An upcoming business trip to China will take me to both Beijing and Shanghai. I know that neither of these two cities is probably where the “Chinese” carbon fiber bike frames for various American and European brands are made, but can they be found there?

Anyone know if one of those back-alley shops in Shanghai might have some? I’d be willing to gamble a small amount of money on a “Colnago” or the like.

In Beijing, there is an area near the embassies where you can get a lot of name brand clothes, pirated software and the like. I saw a lot of North Face equiptment there several years ago. This stuff is just smuggled out of factories before shipping to the US. I don't know about bicycles and I would think it would be a pain to bring it into the US.