Fake Haibao goods still being sold
- Source: Global Times
- [10:23 July 09 2010]
- Comments
A vendor hawks fake Expo products to visitors last month inside the Expo Park. Photo: IC
By Ni Dandan
As peddlers selling fake Haibao products waited for customers inside the Expo Park Thursday, organizers said that they have made great strides in combating the illegal sales of phony Expo products at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
"As a result of our strong public campaigning, visitors have been made well aware of the poor quality of the fake products, and as such peddlers have been discouraged by the reduced demand from customers," Lin Shengyong, director of commercial management for the Shanghai World Expo Coordination Bureau, told the Global Times Thursday.
He did, however, admit that they have caught peddlers making their way into the park, particularly during the evenings and nights.
But according to two sisters, posing Thursday as visitors resting on the grassy area by the UK Pavilion, who have been selling small Expo souvenir fakes inside the park since June, business is thriving.
"We sell a lot of key chains to visitors," the woman who preferred to remain anonymous told the Global Times Thursday. "We charge 5 yuan ($0.73) for three, and it's a piece of cake for us to sell 100 of them every day, which is enough to earn back the price we pay for an entry ticket.
"On a good day, we sell some 500 key chains," she added.
Meanwhile, a security guard surnamed Zhou, who works at the Gate No.7 entrance near Changqing Road in Pudong New Area, where many of the peddlers gather daily, said that many of the peddlers know one another and likely share the same supplier.
"We always tell them to be discreet otherwise we'll both get in trouble," he told the Global Times Thursday.
He added that guards do break up crowds of peddlers, but admitted that beyond getting them to leave they have no real authority to do anything else.
Director Lin Thursday declined to comment on the number of illegal peddlers that have been caught, or whether or not they were punished. But, he said that it is difficult to prevent all of them from sneaking in, though authorities are continuing to mind the situation.
Gu Jun, vice director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, told reporters Thursday that there has been no real influence on the sale of officially licensed Expo souvenirs from the sale of fakes.
"Most of the fake souvenirs are small and sell for cheap, unlike the wide range of official products available," he added.
