Even better than the real thing?

Fake Fendi? Cool! Dodgy drugs? Not so much...

Business people are wont to regard it as contempt for intellectual property and the sacred rights of "the brand." Adbusters, anti-globalisation campaigners and people on tight budgets label it creative genius. Either way, there's no disguising the fact that China is the land of fakes, and Beijing the capital of the simulacrum.

The speed with which fashions are replicated is awesome. If a new line from, say, Zara appears in the shopping malls on a Monday, there'll be faithful copies at the markets by dawn on Thursday. If you meet a Beijinger who buys authentic CDs (to play on his utterly pseudo name-brand hi-fi stack system), take him for a beer. Then again, that might turn out to be bogus too, as might the noodles you tuck into afterwards, and the headache tabs you take the next morning to get over the fake booze-induced hangover.

Everything has its dodgy double. During the past year, there have been reports of silkworm chrysalis "dietary supplements" that turned out to be a mixture of pig blood and feathers; dried fish laced with insecticide to give it a longer shelf life; gelatine made from rendered leather and fur offcuts. Even staples of the peasant cupboard such as eggs and flour have been found to be unreliable.

Fantasy and horror mix in this specious world where the lure (and saleability) of Western products mingles with Chinese industriousness. Fake antiobiotics killed 11 Chinese people in 2006. There are also stories of dodgy car parts (including brakes that don't stop) and even plane parts (engines that suddenly stop).

At some point during a trip to China, you will have a brush with one fake or another. Chances are it will be one of the friendly "art students" who hang out on Tiananmen Square preying on potential customers for their 'galleries' where tat is passed off as art. But don't believe every rumour or bit of gossip you hear – some of the more fantastical stories about fakes turn out to be...fakes.

Chris Moss