Travel China FAQ: Hunting for Bargains While Hunting for Souvenirs (1)

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Monday Oct 06, 2008

When traveling in China, shopping is just as important as visiting the attractions, for both domestic and international tourists. This explains why most large-scale tourist areas have souvenir shopping areas adjacent to them. Shopping is enjoyable and fulfilling, and of course it is nice to have keepsakes from the memorable places you visited to instill nostalgia after your return home. After a few years traveling around China, and being a tour guide for my parents and all of my siblings during these few years, I have some suggestions about buying souvenirs in China and how to bargain for them.

Wangfujing (Beijing) at night

Just like selecting a restaurant, selecting a location to shop for souvenirs is important. These range from street-side markets to high-end hotel gift shops and markets specifically for certain products (antique markets, jade and jewelry markets, etc.). Also like in selecting a restaurant, do not be fooled by appearances. If you are trying to buy jade items, do not buy from the guy on the street with a rickety cart and a bunch of jade on top as they are obviously fake. On the other hand, sometimes the items in a night market stall and those in a 5-star hotel gift shop are basically identical, but the hotel gift shop uses bright lights and fancy display stands to make it look more appealing (and expensive).

(To be continue)

Posted at 02:01PM Oct 06, 2008 by admin in Laowai Talk | Comments[0]

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