Let's knock off the knockoffs

Despite a recent renovation that was vaunted as a drive to rid the Silk Market of bogus Burberry and ersatz Emporio, Louis the V's counterfeit cousins still reign.

Sorry to snitch, Abercrombie & Fitch, but the market is as true as ever to its roots as a pirate's cove with a trove of designer fakes. Little surprise there.

I jumped into the belly of this beast, known locally as Xiushui, on a fine Saturday to check whether the Beijing authorities' crackdown was just another whack-a-mole exercise.