How do I get to your shop?
We are two hours South of Shanghai. There are plenty of trains and buses every day. Often you can catch a ride down with us from our office in Shanghai. We can fax a map of our place.

How do I get to Shanghai or Hangzhou by plane?
From most destinations you will want to go to Shanghai then make arrangements from there. From Hong Kong there are flights everyday to Hangzhou.

How do I get the cheapest plane ticket?
Usually the cheapest flights are still to be found in the largest local Travel section of the Sunday paper, shop around as prices vary widely.

How do I get a visa?
We suggest you contact your nearest local Chinese Consulate or Embassy for details. You can use us a reference but we suggest you apply for a "Tourist" visa, as applying for a business visa can be a lot of extra hassles, it depends on the Consulate, some are easy some are difficult. If you run out of time you can get a visa overnight in HK at almost any travel agency or China Travel office.

How do we make hotel and travel arrangements in China?
The arrangements made really depends on the needs of the customer. We can make arrangements in Shanghai and Hangzhou for clean, safe, cheap and convenient hotels. Some customers and many friends stay at our offices in Shanghai and Hangzhou. We can often meet your plane at the airport if our mutual schedules permit so. Alternatively it is also quite convenient nowadays to make your own arrangements over the internet.

How can we trust you?
It depends on how well you know us. That is why we suggest a visit for first time buyers. It is wise to be cautious with anyone you meet over the internet. We have an excellent reputation and have managed to keep all but a couple of customers happy over the years (some people are never happy). In some cases we will give out references if an order seems to get going well, but this has been abused by some people we contacted over the internet. We usually suggest a phone call early on in the process in order to get to know each other a bit better.

How do you know the age of the pieces you have?
It takes a lot of time and experience. We have over foury workers and craftsmen that know their wood and furniture. It helps a lot that we source our goods directly from the country. Even for us we are usually very cautious with porcelain and bronze pieces as there are 'lots' of reproductions out there. We are quite confident of the originality of our antiques but also carry lots of  "good' reproductions. All in all we recommend caution when doing business in China in general, and even more so in the 'antique' trade, many shops are not legitimate.

Do you issue 'Authenticity Certificates'?
There are many groups in China that will issue authenticity certificates and put wax seals on pieces. They are not worth the paper they are printed on unless you need it for import duty reductions. We can obtain them when necessary.

Colours?
We can refurbish pieces in many different colours. Though the Chinese never had yellow, blue, green, ect. colours we have had a strong demand for pieces finished in these colours. Please see JP-008 and JP-012 in our smalls section for a look at our finish in these colours.

What is the difference between antiques, fakes, reproductions, art, refurbishing, modifications etc.???
antiques: Antique are orignal old pieces
reproductions: Reproductions are reproductions based on pieces and styles that used to exist.
fakes: A fake is when you call a reproduction an antique.
refurbishing: The art of taking an old worn out piece of furniture etc. and restoring it to a proper and usable condition
modification: When an antique is modified into something else. Common examples would be an eight god dinner table into a coffee table or making cabinets out of old windows and carvings etc.