I hear you on that one (& I live there at the moment)
It is very difficult to bring stuff into or out of China so they make do with what they can use.

There are a couple of good manufacturers here but they don't compete on the Mass market (T-Zone models is one - they make 4 or 5 of each of their balsa planes per month but their major market seems to be foamies. CMPro seem to be generally Ok but you do need to visit the structural areas such as undercarriage blocks and wing mounts when building.

Which stick model was it?