You See Cheng Guan, You Run

Cheng guan is Chinese for urban management officer. These are the nemesis of any Shanghainese street vendor, of which there are many selling anything from food to DVDs to watches. Personally I can't stand the ruthless cheng guan and would side with the vendors any time. Cheng guan have a terrible reputation from the newspapers. Their sole job, it seems, is to shut the vendors down and confiscate their products.

The vendors have a system where they can pack up their stuff in a flash, run, and hide in a matter of SECONDS!

Here's how it works based on what I saw while buying DVDs from them. The lead seller has a point person or a watchman contact who sees the cheng guan coming from a distance and gives the signal. "Lai le" here they come.

The seller then folds the product in a portable suitcase, closes it, then ducks into a crowded store. The cheng guan walks by and sees nothing. 15 seconds has elapsed in the process.

While this happened I played right along, stashed my DVD in a laptop case, followed the seller inside the store, gave her the money, got some change, and was on my merry way.

Then I looked back a minute later and found it was back to business as usual.