Dongtai Road is flooded with old-styled craftworks and copycat antiques. [Photo/Global Times]

Fortune reading

A "fortune-telling" pot is also a big seller. Placed inside a red wooden cylinder are several dozen red-topped wooden chips each containing a number that relates to a "good" or "bad" prediction, something like the old-styled equivalent of a fortune cookie. To buy the cylinder and chips will set you back about 80 yuan ($13, haggling excluded).

Goods from the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949) constitute a large amount of the genuine "antique" items on sale, many exhibiting a definite, Shanghai-flavored influence. A large proportion of these items have been acquired from house clearances over the years, usually from soon-to-be-demolished buildings.

Leather handbags and vintage suitcases constitute much of this inventory with some of the ladies bags selling for up to 500 yuan each.

Also on sale are calendars featuring paintings of Shanghai women, old fans, clocks, lamps and printing blocks.