One of the best things for me to live in Shanghai is to be able to eat Hairy Crab from every late Autumn to early Winter, or even to Chinese New Year - Spring. The name "hairy crab" is generated from the outlook of this fresh water grown crab - many small hairy on the crab legs. Its official name is Chinese mitten crab. The better quality of the fresh water, the better the crab. By review and word of mouth, the most famous hairy crab is Yangchenghu Hairy Crab which is from the name of a lake. Don't be surprised if you are see all hairy crabs are advertised as "yangchenghu hairy crab" in free markets, in restaurants or in supermakets.

How to find native Yangchenghu hairy crab, but not fake or "immigrated" ones? Here are a few tips I come up which are not 100% guarantee:
1. Go to YangchengHu city. The chance you encounter a native HCH crab in local is at least 50% higher than in non local place.

2. Go to high end restaurants which care for their reputations. There your chance to eat a real HCH crab is very high, if you are not worried about $$$. It is not uncommon that they will sell you a 250g crab for $40. If you are in Hong Kong or Beijing (places that are far away from Shanghai), you might need to pay for the air ticket for the crab.

3. Go to your Chinese friends and ask for their "relationship" (Guangxi). This is my approach. My ancle has some clients who have very close and good relationships with HCH crab growners. I am 99% sure that I eat the REAL HCH crabs. A "guangxi" is likely to cheat you in other stuff, not food!

4. Research and find the certification labels stick onto the crabs in markets. I have to warn you that the cost to make a label can be extremely low in China.