Ok..got another one for GOK. A plumbing supply store! I went to G&Q..mostly superficial/cosmetic things. I would like to find a pipes/spigots/joints store, preferably of highest quality possible (stainless steel, at least brass). Anyone know of this magical place I've been looking for for so long?? tigertiger, got anything else?? :) thanks for your help on the other thread..

Call me cynical, this is a market that does not really care about quality, as much as it does price. The only people who care about quality are industrial customers and suppliers, and that is B2B. I think we are lucky that some of these suppliers are now willing to do B2C on taobao (hence some quote prices based on larger quantities). A lot of this stuff is generally for export, or supplying OEMs.

There are some suppliers in the decorators markets, but this is just basic stuff. Always the customer (decorator) is looking for cheap and basic, does the job, stuff.

Recommend coming to Da Shang Hui in the South. They have literally hundreds of stores down here that sell everything from power tools to individual screws to entire bathrooms/kitchens and everything in between. Its pretty easy to get here, take a number 3 bus heading south from Beijing Lu or a number 127 (I think?) from Xi Chang Lu side of town. Either that or take a taxi and tell/show them 大商汇. Heaps of people that do house renovation come here and buy stuff but the quality ranges from terrible to excellent so be careful.

But be prepared to walk around a bit! The shops you are looking for are close to the Guanfu Lu side of Da Shang Hui. Bring pictures or a phone where you can look stuff up if you don't know how to say them in Chinese!

Enter "da shang hui kunming" (without the speech marks) to see where it is in google maps.

I have done DaShangHui many times. End to end.
I have yet to find any 'quality' of specialist items. All I can find is the basics, and lots of traders selling the same basics.
There is on 'good' hardware store but they don't have much 'specialist stuff' This is on the East part of the park (single story buildings, in middle of this area.

Yep, to be honest, I am just going off the advice off Chinese friends doing up a house who love Da Shang Hui. I have no idea about renovation myself so can't speak from actual experience of purchasing stuff there.

In general however buying western quality stuff locally in China is a virtual impossibility as you all know so I would recommend renovating in the Chinese style. It would make future renovations and changes easier and cheaper.

I know some people speak ill of B&Q, but at least there is transparency, the guys work to industry standards for utilities (yes they do exist), and you have come back. At the end of the day it is not the managers money.

We were persuaded by a local 'good friend' to use some guys. We are about to fire them and will have to rip out the utilities and start again. They stole materials, swapped out materials, substituted materials, and cheated on quantity. They had to tile the bathrooms twice to subsituted tile adhesive not doing the job (they got caught out), and we can see that they have only completed walls etc, where you can see them (look behind, nada).
We didn't go to B&Q based on negative feedback, some on this site. We now have to see if B&Q are willing to do remedial work, as opposed to a straightforward decorate from the ground up.

Not so much a case of criminal negligence, but criminal incompetence and crass stupidity and greed.

I guess it would be much to ask if anyone knows a store with food-grade quality stuff (stainless steel)?? haha..that's what i'm after. i'm sure it doesn't occur to most restaurants if their materials are 'food safe'. i mean, if you think a layer of oil is 'good', 'food-grade' is probably not in the vocabulary...

There are catering suppliers and the stuff is food grade. But we are talking about catering fitters, who will sell you a whole kitchen.
Having said that, the regulations here are a bit hit'n'miss, as are inspections.

What exactly do you want it for? There are at least a couple of us on here who could suggest viable solutions.