Pearls have long been regarded as a beautiful if not truly precious item of decadent luxury, so what better place to buy them than in the Pearl of the Orient itself, the city of Shanghai. You can find discounts on pearls and pearl jewelry in Shanghai, but not substantial discounts, and you have to keep your wits and caution about you.

If you want to buy pearls in China don’t buy them from the guy on the corner or from some dark, back alley merchant who is likely as shady as their lackluster lighting. If you want pearls, stick to the chain stores or other prestigious and reputable markets. If you get suckered into buying false pearls — no matter how convincing they may be — by a small merchant, you can be assured that by the time your complaint may come to light, they will be long gone and impossible to find.

Here’s the “beware” list when it comes to pearl vendors:

- Don’t buy pearls in a shop you were brought to by a local tour guide.
This is a common trap; a local guide either brings you in to a shop that charges premium prices for legitimate pearls so that he can have a cut from the sale or you’ll be taken to a shop that sells fake pearls, in which case all of your money is out the window.

- Don’t buy pearls from a small, suspiciously cheap looking shop.
They have no commitment to their own business and they have no commitment to your satisfaction as a client.

- Insist upon authenticity verification while you watch.
It’s an easy matter to verify a pearl is real. Just take a blade and scrape the surface of the pearl. If it’s plastic, the pearlescent coating will scrape off and what you’ll find beneath will be a blanched looking piece of plastic. A real pearl (which you can choose at random along a strand of pearls) can be scratched down through layer after layer with each being as pearlescent as the one above it.

- Don’t pay too much.

Seriously, if you’re going to pay full retail, buy your pearls from a known merchant back home. I once looked at a nine-pack of socks and the guy wanted 100RMB for it. I said, “That’s like twelve bucks, I could buy it for ten (80RMB) back home,” and he said, “Okay, 80RMB!” Nice try pal, but I’m not going to buy something for full retail price just so I can carry it 6,000 miles in my luggage.