China shopping: A cultural experience in itself

Here in China, an infinite amount of things can be bought. Whether you are in the market for clothing, art, souvenirs, books, anime stuff, calligraphy supplies, keepsakes or just about anything under the sun, I would venture a guess that it can be found in China. Despite many rumors spread out west, I find the quality of many goods here to be excellent, even better than some of the stuff in Canada! I think this is because that the importers in Canada desire a high markup profit and thus by cheap products which we lap up since there are no good alternatives. But in China, there are countless alternatives so the quality must be high otherwise the Chinese locals with cash will not buy it. As a result of this, you can find many things of high quality here that can be found at prices unheard of in Canada.

There are quite a few places where on can shop: Malls, small street side shops, markets Friendship malls and street vendors of all sorts.

I'll first start things off with the familiar: The friendship mall and other malls filled almost exclusively with only western brand clothing. Here, you can find western goods at western prices. As you can probably guess, I've bought nothing from a friendship mall. However, quite a good selection of quality Chinese ornaments and handicrafts can be found here as well as Chinese made-watches. Despite selling western-brand goods, the selection of these malls are infinitely better than any North American one. I think that the Chinese have a very discriminating fashion sense as most of the clothing here is not ugly nor boring (a common sight back home). There are whole floors of clothing for men, unlike the small sections that men are used to back in the western world. In these malls, there are also a great variety of women's clothes for all ages.

The Chinese malls are quite a different story and they come in all shapes and sizes. From mall to mall, selection varies even in the same brands of stores. The general selection includes sports goods floors, young women's clothing floors, older women's clothing floors, men's clothing floors, and miscellaneous goods floors. If you buy anything, the store clerk issues you a receipt which you take to a payment booth. Here, you are given a receipt which is stamped which you must return to the booth you bought from in order to claim your goods. In these malls, most credit cards are accepted no problem. You'll see all sorts of interesting brands, some familiar but most of them will be Chinese or Hong Kong brands. There are also unlikely clothing manufacturers such as Caterpillar (heavy machinery) and Jeep! Perhaps these are spin-off companies as if Caterpillar and Jeep do not register their trademark for clothing, an entrepreneur can use their logos and start a store under their name, this is fair game over here! At malls like these, attendants are always available. As you walk by they will talk to you about the sales in place. I half feel like responding back, but this is not required. It is perfectly acceptable to walk right past them even if they are talking to you! If you walk into the shop, the server will often follow right in your footsteps offering advice and suggestions frequently. Service is of excellent quality here and the salespeople will go out of their way to enhance your shopping experience. An example of this is when I went to a mall with two of my colleagues. One wanted to try out some hair accessories. The attendants styled her hair for free in multiple professoinal ways and applied the hair accessories at her request. Though she did not buy, if she did they attendants told her that they style her hair for free whenever she dropped by. Such is the service over here! The malls I've seen like these are abundant on very famous streets. In Tangu, there is the gorgeous and very famous Golden Street and there is an equivalent in Tianjin where about 8 of these malls in a row are situated. All are air conditioned and to save energy, they have plastic flaps hanging down in the entranceway. This acts like a moveable plastic curtain which traps the cool air inside. One merely pushes the curtain aside to gain entry into an air conditioned shopping paradise.

Near to the Tianjin Golden Street, there is a street full of multiple small shops. I took a browse here with my colleague Yolanda. The majority (95%) of the shops here were women's clothing from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and local products. Each shop was completely different and had an incredible varieties of style I've never seen before. China is lightyears ahead of Canada in terms of fashion sense and variety, I would expect some of these fresh styles to make their way back home in maybe 5 years or so (ayah!). As expected in China, where the shop's owner is the one selling you goods, you can bargain as much or as little as you like. Often, the price their give is high, but it is still quite a good deal compared to Canadian clothing standards. Of course if you want to buy the real Chinese way, make sure to brush up on an arsenal of bargaining tactics to get yourself a sweet deal.

In Tangu there is a Foreign goods market which is quite famous in China. I took a look myself and found it to be fascinating. There were two large storehouse areas which were positively teeming with booths. The selection seemed focused primarily on fake watches, belts and sunglasses but there were a good variety of clothing shops thrown into the mix. One could also find army surplus stores selling American army surplus equipment and also some toy stores and purse/murse stores. The selection was quite good but I was just looking for a cultural experience and not a browse. There was also a pet store with adorable fuzzy bunnies in tiny cages as well as a selection of other popular pets.

The street vendors can be found just about anywhere in China. They either set out a cloth with their goods on top, have a booth set up or have their goods on display on the backs of their bikes. Their goods vary ranging from women's underwear to fake Dolce and Gabanna belts.

The aggressiveness of vendors varies across China. For all of the places I have been in Tianjin, the vendors keep to themselves, and only talk quietly to you about bargains they may have on at the time. In Beijing they are more aggressive in that they call out loudly to you and may make a grab at your hand to pull you closer. I haven't run into a situation I couldn't handle though and have always managed to get away unscathed. Here we see a street vendor selling barbequed goods - the specialty being barbequed seahorses and scorpions which were still wriggling on the skewer! In short, the shopping experience is a deeply ingrained and highly valuable show of the incredible culture that China has on offer to the world.