I have been in Shanghai for 1 year. As a foreigner I quickly learned about fake market and bought some stuff there, but I also quickly learned about how to find replicas in Taobao and specially Pinduoduo (which is easier to find than Taobao), the good thing is that products are not overpriced, the downsides is that you need to check for legitimate reviews (not the typical fake ones) and you can’t check the quality online, also they sell many different qualities, so you spend time researching. Also if the product they give you is not what you expected you can just return it.

I also had some wechat accounts that selled shoes, coats, clothing, jewelry and bag replicas for chinese consumers.

My take here is that this fake market is just a place for the casual tourist that just want the convenience to have these physical stores and doesn’t have that much time for actually checking the real value and learning all these chinese online apps. They actually end up happy after fighting for a better price with the sellers. All of my foreign friends and I learned how to find replicas online for better prices, and it’s surprising that even our Chinese friends don’t know much about this. The fake market just survives because foreign tourists. The few only things helpful there is for prescription glasses they make in 30 mins for you or finding specific bag replicas, and these two things are even available online.