I stayed in Beijing most of the time I was in China and cant point out any shops in Shanghai
But I can tell you one thing, be very careful with fakes, rejected items, defects and price (bargaining)
Makes you wonder, doesn't it, why there's such a big difference that way between the Chinese and Japanese cultures?
In the PRC it seems like everyone's out for themselves; stories of fakery, fraud and corruption are everywhere.
In Japan, it's considered dishonorable to cheat people (hey, maybe because it
is dishonorable), and I've found most people there will go considerably out of their way to be helpful and honest.
Maybe it's because the PRC's average standard of living is still far below that of Japan, so there's more pressure to succeed at any cost? And of course every person is different, so obviously one can't generalize too much. Overall, though, between the societies there seems to be a stark contrast in values.
