Helloooooooo my DAH-Lings!!

wahahaha... Ok I'm high on cheap bargains.

Just got off the plane! Spent shitloads of money in HongKong and Shenzhen.

Good food is pretty cheap in HK, the food's not so good in Shenzhen, but the shopping -- oh my gawd the shopping -- more than makes up for it. Too bad I only spent half a day there. Dang. Next time must plan to stay there longer.

Didn't take any pictures so yeah, you'll have to bear with my description lah. Didn't want to look like a tourist and get ripped off by the locals. The Chinese ah... tsk tsk... Cannot trust sia. Your typical Russell Peters-type chinese shopkeeper I tell you. I'm not kidding.

Let me describe a typical shopping scenario in Shenzhen. My friend and I were walking around looking at nothing in particular at first. There are PLENTY of stalls/shops/what have you, selling shoes, bags, clothes, accessories of all types and sizes. Anyway, the place we were walking around is called Dong Men (literally 'East Door'), which is a short walk from the train station at the border between HK and Shenzhen. The key to shopping in China, we realized, is that the further you walk, the cheaper the prices get. As we passed the first DVD shop we went in to check the price -- 12 yuan per piece. Ok, walk some more.... next shop -- 10 yuan. Ok, walk some more... -- the guy offers us a package deal 15 pieces for 100 yuan. (that works out to be about 6.666667 yuan per piece). Never mind.... walk some more into the heart of the shopping area -- 6 per piece.

Another thing about shopping in China. WALK AWAY. This is the golden key to getting prices slashed by as much as 80% of the original price. I'm not kidding you. These people are really desperate to make each and every sale. I picked up a shoe just, you know, to get a closer look, and casually asked for the price.

Female shopkeeper: 120 yuan.
Me: Er, okay. (Puts back on the rack and starts to walk away.)
FS: (In chinese) Ok lah, ok lah, 100 yuan.
ME: (Looks back and shakes head and smiles politely)
FS: 80 yuan! 80 yuan!

I think if I stayed and hung around long enough just barely within earshot, the price would have been slashed to like 40 yuan. Just for you information, the exchange rate is about 1 SGD = 5 Chinese Yuan.

Ok, enough talk, going to bed now. For more inside stories on shopping in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, pls call 987