Shunyi residents are reminded to remain vigilant when choosing their purchases after local police have revealed they have closed down two workshops for manufacturing counterfeit high-end alcohol products sold in Shunyi supermarkets.
A total of five people were arrested in two separate raids last week on Chinese New Year's Eve. Police reported that after surveilling an illegal transaction between two drivers at a remote part of Airport East Road, detectives followed one of the vehicles back to a workshop located in Hejinying, Gaoliying.
There, police discovered that a husband and wife named Shen and Liu were repackaging cheap wholesale baijiu liquor as counterfeit versions of Yanghe Classic Blue baijiu liquor. Along with bottling equipment, police found the workshop to be stocked with discarded Yanghe bottles purchased from a recycling center.
Five-hundred bottles of fake alcohol with a market value of 70,000 yuan were confiscated. Police say the fake high-end alcohol products were then sold in small local supermarkets.
READ: Fake Booze Beijing: The Prevalence, Indicators,
and Dangers of Counterfeit Alcohol
And yet, that wasn't the only discovery made by police. While investigating Shen's and Liu's workshop, police reported experiencing a strong alcohol smell coming from the adjacent property. Upon looking over the wall, police then discovered – yup, you guessed it – an even larger fake alcohol workshop.
The neighboring factory was found to contain some 10,000 bottles of fake alcohol resembling expensive labels such as Maotai and Red Star erguotou, estimated to have a market value of 200,000 yuan.
Repackaging cheap alcohol into more expensive brands has been going on in Beijing's outskirts for years.
In 2010, four Wuliqiao men were arrested for trying to making counterfeit versions of Budweiser, Corona and Carlsberg using cheap Chinese beer. The year after that, six workshops in Chaoyang and Tongzhou districts were busted for manufacturing 10,000 bottles of fake alcohol that resembled such popular brands as “Johnny Walker,” “Chivas,” and “Jack Daniel’s.”
With alcohol consumption at an all-time high in China, getting scammed by counterfeits is always a concern. But even though these scams are more likely to take place in less-reputable bars, consumers should still be wary when buying alcohol in stores.
One way to be sure that you are buying an authentic product is by its date of expiry seen on a white label (written in Chinese) commonly seen on bottles of beer. In an interview with Cellar Door owner Rain we conducted last year, she said that all beer bottles "must have the Chinese import label for tax purposes."
Besides having a Chinese import or manufacture date and location, authentic bottles of alcohol sold in Chinese stores should also be labeled with a serial number. And while you're at it, check to see that all the bottles of the same brand are filled to the same level.
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Images: iFeng, Beijing News, zbgl, wadongxi