Fed's as Leicas started very early, just after the war there were two sources, one said to be in the US army in Berlin, and a Cairo craftsman, who turned out some pretty basic copies, and could not spell Wetslar, Elmer, or Lieca very well!! The Cairo ones were reasonable mechanically, the engraving was a bit primitive, as the case was beaten flat to remove the Russian script. They were re-plated to cover the marks, but with silver, which wore badly.

The US army ones were far better, it was said they came from a Berlin based transport depot workshop, and sported all the Swastikas you could ever want! Olympic Leicas, Contax's turned into the Olympic winners cameras, Luftwaffe Leicas with engraved pilots names, we all hoped Eva Braun's camera would turn up one day! They even made versions with the Nazi symbols removed rather crudely, which effectively covered up the Russian origins. There were thousands turned out, mainly sold to US troops as souvenirs.

The next wave came with the end of the cold war, every conceivable version of the Leica that could be made from a Fed or a Zorki was turned out, also coming from Poland and a few from East Germany, who also turned plain Bering Robots into the Luftwaffe versions.
But as you say the Chinese Da Lai copy must rank as the rarest fake of all. It must have been part of a batch, a one off sounds unlikely, mind you there are not many alterations to the parts if they had access to un-engraved tops etc, so it looks like a Russian source.

Stephen.

As already said at a different thread, remarkable is the price, at which those pretty beautiful cameras are often sold. For an original FED1/Zorki, you already need to pay app. 100$ and those copies are sold on E-Bay for just a little more ... and most of them look like new. Cleaned, refurbished, coated, newly adjusted and engraved ... who does that for a few dollars more ? I often wonder about that.

Jack, I think, your Da Lai looks great and I think, it will let you take good pictures too. I would have run a film through it immediately