 |
||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
|
Major counterfeit beer operation uncovered in KunmingThursday, 13th March 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
One of the more colorful old sayings in Chinese is "selling dog meat and hanging a sheep's head" (卖狗肉挂羊头) - an expression that conveys how pervasive counterfeit products have been throughout the country's history. There is very little in China that cannot be counterfeited – that includes beer too, as the Xishan Bureau of Commerce confirmed on Tuesday when it raided a rented space behind a cement factory in the Majie area that contained more than 20,000 bottles of fake Budweiser and Carlsberg beers. The secret behind the scam: taking a big, cheap bottle of local Kingstar Beer (金星啤酒), splitting its contents between two smaller Budweiser or Carlsberg bottles and a bottle-capping machine to fix caps to the top of the bottles. The total time it takes to increase the Kingstar's value up to ten times – ten seconds. A former worker at the facility who was asked by the government to demonstrate how to turn a 610 milliliter Kingstar Beer into two 300 milliliter Budweisers (see image above) said that experienced workers could make two fake beers in around five seconds – making as many as more than 1,000 fake Budweisers or Carlsbergs in one evening.
'Cooking' the beer has two reasons behind it. Firstly, Kingstar beer tends to have more flavor than Budweiser or Carlsberg – raising its temperature rendered the beer's flavor less strong. Secondly, cooking the beers ensured that upon opening, the beers would bubble up and produce a foamy head. During Tuesday's raid, six 'northeasterners' were arrested at the counterfeit beer operation, authorities say they suspect the leader of the ring is also from northeastern China. An investigation by the municipal commerce bureau is underway and has already discovered that the operation would go to KTVs, nightclubs and bars to collect used Budweiser and Carlsberg bottles which were then refilled with Kingstar, cooked and sold back to Kunming's entertainment establishments. Kingstar beer costs two to three yuan per bottle, after being repackaged as two smaller import beers, the same beer could be resold for 10 to 20 yuan – a respectable profit margin of up to 1,000 percent. It is estimated that the 20,000 bottles of beer seized and destroyed in the raid would have been sold as the genuine article for between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan. Images: www.clzg.cn Tags: Budweiser, Carlsberg, counterfeit beer, IPR, Kingstar Beer, KTV, Majie
Finding the underground scene in any city always takes a little digging - last Friday night it meant searching around a sketchy former 'KTV' near Kunming's north rail station. We were searching for No Answer (打死我也不说), the all-girl punk band that stole the show at a night of music at Shelter Bar earlier that week, despite being the opening act. After making our way down a narrow alley and up two dark flights of stairs, we came upon a red hallway with pink lighting and small rooms named after the Western zodiac. The entire floor of small rooms had been converted into small practice spaces rented by local bands. At the far end of the hallway a rock band was practicing loudly. We were greeted by Shi Yang, No Answer's 18-year-old guitarist, who led us to her band's practice space. Shi Yang and bandmates Jiang Yuhan (bass, 21) and Yang Yang (drums, 19) have been practicing together every day in their small rented space since forming two months ago. Although they've only been playing together for a short time, they are already one of the city's tightest and more interesting musical acts. As with most Chinese punk bands, No Answer is heavily influenced by Western punk bands - Bikini Kill, Action Pact and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs being their favorites. So far Their favourite song to play at the moment - all of their song lyrics are in English - is the edgy "Big Aunty", which explores the feelings of crankiness that accompany premenstrual syndrome. Although Kunming's music scene is typically dominated by men - many of whom dismiss the girls as having too heavy a feminist slant - No Answer said they're just writing about their experiences and feelings. Drummer Yang Yang, who's been playing drums since age nine, said the band wasn't interested in being pigeonholed as feminist. "We're just making music about our lives," she said in between puffs on her cigarette, "Making music that other women can relate to is a way for women here to have more self-respect." Elder band member and bassist Jiang Yuhan said that although the trio is currently playing punk they are also beginning to develop a more New Wave sound with the songs they are currently writing and practicing in their slightly cramped practice space. According to Jiang, the band loves punk but wants to explore other musical styles. "Good music has no style - it's anything that touches one's heart," she said. For the short term, No Answer is working on new songs in preparation for an upcoming demo. The band will also be playing their first festival gig at the Kunming Outdoor Music Festival this Saturday in Taiping town outside of Kunming. They are scheduled to take the stage around 7 pm. Tags: Jiang Yuhan, KTV, Kunming Outdoor Music Festival, live music, No Answer, punk, Shi Yang, Yang Yang |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| ©2006-8 MGHK Limited |