There was envy in their gaze, mingled with something like admiration.

Immediately, all regret at the 1,100 yuan (US$120.48) he had spent at the Central Hotel for the eight crabs, still restlessly crawling around inside the box, vanished.

The two brands so eye-catchingly printed on the box - "Central Hotel", the city's most famous source of crab dishes, and "Yangcheng Lake", the place yielding the best hairy crabs in China - doubly ensured the quality of the crabs inside.

"In Shanghai this season, could there be any gift better than real Yangcheng Lake crabs?" asked Li, a Shanghai native who knows the season rules well was on his way to his girlfriend's home, to make his first offering.

Symbol of wealth

Shanghai doesn't lack hairy crabs, especially in recent years, with new crab sources like Central China's Hubei Province and North China's Liaoning Province beginning to supply the local market.

At Tongchuan Lu Aquatic Products Market, the city's largest, the cheapest crabs are priced at around 15 yuan (US$1.8) per 500 grams.

However, to eat the authentic catch of Yangcheng Lake is still a luxury.

"The average price for crabs from Yangcheng Lake is at least 150 yuan (US$18) per 500 grams, which is around 70 yuan (US$8) per crab," said Yang Libiao, director of a resort near the lake.

At the Central Hotel, live crabs are sold for 320 yuan (US$38) per 500 grams, reflecting their quality as the best hairy crabs from the lake.

The cheapest crab banquet for 10 people (with seven courses of crab dishes) costs 3,000 yuan (US$361).

Even with high prices, there are still a lot of people coming to eat.

"Guests need to make a reservation two to three days ahead to ensure a seat," said Cherie, a public realtions staff of the hotel.

"On our best day we sold 300 kilograms of crab."

Although the flood of crabs from different areas has changed the local market by improving the balance between supply and demand, high-quality crabs, like those from the Yangcheng Lake, still count as a rare commodity.

"That is why, when the prices for many other crabs are dropping, Yangcheng Lake crabs remains so expensive," said Zhang Yunlong, who runs a crab shop in Tongchuan Lu market which enjoys a brisk business.

Chaotic market

The insatiable demand for Yangcheng Lake crabs has "inspired" some "black" vendors to claim their inferior crabs are from the lake in a bid to reap higher prices.

"At least 70 per cent of the crabs sold at the local market as authentic Yangcheng Lake crabs are actually inferior ones," Zhang said.

"There is really a great discrepancy if you think about it," said a business insider.

"Only one tenth of the crabs in the local market are really from Yangcheng Lake."

Some vendors even go so far as to collude with crab farmers by putting crabs bought from other places into Yangcheng Lake for a few days. They can then remove them and sell them as authentic Yangcheng Lake crabs.

"So even if you go to Yangcheng Lake, you may not be able to buy the authentic crabs if you aren't an expert," said Zhang.

Yangcheng Lake crabs have already been registered as a trademark and, in order to help customers detect the authentic specimens, a label is now stuck on each crab.

Yet markets are everywhere, and some people have already moved into the business of making fake labels and then selling them to vendors of common crabs. "That business is said to be really thriving," Zhang added.

"We are thinking of ways to improve the situation, but so far no effective way has been worked out."

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