Jan 15, 2010 @ 10:49 PM
SHANGHAI
REVIEW OF SHANGHAI
Duration: 26/12/09 - 2/1/10
Season: Winter.
Cold: God, hell yes.
Hotel: Central Hotel Shanghai <--the best hotel i've ever been to.
Language spoken by locals: Mandarin, occasionally with twisted accent, though most shops can manage broken english. I managed to communicate in my ineloquent mandarin for the most, which makes me really happy =)
Other comments: Cigarettes everywhere, people hacking up spit everywhere. Grrrooooosssss. I'm serious, every single minute you'd hear at least of people gagging and spitting.
I'm not going to talk about Sydney Airport, why would I? What I will talk about however, is the plane trip to HK and the consequent shuttle ride to the next plane up to Shanghai, which took up the night of the 25/12 and most of 26th.
INTERLUDE:I think there was a celebrity in our shuttle. I think ekin frikkin cheng was on our shuttle and our plane to Shanghai. How sure? I am around 90% sure, i stared at him for half the time trying to figure out if he was. It was so adorable, he got on the shuttle by himself last via the middle door and kind of just stared at it the whole time like he didn't want anyone looking at him. Then when the door up the front opened and evryone started filing off, he stayed where he was and waited for evryone else to get off. That's when the staring, giggling and gesturing towards him started. Was everyone else blind or something the rest of the time? I thought HK was notorious for its star stalking. Like...heck. Maybe im the only creepy stalker >.> Like, im not even really into his films, but theres just something about seeing someone famous there in real life, trying to be normal like everyone else. And Adam's told me before he doesn't like how these peoples lives are exposed for everyone to dissect but its kind of the life they're stuck with. They live off this attention and fame. My certainty about his identity was furthered when in Shanghai on new years eve, he showed up live on the tv in the city somewhere for some get-together of peeps. Coincidence...?Shoot, this is way too personal. *Slaps self and tries harder*. Okay. Start of proper review.
When we got to Shanghai it was already night and the city was lit up. We ate at Ajisen Ramen on the 7th floor or something of a building in the main street. Here's the thing: people say that Shanghai's Nanjing Rd is like a miniature, modern America. I figured that also meant it would be like Australia since we're so influenced anyway. Not so. Nanjing and the large streets are cities of neon lights and extravagant, collossal structures. Restaurants, department stores and signs are everywhere in that main street. Most unsuspecting tourists spend all their time hanging within this area and get sucked of all their money very quickly, because there is no haggling, lots of designer which doesnt sell any cheaper than overseas, and expensive dining. If you want to survive for 7 days like we did, then heres some summarised facts on Shanghai holidaying.
1. Eating: I like food, so im not going to tell you to have vendor food/the same stuff every meal to save money. Pick restaurants carefully, check the menu out the front if they have one. If you're staring at this and thinking, 'im rich, it doesnt matter,' well then ill just laugh at you when i can buy the exact same/better food a street away for a quarter the price. Expensive isn't necessarily nicer, and ill talk about an example when i move on to HK.
If you want to eat in Nanjing Rd and save money at the same time, aim for restaurants that aren't on the ground floor for a start. Often the lifts are notoriously hidden between/in stores, but because its not down on ground where everyone is it tends to be more affordable.
If you REALLY want to save, then head into the back/side streets. Umm...just don't head into any shabby looking alleys, you don't know what you'll find. We found some stuff which my mum has told me not to post publicly. Eating in the smaller streets is what the locals do, and they certainly know what they're eating better than you are. Don't have a guide/don't wanna research? Follow people into the back streets if you have to, just go and explore. We walked 10 hours everyday because my dad thinks sitting in the hotel for a minute more than necessary is waste of a plane ticket.
Btw, if you see a familiar name, like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC, don't think its all the same. The menus have been completely and utterly azn-i-fied. My favourite actually came from an Italian restaurant at Chipu market (i hope it was that market, there's so many). Italian in Australia can be quite expensive, but eat it over there and for us, its the same price as normal yum cha over here. It was niceeeeeee, especially the hot chocolate. Speaking of hot chocolate, don't order it in chinese restaurants. It's disgusting, i tried three from azn diners, even a Macau one and they had like, zero sweetness. I think its cause the people over there don't do chocolate like we do.
I also have a new favourite drink :3 This was shockingly from pizza hut, but is ONLY on the HK menu, called 'fruity honey.' It didn't exist in China. It is the nicest thing i have ever drank, with sweet apple floating just at the bottom of the cup, strawberry slices floating at the top, and the fruity/slightly honeyed liquid itself changing from pink to golden to orange. *Drooool*. It seems like a very asian beverage, so doubt ill ever see it in Aus =(
2. Travel: We used the metro train line to go everywhere. Didn't catch a taxi or bus at all because of exaggerated stories by untrusting people who think the cabbie will kidnap you and drive you away and roll you. Taxi and bus also probably wouldn't get you as far-reaching (conveniently anyway) as the trains. In 6 days, we got to everywhere we'd planned to go in Shanghai, and still had one more day to kill.
3. Clothes shopping: Some shops in the main street are alright, but if you go Shanghai and are buying designer, then i feel for you. You're missing out. My favourite places to shop were markets. NOT like paddy's or something, these are called markets even if they are in 10 storey tall buildings. Chinese markets are the most compacted shopping centres ive ever been to, and i love them when they're not overflowing with people. Even then, some markets are better than others. Everyone at one market will always tell you the things from other markets are worse quality, so just ignore them. The markets at the forefront of my mind at the moment are Pudong and someplace everyone called 'Chippu (Cheap) Rd', which is a play on the chinese characters. I think in cantonese it is chi (7) bu (treasure).
I also liked Shangxi for shopping. They have department stores but cheaper. It's quite funny. You walk out of the station, and if you walk left you get all the posh, designer department stores. If you walk right (where we wanted), you get the clothes for the mortals which i personally liked. Quite a lot.
4. Haggling: Ahaha. Okay. FIRSTLY. Watch out where you haggle. If its a REAL department store, and not a market POSING as a department store, then your asking to be scorned. If there's no pricetags on things, then its DEFINITELY haggling allowed. Even if there are, you often still can do it. If you know Chinese, watch out for the 'no haggling' signs on the shop windows. This doesn't mean they're bad, on the contrary, they're stuff is normally already reduced vry low and they just don't bother with the haggling process. Watch the sellers reaction and what they say, and how you can convince them you could get a better deal. The extent with which you should haggle is based purely on the waters: you should be able to tell whether they want to sell or not by their reaction to your first offer in reply to their own. Further explanation in third paragraph.
Secondly. A rule of thumb is pay 40% of the price they offer you (not for cheap stuff obviously, you're not gonna try and haggle down a 20 yuan figurine too much). Are you laughing? Well we haggled 2500 down to 700, and once accidentally sent a 1200 price tag down to 170 when we said we didn't want it and they thought it was our tactic. If you aren't asian, then pay even less. They always try and gutter the non asians, when some obvious Western people were in the same market as us all the sellers tried to force stuff on them at what seemed like to us to be ridiculous prices. Even if a person hooks onto your group and offers you their bargaining services when you buy, be very careful whether its you leading them or them leading you. They will try to take you to shops which i suspect they get commissed/paid by for helping out.
Thirdly. The art itself. Compared to my mum i didn't manage to do much, cause i cant throw myself out, only managing to cut a 570 dvd set down to 500 with my first stage of (mandarin spoken) haggling. Then along came mum and shoved it down to 250 a few minutes later T_T Okay. You have to firstly throw away some pride *Cry*. If they see you've got the money, that you aren't willing to argue if necessary, they will walk all over you. We wore sneakers evrywhere, no brands at all, kept all jewellery hidden and in all, looked pretty tardy if i can say so myself. I felt like a year 7 with no dress sense all over again.
Next. Let them know that you're aware of haggling's existence. We have a Western friend who has lived in China for the past few years. Even now, he pretends he doesn't know mandarin and watches as they whisper to eachother about selling him things at a high price. He then opens his mouth and tells them he can buy it much cheaper at other shops/markets, and watches their jaws drop at his fluency. When sellers tried telling us it was cheaper than in our own country, we never admitted it, even saying we could get it cheaper during sales which was sometimes true. Giving them something to hold over you is a bad, bad idea. Letting them SEE that they've got a hold over you means you may as well give up and get your wallet out. That's why don't be obvious if you really love a garment and know you'll buy it no matter what. I really liked walking out the shop whilst mum haggled and the seller would look at me and panic, thinking we were honestly going XD *Innocent look* I just wanted to see what was outside.
The process itself consists of number offerings alternatively between each party. Watch how they react to your offer. Whether they're really unable to give you that price, or are just trying to make you give a bigger profit margin to them. If you are aiming for the magic 40% mark, then naturally start at maybe 20% or 30%. Don't be put off by the shocked look they give you (it might just be because they didn't think you could manage it. Like i said, you throw away a bit of pride, but if you dont then they'll charge whatever they want.
Extras things are...Give your gradual increments, chuck in a bit of convincing complaining about how unreasonable they are, how the item's quality isnt that good/you dont really need it, the bad points, where else you could get it, you've seen it for a cheaper price nearby, mention some of the other markets youve been to and that you've seen it there as well but just didn't have time, you can get it cheaper at your home country, its not worth buying it then carrying it home unless its a bargain, flaunt your knowledge and all in all, show or else fudge your authority.
stage one, they offer their ridiculously high price.
stage two, you offer your ridiculously low price. (dw, albeit department stores, u wont get kicked out, they wanna keep ya).
stage three, they go a bit lower off their original, or a lot lower depending on the type of seller they are.
stage four, no matter what in stage three, only go a little higher than your own original price, or else theyll see you are easy to convince with just one round.
after this, its a war of wits and calculating, seeing how far you can push it.
That is all for haggling. I'm tired.
5. Safety: Don't show jewellery. Many of my relatives have had things stolen, the worst being a snatching by a passing moterbike rider.
Girls shouldn't wear any open bags, I once witnessed a thief following a couple with his hand in the handbag between them. Preferably, wear a bag with a long strap you can sling over your opposite shoulder. I hated the darn thing I wore but i also didnt care if i lost it. For just in case I kept money in different zippers on my bag, some notes in different pockets, i wore a pouch hidden under my clothes, whilst my dad also hid money in his shoes o_0 Kept my bank and travel card on my body, and never in my bag.
Don't dress rich in China. Note i didn't say HK. In China if you dress rich then mostly you are rich. In HK, the people often have spent most of their weekly paycheck to make themselves look more high class than they actually are. For the first time in my life i saw LINES in front of LV, Gucci and Prada in HK. Freaking...and yet a pathetically small number of their population has wealth of other 1 million chinese currency. EVERYONE in HK dresses up, i felt like a tard *facepalm*.
Pay attention to around you. Don't swing around every few secods, but also don't walk in a straight line the full length of Nanjing Rd and never notice the two guys on either side of you. We had that happen. One assumedly to grab the bag strap on the shoulder and the other to grab the bag itself. They stalked off and re-joined others when they realised we were a group. Kind of stupid. They sidled amongst our family in front of me and my sister so we could actually see everything, and my father's always looking out from the front anyway.
Avoid shifty people, DUH. Though i got suspicious alot, because people in china seriously have staring problems. They'll look at you for a minute straight sometimes and looking away does nothing. You have to glare at them. I don't care if they're curious/think me and my sister are twins/think we look weird/tardy.
When following sellers into the obscure shops, Shanghai has quite a clean reputation i believe. Shenzhen however, we are told you could be led somewhere else entirely and captured. Dno about the truth, but safe better than sorry. If there are a dozen stories, then there is at least a trickle of truth. So...yeah, Shanghai, we went to some of the obscure shops. You need people to show you these, you can rarely ever find them otherwise. Salespeople stalk the streets, and if you get near to them and they think you're a potential customer, they will attach like a leech and drag you through streets, into seemingly resident buildings, into shops behind another shop front, up stairs which are hidden behind yet another wall. God it was freaky at times, how these people worked. And we're the idiots who followed hahaha. Oh well, a good experience.
I is sleeping now. *Drops dead*.