That knife is a CCK KF1303.
The last one I bought from them I paid considerably less. @$125 I think it’s still a good knife. Read the reviews on the CKTG link I posted.
You can buy a cheap chinese chef’s knife at an asian grocery store for less, but this is a serious tool knife meant to be used in a kitchen daily. The sky is the limit with Japanese chuka bocho knives, however this CCK is THE serious entry chinese chef’s knife…my opinion of course.
My picking up the klunky Shun coupled with the big price hike have made me pause, but everything I have read and heard points to the short CCK as a solid choice.
I think if you think the Shun Chinese vegetable knife and satisfies your need, then you can decide from there how much you want to spend… if you want to go heavier or lighter…etc. I have never own the Shun vegetable cleaver. I heard some good things about it, but also some not so-good things about it. For example, it is a little easy to chip. Now, to be honest, Shun Chinese vegetable knife weight may be fine for a vegetable knife. A vegetable knife is a generic term which often sit between the slicer and a real cleaver. For example, a Dexter Russell Chinese chef knife is not light. My Dexter Russell S5198 is now 325 gram. When it was new, it probably was around 350 or more gram.
If you want a thinner, and carbon steel vegetable knife, then I think CCK KF1303 is a still good choice. If you want to spend less than that, maybe let us know what you are willing to give up. I have a carbon steel ShiBaZa. I bought it for like $15 (that was when a KF1303 would be ~$70). The ShiBaZa just does not give the same performance.
Chinese Slicers: CCK stainless steel slicer, CCK carbon steel slicer, SBZ carbon steel slicer - Cooking Discussions / Cookware - Hungry Onion
Good luck
Maybe a Kagayaki carbon steel KG-20 knife. It is thin blade (2 mm at spine). It is about 305 gram. It is a little short at 7 inch.
The only place in Austin I could touch a Chinese cleaver was Williams-Sonoma, and all they offered was Shun. I hefted one and instantly decided it was not what I wanted.
Road trip over to Chinatown in Houston??? 
I lived in Houston before I moved to Austin in 1989. I still miss it. Plus, it’s an easy drive with good food, Weikl’s going and Hruska’s returning.
Right. I know you don’t want a Shun Chinese vegetable knife, but do you like the style? Anyway, my suggestion to go to Williams Sonoma or Sur La Table is just to get a sense. If you don’t like the style, then there is no worry about the price.
I’ve got an 8" Messermeister “Chinese Cleaver” (now discontinued) that’s pretty nice. I don’t use it much, but I picked it up at the ARC Thrift for a good price, so I keep it around for its occasional use. It’s thin, about 305g, and stainless. The attached description says the handle’s pakkawood but it looks and feels more like the Zytel nylon that’s badged on the webpage.
I also have a Foshan “3 Rams” cleaver. It has 1-pc all-steel construction and I think it’s stainless. I don’t see them being sold online any more, so I’m not sure where you’d find any new ones. The prices were so low for new ones (~$4 to $8) that used ones were often priced higher because sellers thought they had expensive vintage knives. 
There are several other brands out now that look similar (Winco, Shibazi, Town). Foshan classified their cleavers by number. The size you’re looking at would’ve been a #4 (approx 4" tall blade), while the one I have is a #2 (approx 2" tall blade) and was also identified as a “fruit knife.” Mine sports a single bevel with a mildly concave back edge. I don’t have the proper equipment to match-grind the concave back, unfortunately. It’s a decent knife, kinda like a long nakiri, but not really compelling enough for me to drag it out on a regular basis.
I am undecided as to liking the style. The one I handled did not feel as balanced as, say, a French chef knife. I imagine it was just because it was heavy.
In general, you won’t find the same “balance” in a Chinese large blade knife as a Western chef knife. The larger blade simply will shift the center of gravity toward the knife tip.
You can always grab another Chinese chef’s knife from the local Asian supermarkets. You won’t able to cut, but you can take it out of the box and hold it and feel the balance. Again, the best is to borrow one from a friend for 2-3 days, but if this is not an option, then just holding another one at the store is the best you can do for now. Best wishes.
I heard good things about this Messermeister Chinese knife. I have never used it.
Seventy-two responses (so far) in this thread, and at some point it’s gotten into overanalysis, IMO. I have used five different Chinese cleavers in my life. The first two were at my very first official job, doing prep in a Chinese takeout place, where my primary tools of the trade were a couple of no-name Chinese cleavers (not the same brand, but both anonymous) and a birdbeak parer. The third and fourth are my mom’s, which are probably at least 60-70 years old, and any identifying markings are long gone. And the fifth is my own, a gift from an ex-GF of my brother’s, who picked it up in a random hardware store in SF Chinatown (referenced earlier).
They all had slightly different balance points and geometries, but none of them were so out of whack that I refused to use them. I think you’re at the point where you need to pick one and go with it. Of course, this approach kind of suggests buying one on the cheap in case you hate EVERYTHING about it, but if you like it and really want to spend a lot on a name brand, at least you’ve reduced the risk substantially. Plus you’ll then have TWO Chinese cleavers.
What do you do with two Chinese cleavers? You turn them into a Chinese food processor, naturally! Holding one in each hand, you hammer away at a hunk of something (usually meat) like you’re a playing a snare in a drum and bugle corps. It’s a different way of mincing meat, and can be very satisfying, especially if you’ve had a tough day and need to work out some frustration.
I think it’s now a pretty likely I will head to Houston in the near future and hit Diho Plaza. Worst case, I’ll have a great meal. I have not found any type of Chinese cuisine in Austin that really impresses me, but I have several favorites in Houston.
On HO ? no way !!
If talking about brands and weights of kitchen knives is overanalysis then the people making them must be theoretical physicists haha
No, just marketing geniuses.
