While Thu Hang was visiting, she and I decided to venture into China to do some shopping. I have been hearing over and over how you can get such great deals there. After getting my visa which will allow me unlimited entry into China during the next six months, Thu Hang & I made our way to Shenzhen to go shopping. In addition to just looking around, I was on a mission to get curtains made. Our apartment has huge windows in the bedroom and living room that are bare. We don't want to spend a fortune because we are just renting this place, so Shenzhen seemed like the perfect solution.
The MTR (subway system) in Hong Kong has a stop called Lo Wu that connects to the Chinese border at Shenzhen. We rode up there after work and after a pretty painless border crossing, we were led directly into the mall in Shenzhen. The first thing I noticed about the mall is how aggressive the salespeople are. They stand by the escalators to ask you to come to their shops and hand out flyers. And they don't really take no for an answer initially. It reminded me of being at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. We knew what we came for so we made our way up to the top floor to the tailors and curtain shops. The mall consists almost entirely of stores selling fake purses (Gucci, Prada, you name it), shoes, watches, electronics, and fabric and custom made clothes. Thu Hang went to one of the tailors and had custom pants and shirts made for
work. She had a pair of tweed pants made for less than $20! And they looked great and the quality of the stitching was quite good. I plan to go back there and order clothes for myself at some point. But this time I was just there for the curtains. All I had to do was measure the windows, pick out a fabric, allow Thu Hang to use her awesome bargaining skills in Cantonese, and voila!
1 comment:
Very interesting!
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