"Tiny Swiss Army knife+cigarette lighter..." Shanghai Packing List Tip by ZenLady34

Miscellaneous: Certain materials like silk or leather react in a unique way when subjected to something like flame. Anything else will react differently. With a lighter one can test the authenticity of a material and the tweezers prevents your fingers from burning.

Tiny Swiss Army knife has scissors and pair of tweezers in it. If travelling by airplane, pack it in your suitcase which you will check in as baggage. A lighter will go onboard in your handbag or in your pockets.

Cut a piece of the cloth which you are buying, hold it with tweezers and light it up with a lighter. Many times a dealer convinces the cloth being 100% pure silk and it turns out not to be... as a result of this test. Or sometimes its enough even when I pull the lighter out of my pocket and they see it. Then they will tell that it is not genuine leather/silk.

Please consult someone to teach this trick to you in practise before trying it. Normally I use this trick on markets.

Be careful and do not ruin any items in a shop or burn it down!