Where are you based?  There are plenty of foreign stores that sell beef and meat etc. In Beijing for example, we have Jenny Lou's, April Gourmet and City Supermarket.

In Fukang, Xinjiang, I'm buying meat (beef, pork, lamb) on the outside market from butchers with 'no quality label'.

I go to Metro for quality beef in my 2-tier city on the north coast.  Best beef I've found, barring the Kobe beef I can get at my local Japanese specialty grocer for the price of gold.

Here at home, Metro sells a thick 2-foot slab of fresh beef tenderloin from Inner Mongolia for about 200 RMB a kilo, if my memory serves me well.  A bit pricey as a whole, but break it down into smaller units and it is very cost-effective.

All told, last time I bought a slab, I paid just under 600 RMB.  A lot of money.  However...

I took the beef home with me, removed it from the packaging, laid it out on my cutting board, and with my German-made chef's knife, cut it down to size.  I got 19 or 20 - can't remember now - good-sized steaks, each about an inch, or a little more, thick.  Froze all except 2 for dinner that night.

Doing the math, 20 absolutely tender, flavorful steaks with no bone, tendon and a little fat ran me about 30 kuai each.  Tenderloin.  Wrap it with a bacon strip and it's called "filet mignon".

So.  30 kuai compared to 180 in a pseudo-Western restaurant for bogus "tenderloin" from "Australia" or wherever.

Try Metro.  They are in Shanghai.  And happy eating!

I think the only country allowed to import beef into China is Australia.  So if you are looking for beef from any place else, I do not think you will find it.  And if you do find it, then it is most likely either illegal or fake.