Before we came here we were under the illusion that everyone else is also under, that is, that we can buy lots of things here in China.  After all, seems like everything is made here.  Like computer parts.  Tom in fact bought a SanDisk 8 GB memory stick from a supposed SanDisk dealer down in the Suzhou computer market (BTW, prices for all such items are at or typically above what we would pay in the US).  But the memory stick never worked right.  It would never let you put more than a fraction of the 8GB worth of files on it, then it would report itself full.

So, Tom took it apart, and looked the chip code up on the manufacturer’s website.  The chip turned out to in fact be a 256MB chip (suffice it to say, many order of magnitude smaller than the 8GB emblazoned on the outside of the module).  A Chinese firm had gone to all the trouble to counterfeit the SanDisk chip using components that would let the chip appear to work when inserted into the computer, but would not in fact provide anything near the 8GB of storage.  And the so-called reputable shop was selling the counterfeits.

People who’ve never lived here would think we could take this back.  Not so.  Stores won’t take anything back, even things as blatent as this.  They simply refuse with No, No, and no explanation, or by accusing you of bringing back a different part from what they sold you (although, this might be a necessary self-defense against their exploitation by other Chinese that would surely occur to anyone who did replace or refund anything).

For those who wonder why we buy everything from US companies and lug it to China on the airplane with us, this is why.