I thought I'd be able to clean up on bike parts when I went to Beijing but anything that is not made there is not cheap. .
And given that the good stuff is made in Taiwan, doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to go Mainland China to buy a bike(such as a Giant) made in Taiwan, just to import it to the US and pay 2 sets of duties in the process.
Also it's a lot cheaper on a per unit basis for an importer to bring in a container load of frames, than it is for you to ship one bike in a box.
And if it happens to get broken in transit, it's not your problem if you buy it from a shop here.
Buy it in China, and it gets dinged in transit, or you discover a latent defect back here, then you've got issues.