Luxury appraisal courses gain favor among the wealthy as counterfeit goods become harder to distinguish, Xu Junqian in Shanghai reports.

The record summer heat left Shanghai's famed Tianzifang, an alley usually crowded with tourists and sightseers during the weekend, nearly deserted on a recent scorching day. One or two residents in slippers and pajamas took advantage of the rare quiet to chat with their neighbors in the passageway. Crowds of busy tourists, appearing and disappearing as fast as summer showers, took some snapshots of the "must-see sight" listed by almost every tour guide, then quickly rushed into the air-conditioned mall across the street.

But in a three-floor industrial-style loft building tucked deep in one of the alleys, which on weekdays houses art galleries and fashion designers who have their stores nearby, the summer heat gave way to something more "serious".