crackdown on what police say was a major source of counterfeit goods destined for export to the USA and the Middle East.

More than 20,000 bags and suitcases purporting to be famous brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Coach were discovered in the suspects' warehouses along with 17 manufacturing machines, 91 bank cards and deposit books, the Ministry of Public Security said.

Investigators said that more than 960,000 fake bags of various brands had been manufactured by this gang for export. So much for just buying fake bags in China.
They estimated the value of conterfeit goods is five billion yuan or $802,000,000 (US)

In January this year, police received information that the suspects were making fake Louis Vuitton and Coach bags in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, and exporting them to countries including the United States. Police launched a raid to capture the gang as they were in the process of exporting another batch of fake bags.

The gang is believed to have made such huge profits from the business that they had even managed to buy a large plot of land in Anhui Province where they were planning to build a factory, police said.
 

Looking for a job?

The Shanghai Daily Youth newspaper wrote yesterday that a Chinese condom manufacturer was looking to hire "lively and good looking women" age 18 to 25 as condom testers in Shanghai. The company was offering 3,000 Yuan ($480.00 US) per day to the women.

A reporter who followed up spoke with a man at the company who informed him they had been hiring women for months. The man, a Mister Chen told the reporter many young woman had already passed the interviews and that they already had enough males testers as well - there goes my chance for work!!

The company spokesperson went on to say although machines are usually used to test condoms, they had to hire men and women because the machines were too expensive for this company to purchase. He said it's a pretty easy job for women. It's the men who have to take notes and report back on many different aspects of the condoms performance.

When the reporter suggested these people were engaged in prostitution  Mr. Chen admitted the women are required to engage in sex with men but it was not prostitution. He was indignant and said if that was the case they'd be paying women far less!! He said women are only paid to test the condoms once a day - the company does not pay extra if they volunteer to do more testing every day.

When the newspaper contacted a lawyer about the legality of this activity they were informed it would be difficult to classify the job as illegal since at the moment there are no laws in China regarding condom testing. In a nutshell, this is a pretty good example of  the creativity of some people to play at the boundaries of Justice - condom testing - who'd have thunk???

It's vitamin C tablets from here on in

The market watch dog here in Shanghai has confiscated nearly 150 kilograms of oranges from a grocery in the city's northeast Yangpu District following claims that the seller had added colouring agents to make the oranges look fresher and more attractive.

The "coloured oranges" were discovered when a woman who purchased the oranges washed the fruit and realized its colour changed. Not only did the color change but the water used to wash the fruit turned red and stained her fingers.

Of course the owner of the fruit shop proclaimed his innocence saying the fruit arrived at his store like that. The oranges originated from a fruit wholesaler just outside the city. Calls by the Shanghai Daily were not returned other than they were told the boss was away.

"It is accepted policy here in China to cover fruit with edible wax to polish and enhance their appearance" said Yuan Yaxiang, head of the Shanghai Fruit Association so it's no wonder more creative sellers also add their own touch once in a while.

Over the past year and a half, I've written about phosphorescent pork, urine soaked eggs, fake eggs, harmful flavor enhancers, exploding watermelons, pesticide laced apples, cabbage soaked in formaldehyde, dog a la carte and now coloured oranges. The good news is we are still very healthy and eating very well - just carefully.

What is really ironic is that Shanghai is home to some of the best restaurants we have ever dined in. The food is wonderful and the ambiance surpasses many of the most popular restaurants in Toronto or Montreal - all of this so very weird which makes Shanghai an adventure not to be missed.

Beauty and the beast

Here's the story of a beautiful woman marrying a regular looking guy and the repercussions that followed when they had an "ugly" child.

It doesn't get more bizarre than this - well maybe in China it might, but I thought this story was worth noting on many levels.

According to the Shanghai Daily, it seems a man in North China who married a woman because of her looks (he claims she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen) filed for divorce after he found out that his beautiful wife was actually very ugly and had undergone extensive plastic surgery to change her looks before he met her. The kicker here is the court granted him the divorce.

How you say did he discover this ghastly subterfuge? The truth came out according to the man after his wife gave birth to a daughter who the man described as "Extremely ugly" (am sure he will make a great father).

It was only after accusing his wife of adultry because what other reason would account for her having such an ugly child that the truth came out. His wife had spent close to $100,000.00 US (I guess her parents were not struggling farmers) on plastic surgery to improve her looks.

The man was so outraged he filed for divorce seeking $120,000.00 US in compensation for mental cruelty claiming the woman lured him into the marriage under false pretenses and if you can believe it, the court accepted his claim.

So to all our friends - be forewarned - if you've had a lift, nose job, or breast augmentation and you plan on marrying a Chinese man, you'd better fess up before the marriage or you could get in trouble. As far as the ugly child goes - I guess based on the brain capacity of both parents, she'll probably have plastic surgery before she's 10. And if you are a plastic surgeon, China is the place to be - I don't think this case is unique. Last week I read a similar story of a Chinese woman who had extensive plastic surgery to try and look like Jennifer Lopez - In her case it all failed and she`s left looking pretty weird and scary.