XIAHE - Tang Linquan isn't about to apologise for the counterfeit goods that fill his shop.

Goods are displayed at a shop in Xiahe, western China's Gansu province August 14, 2006. [Reuters]

Fake soccer and basketball jerseys vie for shelf space with obscure brands of crackers and sweets. A bottle of wine tries to lend itself an air of credibility with a bust of George Washington, "One Dollar" printed below it.

"I can't even get hold of genuine products," Tang said of his jerseys, adding that he was not concerned about getting into trouble because local police couldn't even tell the difference.

"And even if I offered the real thing, nobody would buy them because they would be too expensive."

Tang's shop -- like most others on the main street of Xiahe, a small town in rural Gansu province in China's west -- testifies one of Beijing's biggest headaches: how to lift rural incomes, and with them, consumption.

An economic and government centre for the surrounding area and a traditional pilgrimage destination for Tibetan Buddhists, Xiahe's stores offer essentially all the necessities a resident of this mountainous region needs.

What's striking is that nearly all of it -- from tape recorders to shampoo to socks -- is uniformly of low quality and made by no-name companies, whether imitating brand names or not.

Shopping in rural China mocks the world of luxury conjured up by Western consumer advertising and suggests it will be an age before foreign firms can cash in on the 750 million Chinese, out of a population of 1.3 billion, who live in the countryside.

In some shops the chemical smell from cheap plastic sandals is overwhelming. Shopkeepers tout their soft drinks as the real thing -- unlike their rivals'. Almost the only brand names advertised are mobile phone networks and banks.

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