Well I'm in Shanghai now, and tried to visit the Shen Hao factory. The business manager for my Shanghai operation called them to try to arrange a visit (he's a local and can speak the language).
He was told there was nothing to see at their location, and we were refered to their local dealer. We proceeded to that dealer, which is in a small shop in the mall at the railway station.
At the store they had one Shen Hao HZX45-IIA on display. It was black, and the dealer claimed it was black painted oak, which I thought odd. The brochure says it is teak, and it looked like teak.
I thoroughly examined this camera, and left quite impressed. It was solidly built, and had a nice set of movements. It is heavier than my Wista, but also feels more solid, and has a longer bellows extension. The metal was a black coated metal, the brochure as printed says it is titanium, but it was hand corrected in ink to say "copper". So perhaps it is a black coated copper? Seems like a soft metal for such a purpose. I bet it is something else, but I'm no metal expert. The metal seemed appropriate to the purpose.
Speaking of the bellows, it removed very easily for swapping with the bag bellows.
Unfortunately the dealer did not have an 8x10 or any other version available in the store. She called the factory to ask about an 8x10 and was told that no 8x10 would be available within the next 3 months, all I could hope would be to provide my email address and they would inform me when one was available. Too bad, it looks like a nice camera in the brochure.
All in all, I was impressed with the HZX45-IIA. Too bad I already have a 4x5 field camera. The HZX45-IIA costs about $400 US in that store.
I should also note that next door to the store selling the Shen Hao is a shop selling used film cameras, from old folders to Nikons to Leicas to Hasselblads. All film cameras.
As far as I could tell, they were all overpriced. I've been seeing much better prices on eBay for the cameras I checked out. But still, it was nice to see a store full of great film cameras, and they had some really classic ones.
One more note: they gave me a brochure for Shen Hao. The front page says "The beauty and warmth of a hand-crafted wooden body, with today's technology inside." Huh? I pulled the bellows on the camera and found *nothing* inside, thank goodness!
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