On January 11, at a counterfeiting site in Qibao Village, Duliuzhen, Tianjin, before anti-counterfeiting personnel arrived, the counterfeiters fled hastily, leaving the filling machine used to produce fake 'Shisanxiang' still warm. On January 11, at a counterfeiting site in Qibao Village, Duliuzhen, Tianjin, anti-counterfeiting personnel seized a large quantity of finished and semi-finished fake 'Shisanxiang' products. Subsequently, the counterfeit products and machinery were loaded onto trucks and taken away. On January 11, anti-counterfeiting personnel discovered industrial salt used for blending fake soy sauce at a villager's home in Duliuzhen that produced counterfeit soy sauce. On January 11, at a villager's home in Duliuzhen producing fake soy sauce, counterfeiters used this large plastic bucket to blend fake soy sauce. There were three such large buckets in this household. On January 11, at a villager's home in Duliuzhen producing fake soy sauce, the floor was covered with bottled fake soy sauce filled but not yet labeled, empty bottles waiting to be filled, and large plastic buckets used for blending the fake soy sauce. After being used by melon seed processing enterprises, star anise, Sichuan pepper, and cumin are recovered, dried, crushed, and simply processed and packaged to produce a packet of fake 'Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang'. Industrial salt, coloring, food additives, and tap water are mixed together, and after labeling, it becomes a bottle of 'Lee Kum Kee' or 'Haitian' soy sauce. In ordinary residential houses in Duliuzhen, Jinghai District, Tianjin, large quantities of counterfeit brand-name seasonings are produced daily, affecting well-known brands such as Nestlé, Totole, Wang Shouyi, Knorr, Haitian, and Lee Kum Kee. These counterfeit and substandard seasonings are distributed through logistics or direct delivery to Beijing, Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Shandong, Sichuan, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, and other regions. At the end of November last year, a Beijing News reporter entered Duliuzhen based on tips from insiders and investigated this 'Northern Seasoning Counterfeiting Center' as manufacturers call it, discovering that there are as many as 40 to 50 counterfeiting sites, with an annual output value in the hundreds of millions, and a history of counterfeiting spanning over a decade. Industrial salt and coloring mixed to produce soy sauce In a cluttered room, in a corner stood a dark blue plastic bucket over 1 meter tall, containing nearly half of a sauce-colored liquid. A wooden stick was inserted in the bucket, with several discolored rubber tubes wrapped around it, extending out of the bucket. The surrounding white walls were stained black, and the floor was piled with various raw materials, empty glass bottles, and caps printed with 'Donggu' and 'Lee Kum Kee' logos. Nearby were some glass bottles already filled but not yet labeled. In two other rooms, the floor was also covered with filled and sealed but unlabeled 'Donggu Soy Sauce'. In a corner, there were over 20 boxes of 'Donggu Yipinxian Soy Sauce' already packed, along with stacks of neatly arranged outer cartons for Donggu soy sauce and buckets of coloring. A batch of 'brand-name soy sauce' was about to leave the factory. At around 1 p.m. on January 11, a Beijing News reporter, along with anti-counterfeiting personnel from Henan Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang Seasoning Group Co., Ltd., and the head of the Tianjin Jinghai District Criminal Investigation Brigade, entered this ordinary residential house on the bank of the Ziya River in Duliuzhen for an anti-counterfeiting inspection, discovering that large quantities of counterfeit brand-name soy sauce were being produced here daily. In the yard outside, at the entrance, one could see cartons for 'La Xian Lu' (spicy fresh dew) placed by the door. In the yard, there were dozens of boxes of chicken essence without any brand logo, and dozens of buckets of black liquid without labels. A woman in her sixties claimed to be the owner of the yard. She told the head of the criminal investigation brigade that the house was rented to others and she knew nothing about the counterfeiting. She also demanded that the anti-counterfeiting personnel leave, claiming that the counterfeit products were unrelated to 'Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang'. The reporter had to leave with the anti-counterfeiting personnel. The head of the criminal investigation brigade then contacted police officers to handle the matter. 'When manufacturers conduct anti-counterfeiting operations, as long as no fake Shisanxiang products are found on site, subsequent handling is not our concern,' the Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang anti-counterfeiting personnel told the reporter. According to local counterfeiters, making soy sauce is very simple: mix industrial salt, tap water, coloring, and food additives in certain proportions. At the counterfeiting site mentioned above, the reporter saw raw materials including potassium sorbate additive, sodium benzoate additive, Sanfu brand sodium cyclamate, MSG, and two and a half bags of white packaged Changzhou brand 'High-grade Refined Salt'. On January 12, the Beijing News reporter called the manufacturer and seller of the Changzhou brand 'High-grade Refined Salt' using the contact information on the packaging found at the counterfeiting site. Both parties stated that the salt is industrial salt, not edible, and cannot be used in food production. Liu Shaowei, an expert from the Department of Food Science and Engineering at the School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology, told reporters last night that industrial salt cannot be used as a food ingredient and should be labeled 'Not for Consumption'. He said that industrial salt contains many impurities and harmful components, such as nitrites, which are carcinogenic, and heavy metals that can damage the liver and kidneys. Although sodium cyclamate, sodium benzoate, and potassium sorbate can be used as food additives, they must be strictly added according to relevant standards. Excessive amounts can also be harmful to human health. For example, sodium benzoate, as a preservative, can prevent food spoilage and extend shelf life, but excessive use can harm the liver and even cause cancer. Used star anise and Sichuan pepper recycled to produce 'Shisanxiang' Leaving the soy sauce counterfeiting site, on the afternoon of January 11, the Beijing News reporter continued to follow the Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang anti-counterfeiting personnel and the head of the criminal investigation brigade to a fake Shisanxiang production site in Qibao Village, Duliuzhen. Approaching the yard, a strong smell of Sichuan pepper and spices could be detected. When the anti-counterfeiting team arrived, the gate of the yard had been locked from the outside, but people could still be seen moving inside. At that moment, a man in his thirties was attempting to climb over the wall on the side near the road to escape, but was stopped by the anti-counterfeiting personnel. After repeated knocking on the door went unanswered, the police forced the gate open. Inside the yard, only a few women and children were found, and the man who had climbed the wall was nowhere to be seen. This is a typical northern courtyard house. On the left side of the yard, a color steel plate room of about 20 square meters was built, connected to the main house. In the yard, a snake-skin bag contained outer cartons printed with 'Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang'. Entering the color steel plate room, a large wooden board placed on stools was in front of the door, piled with a large number of filled powdered seasonings. Under the board were bags of 'Shisanxiang' packaging boxes. In a corner of the room, three large snake-skin bags were filled with finished products. In the dimly lit main house, there was a filling machine that was still radiating heat, with unfilled raw materials in its hopper, and fake 'Shisanxiang' packaging bags waiting to be filled on the machine. In front of the filling machine, about 20 bags of raw material powder were stacked. On another counter, there were two sealing machines. On the floor, in unmarked white cartons, there were over 20 boxes of seasonings already sealed with film, complete with the 'Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang' trademark and design. A woman claiming to be the owner of the yard also said she knew nothing about the counterfeiting, stating that the color steel plate room was rented short-term to a man with a northeastern accent, whose name she did not know, and no contract was signed. The Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang anti-counterfeiting personnel then called for vehicles to load and transport the seized counterfeit goods, raw materials, and processing equipment, which were taken under police escort to a warehouse in Duliuzhen for storage, pending further handling. As for the counterfeiters, they could only await police follow-up investigation. According to an insider who had delivered raw materials to this site, the site had existed for over two years. They used raw materials from the nearby Wangkou Town, which has many melon seed processing enterprises. These enterprises use star anise, Sichuan pepper, cumin, and other spices to soak melon seeds. The used waste materials are collected by specialized recyclers, who dry and crush them into powder, then sell them to seasoning counterfeiters at 2 yuan per jin (0.5 kg). 'Each time, 1 ton of raw materials is delivered, which can last for several days,' the insider said. At the end of December last year, the reporter found this waste recycling site in Wangkou Town. It was an abandoned yard piled with various household waste, and a worker was pushing a handcart loaded with bagged raw materials out. According to a worker who had worked at this site, they used stone mills to grind the materials. One person could grind 1 ton of waste materials per day. The counterfeiters' circle of acquaintances Duliuzhen is a famous vinegar town in northern China, located 30 kilometers southwest of downtown Tianjin. It is a thousand-year-old town, named after the convergence of the South Canal, Ziya River, and Daqing River. The town features standard northern architectural styles, with crisscrossing alleys, each household having its own courtyard, surrounded by high red brick walls that look similar, making it impossible to see inside from outside. Among these high-walled residential courtyards, an ordinary-looking yard could be a seasoning counterfeiting site. According to local insiders, counterfeiters in Duliuzhen have formed an interconnected circle; if one is alerted, all others get wind of it. 'Even if outsiders want to buy goods, these counterfeiters may not sell to you. Especially the larger operations, they already have stable customer bases nationwide. Strangers need to be introduced by acquaintances before they will sell to you,' the insider said. The fake seasoning business in Duliuzhen has long been notorious in the market. A seasoning distributor in Cangzhou, Hebei, said that Duliuzhen has a complete range of counterfeit goods with large sales volume, and one can purchase all brands of fake seasonings from a local counterfeit dealer. The larger fake seasoning dealers have good connections locally, with dozens of people working for them in processing, delivery, and procurement. The industry chain is clearly divided, with scattered sites. The daily combined shipment volume of all brands is several thousand boxes, delivered by three trucks to various logistics points in Tianjin for nationwide distribution. In nearly two months, the Beijing News reporter investigated and confirmed at least 10 counterfeiting sites, all in Duliuzhen. According to multiple people in the local industry, there are at least 40 to 50 counterfeiting sites in Duliuzhen. The aforementioned insider said: 'In Duliuzhen, you can make all well-known seasonings in the country, including soy sauce, vinegar, MSG, etc.' When counterfeiters sell goods nationwide and contact distributors, they do not use real names. Some may have been doing business for a long time but do not know each other's names. Through local insiders, the Beijing News reporter contacted seven counterfeiters in Duliuzhen under the identity of a 'seasoning merchant'. All said they had goods (fake seasonings) available, with reliable packaging and quality, and could send samples for the reporter to check before making a decision. A counterfeiter surnamed Liu said he had all 'popular goods', such as 'Totole Chicken Essence' series, 'Haitian Soy Sauce' series, 'Nestlé Maggi Seasoning', 'Knorr La Xian Lu', and 'Knorr Chicken Juice'. If he did not have a particular seasoning, he would source it from friends. 'Many friends are in this business, each making different seasonings, and we can exchange goods among ourselves.' Another counterfeiter, mainly producing vinegar, soy sauce, 'Knorr series', and 'Totole series', was quite cautious, repeatedly verifying the reporter's identity. According to local insiders, this person has multiple sites, one of which is in a hutong on Youhao Street in the southwest of Duliuzhen. Known locally as 'Er Jie', she sells over a thousand boxes daily. 'Er Jie' claims her surname is Wang, a local of Duliuzhen, who has been in this business for many years, producing several hundred boxes per day at one site. The 'price list' she sent to the reporter shows 22 types of seasonings, including soy sauce, vinegar, hot pot ingredients, sauces, chicken essence, oyster sauce, etc., with counterfeit targets including well-known brands such as Meihao, Caishen, Jiuzhuang, Angel, Donggu, Haitian, Laoganma, Shuita, Baiding, Huang Feihong, Weidamei, and Knorr. According to her, some prices on the list are for a white carton, for example, Knorr La Xian Lu is 20 yuan per carton (8 bottles per carton, 6 bottles per box, about 3.33 yuan per bottle). Other prices are for the seasoning itself per box, for example, fake 'Totole Chicken Essence' 1 kg pack is 55 yuan per box, 5.5 yuan per bag. Among the fake seasonings sent by several counterfeiters, the reporter saw that the outer packaging boxes and brand labels were indistinguishable from genuine products, and even QR codes could be scanned. For example, the fake seasonings sold by 'Er Jie', 'Knorr La Xian Lu' and 'Totole Chicken Essence' 1 kg pack, had brand labels identical to genuine ones in font, color, and size. Scanning the QR code on the fake 'Knorr La Xian Lu' showed a JD.com merchant price of 20.5 yuan per bottle. Scanning the fake 'Totole Chicken Essence' 1 kg pack showed a Yihaodian price of 29.9 yuan per bag. The head of Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang anti-counterfeiting operations said that based on past investigations, the daily output value of fake seasonings in Duliuzhen is estimated at about 500,000 yuan. By this calculation, the annual output value of fake seasonings in the area exceeds 100 million yuan. Counterfeiting sites scattered, big boss drives Porsche The aforementioned local insider in Duliuzhen said that the large-scale counterfeiting sites in Duliuzhen are monopolized by four or five families. These sites employ local people and are scattered in multiple hidden locations within the town. The larger sites ship about five or six truckloads per day, all using Futian trucks. The most well-known fake goods bosses are Liu and Xing, both in their forties or fifties, who usually drive Porsche and Audi cars but rarely appear at the sites. According to local insiders, a big boss's sites are distributed across various locations in Duliuzhen. In the afternoon or evening, goods from these small workshops are gathered at one location. For example, one site makes soy sauce, another makes something else, using this model to spread risk. The counterfeiter 'Er Jie' said she has a vinegar-making site and multiple sites for other seasonings on the price list. Each site produces different products. 'They must be separated; you can't produce in one yard, otherwise if caught, it would be a one-shot deal.' Insiders say that the local fake seasoning industry is prevalent. Initially, there was intense competition among counterfeiters, and they would report each other to manufacturers for anti-counterfeiting actions. But after years of crackdowns by manufacturers and relevant departments, counterfeiters have begun to unite, sharing information and exchanging goods. However, they do not know the locations of each other's sites. In mid-December last year, the reporter visited the soy sauce counterfeiting site that was later raided. It was a yard with white tiles on the walls, and a surveillance camera was installed in a corner. At 1 p.m., a gray van was parked in front of the gate, and a middle-aged man was loading unmarked white cartons onto the vehicle. When he saw a vehicle passing, he would stop and watch warily. After the reporter drove past and turned around 100 meters ahead, two minutes later, a white Hebei-plated car that had been parked in front of the gate followed the reporter's vehicle for 20 kilometers before turning back. Similarly, in the alleys near Youhao Street in the southwest of Duliuzhen and near the main street in the northwest, two courtyards deep in the alleys also had surveillance cameras installed. After 4 p.m. daily, these three locations began to see vans coming and going to pick up and deliver goods. At around 5:30 p.m. on January 7, in a hutong northwest of the intersection of Dujing Road and Jingba Line on the main street of Duliuzhen, under dim streetlights, two surveillance cameras were installed on the courtyard walls inside the hutong, with several vans parked around. A blue small truck was loading boxes one by one deep in the alley. Over several consecutive days, the reporter observed that this truck loaded goods here every day and then delivered them to a logistics company. A local insider in Duliuzhen said that the above locations are all seasoning counterfeiting sites, and he had delivered goods for them. These sites produce various soy sauces, chicken essences, etc., and the workers are relatives and friends, not hired externally. 'Every household looks the same; without knowing the situation, it's impossible to find them without clues.' He said these counterfeiters are highly vigilant, with workshops set up in residential houses and surveillance cameras installed outside. Moreover, they move from place to place, making them elusive. They produce during the day and transport the finished goods around 4 p.m. According to previous media reports, to evade supervision, these counterfeiters often change locations, produce in the afternoon or evening, and immediately transport the goods away, not storing large quantities of finished products or materials on site, which makes it difficult for law enforcement to inspect. Once, the quality supervision department received a report that a printing factory was producing counterfeit outer boxes for various brands. When law enforcement arrived, the entire factory was empty. It turned out that the counterfeiters had installed cameras at the entrance of the yard and fled at the first sign of trouble. Local industry chain formed The long-term existence of numerous counterfeiting sites has spawned a complete upstream and downstream industry chain locally. The fake seasonings produced in Duliuzhen use packaging boxes and labels that can be purchased locally. For bottled seasonings, there are specialized recyclers who collect used seasoning bottles, clean them with caustic soda, and sell them to counterfeiters. On the morning of January 7, following an insider's guidance, the reporter entered a large yard at the northeast corner of the intersection of Jingba Line and Jingfu Road in Duliuzhen. At the far left inside the yard, a large number of bottles were piled, including soy sauce bottles with 'Haitian', 'Jiajia', and 'Donggu' logos. Entering the inner room, there were two cement pools of about 4 square meters each, where two middle-aged women in aprons and gloves were scrubbing bottles. The pools were half-filled with bottles, and the room was cluttered with various bottles. Seeing strangers enter, the two women became alert. Subsequently, a man claiming to be the boss entered and questioned the reporter. The reporter said he came to buy seasoning bottles, but the man said he had none and did not sell. According to local insiders, this is a place that specifically provides bottles to counterfeiters. They collect used seasoning bottles, wash them with caustic soda, and sell them to various counterfeiting sites. Additionally, in Wangjiaying Village, south of Duliuzhen, there is an unlicensed carton factory. Local insiders say this is a place that produces various outer packaging boxes for counterfeiting sites. The factory owner, surnamed Zhang, said he can make outer boxes for various seasonings, for example, 'La Xian Lu' at 1.8 yuan each, 'Maggi Seasoning' at 2.5 yuan each. Others can be printed according to needs using templates. 'Business is good before the New Year, but raw materials are in short supply. We produce a few hundred boxes a day, all supplied locally, and it's not enough; we have no stock at all,' he said. He said he plans to switch careers because the profit is low and he is constantly worried about problems. The reporter contacted another man surnamed Guo in Duliuzhen, who said he could provide brand labels and outer boxes for various seasonings. 'We have the entire Totole series.' A local counterfeiter said, 'Actually, making Totole chicken essence is just labeling inferior chicken essence with the brand; in essence, it's infringement.' Industry insiders revealed that inferior chicken essence producers illegally use sunset yellow coloring, which is banned due to its carcinogenic and teratogenic properties. Additionally, the freshness index and chicken content of the chicken essence are substandard, and some chicken essence even has an off-putting odor. In Duliuzhen, there are specialized producers of inferior chicken essence who supply local counterfeiters. The reporter contacted an employee at a site producing chicken essence granules, who said they mainly produce chicken essence at 2,000 to 3,000 yuan per ton, not more expensive ones. By this calculation, inferior chicken essence costs only 1 to 1.5 yuan per jin. On December 17, 2016, this counterfeiter, surnamed Wang, delivered fake samples to the agreed location near Xinfadi and handed them to the reporter. Counterfeiters ship goods in white cartons; only by tearing open the cartons can one see the counterfeit brands inside. Two ways fake seasonings enter Beijing's small shops and supermarkets The fake seasonings produced by numerous counterfeiting sites in Duliuzhen, Tianjin, are sold basically on a 'acquaintance transaction' principle; one must be introduced by an acquaintance to contact the counterfeiters. A Beijing News reporter's investigation over more than a month in Duliuzhen found that most fake goods are shipped nationwide via logistics, with receiving addresses including Beijing, Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, Fujian, Shandong, Sichuan, and other places. Daily shipment volumes reach several thousand boxes. To avoid tracing back to the source, counterfeiters ship in a very covert manner, sometimes leaving no sender information at all. For nearby areas like Beijing, some counterfeiters also choose direct delivery. The Beijing News reporter obtained fake samples from several counterfeiters in this way. Fake seasonings loaded onto trucks and transported to logistics parks In the deep winter in the northern town, after 4 p.m., as dusk falls and pedestrians thin out, vans become more frequent. From the Duliuzhen police station heading north to the end, in a hutong behind a restaurant to the northwest, multiple vans come and go. Entering the hutong, on the left is an open space of 50-60 square meters, where seven or eight vans are parked, and multiple surveillance cameras are installed on the surrounding walls. At around 6 p.m. on December 7, a blue small truck turned around in the hutong, its cargo area already loaded with dozens of white cartons. People from a nearby van unloaded boxes and loaded them onto the blue truck. According to local insiders, this hutong is both a site and a distribution center. The truck loads goods at the site in the hutong every day, and fake seasonings produced at other sites during the day are also brought here by vans, sorted and loaded onto trucks, and finally taken by small trucks to the logistics park for shipment. For over a month, at a fixed time every day, a truck loaded goods in this hutong. At around 5:30 p.m. on January 7, the blue small truck with license plate Jin MH3159 was loading goods at the entrance of a residence deep in a small alley extending westward from the hutong, with goods being carried from the residence onto the truck. Half an hour later, the truck turned around and parked in the open space in the hutong, with half a truckload of white cartons neatly stacked. A white Jinbei van nearby opened its rear door, revealing a full load of white cartons. Several middle-aged men holding documents were quietly checking the quantity of goods. When they saw strangers passing by, they immediately stopped talking and put away the documents. More than twenty minutes later, the blue small truck drove out of the hutong, sped onto National Highway 104, and headed to a logistics park more than 20 kilometers away. The reporter roughly estimated that the entire truckload had at least 500 boxes. At the same time, another blue small truck, Jin ML6139, also fully loaded with white cartons, drove out of the alleys of Duliuzhen. According to local insiders, these two trucks are both carrying fake seasonings. One truck can carry more than 500 boxes, so two trucks carry over a thousand boxes. This is just what is visible; many counterfeiting sites use vans or Jinbei vehicles for delivery, making it impossible to tell if they are carrying fake seasonings. Shipping fake goods in white cartons as camouflage The aforementioned insider said that fake seasonings shipped nationwide via logistics are all sent in white cartons. Inside the white cartons are boxes of various brands of seasonings. Generally, depending on the size of the seasoning packaging, a white carton contains 2 to 8 boxes. If shipped directly in the seasoning's original outer box, it would be too conspicuous in logistics and easily detected. Over more than a month, the Beijing News reporter tracked the fake seasoning trucks multiple times. The reporter waited at the entrance on the west side of the main street of Duliuzhen leading to National Highway 104. Between 6 and 6:30 p.m., the two blue small trucks would drive out of Duliuzhen, enter National Highway 104, and head to logistics. At around 6 p.m. on January 4, the blue truck with license plate Jin ML6139 turned onto National Highway 104 from Duliuzhen, heading southeast, and arrived at Xingda Logistics Park 30 kilometers away. The truck drove directly to the warehouse of 'Fuquan Logistics' for shipments to Fujian, stopped, and began unloading. After more than ten minutes, it unloaded nearly 100 white cartons and left. It then went to a logistics company shipping to all of Hubei and unloaded nearly 100 boxes. Finally, it stopped at a logistics company shipping to Xi'an and unloaded dozens of boxes before leaving. The entire process lasted over an hour. At around 7:30 p.m., after the blue truck left, the reporter went to the Fuquan Logistics warehouse where it had first unloaded, opened several white cartons, and found they contained fake 'Totole Chicken Essence'. The next evening at around 6:20 p.m., the blue truck Jin ML6139 drove out of Duliuzhen again, along National Highway 104, and after more than 30 minutes, arrived at Nanfang Logistics Park. There, the truck unloaded at warehouses for shipments to Jinan, Beijing, Xinjiang, and other places before leaving. Subsequently, the reporter saw in the warehouse for shipments to Xinjiang that the unloaded goods consisted of 60-70 white cartons. The reporter tore open a white carton, revealing the outer box of the seasoning inside, which read 'Nestlé Maggi Seasoning'. At around 7 p.m. on December 22, another blue small truck with license plate Jin MH3159 drove directly from National Highway 104 to Aosen Logistics Park, unloaded goods at the logistics point for Heilongjiang, and left. No information left, hard to trace sender According to local insiders, counterfeiters use logistics parks like Aosen and Nanfang to ship to northeastern provinces, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Shandong, Shanghai, and other places nationwide. They have pre-arranged local fake goods dealers (who collect payment on delivery via logistics). These local dealers then distribute the fake goods to local merchants, who ultimately sell them to consumers or small and medium-sized restaurants. This is the complete chain of the fake goods' 'journey'. After Wang Shouyi Shisanxiang anti-counterfeiting personnel discovered the prevalence of counterfeiting locally, they conducted special anti-counterfeiting operations at logistics parks. 'We specifically stationed people at logistics parks. In the summer of 2013, within less than a month, we seized over 3,000 boxes of Shisanxiang,' said the head of Shisanxiang anti-counterfeiting operations. They have a specific method for checking fake goods. Because fake goods are packed in white cartons with the outer box inside, with nothing written on the outside, when they see a suspicious white carton, they first use a key to poke it to see if there is a box inside. If so, they can basically conclude it is fake, and then open it to confirm. But they also found a bigger difficulty: after finding fake seasonings at logistics, they could not find the counterfeiters. Calling the phone number left on the shipment, the call would be answered and then hung up, and the number would be canceled afterward. According to local insiders, when counterfeiters ship via logistics, they usually leave only a phone number, with no name or a fake name. Once caught, they do not worry about being found because the payment is collected by the logistics company. Sometimes, if goods are shipped and no one receives them, they cannot be returned. The Beijing News reporter, posing as a seasoning merchant, purchased fake seasonings from three sellers. Two of them shipped via logistics. One counterfeiter surnamed Liu said that the buyer only needed to leave a phone number and address, and then wait for logistics notification. The reporter purchased 'Knorr La Xian Lu', 'Knorr Chicken Juice', 'Totole Chicken Essence', and 'Nestlé Maggi Seasoning' from him. On December 25, the reporter received a call from a logistics company in Daxing, informing that four boxes of seasonings had arrived, with payment on delivery. The reporter then went to Daxing to pick up the goods. After paying 540 yuan in cash on delivery, the reporter saw that the four boxes were all wrapped in white cartons, with only a label reading 'Seasonings, recipient's phone number'. The logistics receipt also had no shipping location, only a phone number for the sender. Opening the white cartons, the reporter saw that each contained multiple boxes of seasonings. Another counterfeiter's goods were also sent to a logistics park in Daxing, with four boxes of fake seasonings. After picking up the goods, the logistics receipt only had the recipient's contact information, with no sender's contact, address, or name. Fake seasonings enter Beijing's small shops and supermarkets In addition to shipping via logistics, some counterfeiters, for caution, deliver directly to nearby areas. On December 15, the owner of a counterfeiting site in a hutong near Youhao Street in Duliuzhen, after repeatedly verifying the reporter's fictitious identity, said they would deliver goods to Beijing in two days and bring some samples for the reporter. At around 1 p.m. on December 17, a man claiming to be the delivery person called and arranged to meet the reporter near Xinfadi to give samples. At 2 p.m., near the Xinnongmen of Xinfadi, the reporter met this middle-aged man. He handed the reporter a cloth bag containing fake 'Nestlé Maggi Seasoning', 'Haitian Bottled Soy Sauce', 'Haitian Bucket Soy Sauce', 'Knorr La Xian Lu', 'Baihua Honey', and 'Totole Chicken Essence' in 100g and 200g packs, one bottle (bag) each. 'Here are some samples; take a look first.' 'Are these packaging authentic?' 'There should be no problem. Look at the Maggi; the QR code can be scanned.' The man claimed his surname was Wang. He had come to Xinfadi to deliver goods in the morning and had to go to Dongba for another delivery in the afternoon. 'I come to Beijing often. I have a Jinbei van. In good times, I come four or five times a week, carrying over 300 boxes each trip.' According to him, he has been in the Beijing market for at least four or five years. The best-selling items are 'La Xian Lu' and 'Maggi Seasoning'. 'The buyers here mainly supply small shops and supermarkets in urban-rural fringe areas; few directly serve the market.' At around 8 p.m. on January 3, this man surnamed Wang and a woman came to the same delivery location to give the reporter goods. 'We just finished delivering in Huilongguan,' the woman said. They usually deliver directly to buyers' warehouses, not directly to the market, as that is too risky. The man surnamed Wang revealed that he also has a truck specifically for delivery, has been in this business for many years, and can produce several hundred boxes per day at one site. What if they encounter manufacturer anti-counterfeiting inspections? The woman said, 'Just give them some money. We usually give 500 or 1,000 yuan, whether it's Knorr or Haitian.' -END- Click the image to read directly FMCG industry's most professional and practical knowledge base 【 Reply with yellow numbers in the background to view the following keywords 】 | 001 Excellent article selection | 002 Distributor market operations | 003 Terminal visit management | 004 Sales supervisor skills | 005 Sales improvement techniques | 006 Channel expansion | 007 Managing distributors | 008 Distributor development | 009 Distributor internal operations management | 010 Team management | 011 Efficient distribution techniques | 012 Sales manager's eighteen skills | 013 KA operation methods and strategies | 014 First lesson for new salespeople | 015 Internet, brands | 016 Distributor B2B transformation |