Not that many years (months?) ago Chinese pianos were of a standard that you would wear gloves to wipe the mess off your shoes if you stepped on one . . .

. . . Not so any more. Yesterday I played a grand piano that is made in China but distributed by a well known established western piano company: It has the sound and feel of a Schimmel at half the cost or less and a glance under the lid shows real quality of build. Yamaha, Kawai, etc. are more expensive and not so good. My shopping list has changed direction.

The new brand is probably the vanguard of a world invasion of good quality, cheap pianos of Chinese manufacture reflecting the explosion in demand within China itself. Other manufacturers beware.

I can think of half a dozen Chinese manufacturers that had achieved this status already a year ago (although I wouldn't agree with "Yamaha and Kawai are...not so good").

Who do you have in mind?

May "selected by Schimmel", and I stand by my comment: better at £11k than the Yamaha at £15k or the Kawai at £18k, and as good as the Schimmel at £23k

Sure. Not questioning your judgment ( I thought you were saying that Yamaha and Kawai are not so good (absolute) rather than not as good (relative)...). Just an English thing.

Remember, however, that you are paying for the Schimmel name on an essentially generic Chinese instrument. (Similar to Steinway selling their Chinese Essex line, the strategy of which is now being copied by Schimmel, Bechstein and numerous others).

If you are interested in a distinctive Chinese grand at a competitive price, that are built in their own factories with heavy European involvement instead of just bought from generic Chinese factories, and are not worried about their aging gracefully, or the social implications, then you might also want to take a look at these two:

Brodmann
Perzina

Every year to 18 months yet another set of Chinese grands and pianos becomes better and popular and supercedes the last crop. Things are moving quickly there, particularly since China is the largest piano market in the world and now also the largest manufacturer.

Bear in mind how that price stays low, however. You will be buying a piano that has been built in a dictatorial/authoritative system with essentially slave labour by European standards, with manufacturing processes which are polluting the environement (e.g. blowing polyester without insulation) with a very large carbon footprint due to parts and finished product being moved back and forth across the globe and with no guarantees that your piano will not contain radioactive scrap metal, lead paint, insufficiently cured wood, etc. The price of the Chinese piano is cheap to you, but expensive to the planet.

Or reflecting the fact that the previous generation was so bad nobody outside China wanted to buy them.

We have May Berlin upright, from when they were an independent company manufacturing in Germany.
The current ones get made in China and then checked over by Schimmel in Germany before being sold.

The last time I tried a Chinese piano, we had just been testing a Steingraeber, so there was no comparison!

I'm sorry, No. 'Chinese pianos' and 'raising their game' doesnt go into the same sentence for me.