I am going to China (Beijing, Xian and Shanghai) in a week. Can anyone give me some good advice, how and where to buy DVD's in the abovementioned cities? Any fine shops? I have never been to China before...
Thanks!

I would be very careful bringing the stuff back into the US. Especially any US made movies. China is a hotbed of piracy and copyright infringement. As far as I know it will be illegal to bring anything in the US that goes against copyright laws.

I heard about checking out bars in Beijing. Sounds funny but the website I asked regarding this recommended this. You should be able get dvds for about 5-10 RMB (Chinese Dollar; 8RMB equals 1 US Dollar).

I ended up not having time to check this out so I can not confirm or deny this tactic. As al_bundy stated, these are of course bootlegs which will get confiscated if the US customs decides to open your luggage. So dont go overboard and stuff your luggage with a ton of dvds

Go to the "Silk Market" in beijing. They have a bunch of fake goods like timberland and northface clothing (in addition to lots of other name brands) that's fun to bargain for. Just remember to bargain hard...just use a calculator to show the vendor what you want to pay...he will punch in what he wants to sell for and you go back and forth until you hit an agreed upon price. Just remember to start low...and dont feel bad about walking away. If you're close to a decent price, the vendor will probably chase after you to close the deal. Also, remember to give exact change since most of these guys will not give you back small change like 5-10 RMB.

Have fun and dont be afraid to bargain (it's part of the experience of shopping overseas)

XL

Try asking this question in the international forum. You should get plenty of info!

I seriously doubt that most US customs agents are knowledgable enough (or care enough) to tell the difference between a legimate DVD and a well made bootleg one (and I've seen many from China in my Chinatown excursions that are pretty well done). This would be the least of the things they are looking for in your luggage, anyway, unless you have tons of them. I sometimes have to work with US customs at my job, and based on my experiences with them, I'm pretty confident about this.

When I went to Beijing approximately 5 years ago there had been a huge crackdown on bootleg DVDs and CDs by the Chinese Government due to pressure placed on them by the U.S.

Most of the stores there cleared their shelves of bootlegs and the CDs/DVDs were moved to hit street vendors - which is where I was approached. While visiting the Silk Market I was approached by a man who simply said. "CD...DVD?". I asked him what he had and he opened a huge bag full of disks (no cases) with bootleg CDs and DVDs.

Not knowing the quality of any of the bootlegs I passed on them. Who knows, I could have ended up with 50 DVDs that someone filmed with a video camera while sitting in a theater! I just didn't want to take that risk.

So, to sum it up, when you get to Beijing you will probably be approached by bootleggers when approaching touristy places like the Silk Market... but buy at your own risk!!