Shenzhen

On Sunday, Drew and I went to Shenzhen in mainland China to buy Drew a tailored suit. All of the skinny Chinese guys here wear really slimming suits, and Drew's American made stuff is noticeably baggier. This is like when I made the leap to skinny jeans. Went went with the couple we were originally going to go with, and we were so glad we did, as they were far more experienced than us in price haggling and how mainland China works. 

First, the lady, Jess, was kind enough to bring me a packet of tissues knowing I wouldn't know to bring my own. Why, you ask? None of the bathrooms have toilet paper. Even more so, there are no commodes, simply holes in the ground that you have to squat really low over. Yuck. The funny part is, Chinese people are so used to standing on the toilet like this that when they see a commode in say Hong Kong, they try to step up and stand on that too. There are actually signs around saying no standing on the toilet. Ha!

It honestly was not difficult to get there. It's about a 45 min train ride from our place, with a few transfers. When you get there, you have to use a walkway that crosses a moat separating China and Hong Kong. There is barbed wire on the HK side, but nothing on the Chinese side. It's obvious which way people are trying to go. 

The mall we went to was literally 50 yards outside of the train station, so I can't say we really got a taste of Shenzhen. We walk outside the station and a kid comes up to us and says "shopping?" He then leads us to his family's store in this huge mall. This mall has fake everything. Watches, purses, shoes, tailors, jewelry, etc. the other couple had a list of requests from family, such as a gold fake Rolex with a black face. So Stephy, if you want a fake Goyard or something, just say so! 

There is an art to haggling here. First, they jack up the prices so much for westerners that your first offer is only a third of what they tell you. They are very good actors and seem VERY offended at this. Then you show them on the calculator that you will go up a few bucks, showing you are serious and willing to negotiate. Eventually they will hit a price that they won't move from, and at this point you counter at your final offer, say half of where it started. They say no, and you walk away. It's amazing how far away you have to walk before they come chasing you down. Like 5 or 6 stores down the hallway. Luckily Drew seems to be a natural at this process, while I just want to practice my token Mandarin phrases like "tai gui le" "too expensive" to which they counter "pianyi pianyi" "cheap cheap". It's fun. 

At the end of the day, Drew had a suit ordered as well as a pair of prescription glasses they copied from his own on the spot. I got a pair of sunglasses, and we both found two pieces of art that we liked.  Hopefully we will get them framed here. Then we just need to figure out how to hang them up on our cement walls. 

After our shopping extravaganza, we grabbed some lunch in that same mall, where a beer was only $4 instead of $10 which it is in HK. We then got hour long foot massages (still in the mall) for $10 a person. Pretty good huh? This was just a massage, not reflexology but still interesting.

Finally, Trig would like to thank Brian for bringing him his giant rawhide bones. He has been in heaven for the last few days.