I got a spare chinese gas tube and piston one a while ago, sanded the chinese wood down and painted it black with a can of truck bedliner. It worked quite well, i was impressed.
I found out a little interesting fact on the differences between years of SKS as well. The spare gas tube/piston fit perfectly on my 1950 with only minor filing of the ramp to close the latch, but when i tried it on my 1953 it was like 1/8" too long. I would have assumed that the gas tubes were the same throughout, but i guess not, so you may have to do a litlle bit of filing no matter what you go with.