Triple A Quality

Today I went into Shenzhen, China, with my friends E and M. I had heard alot about the glorious and cheap shopping to be had in Shenzhen, and how the market was huge and full of people trying to get you to buy things and bargain with you. There is even a book about shopping in Shenzhen, complete with diagrams of the lay out of the mall and strategies for shopping. Alot of the expat women had talked about how poor it was and how it was very depressing to go there and how you should never get into a lift or wear any jewelry because you will get mugged. I was picturing something sort of like India, an out door market in the dirt or on a poorly paved road, with tons of beggars and animals and feces in the street. I was very surprised when the market turned out to be a really huge mall, with airconditioning and everything! Now granted, it's not an overly luxurious or orderly mall like the ones in Hong Kong or the US. The shops are tiny, they are overflowing with stuff, and there are people everywhere handing you flyers and trying to get you to come with them and shouting, "Missy, Missy!", as they seem to call all western women. E and M are both experienced shoppers in Shenzhen, and they have their certain ladies that they always go to, so I was really happy to go with them and meet their sales people. It could be very overwhelming trying to navigate through all of the sales people in there, it is better to look like you know where you are going!

Our first stop was to pick up a formal dress that E had made for her first trip back to the UK since she has moved to Hong Kong. Her tailors were very nice, and they had stacks of magazines and fabric samples so that you can pick out what you would like to have made. E's dress looked gorgeous, it was one of those Cheongsam-style dresses, you know the ones with the mandarin sort of collar and the two slits up the sides? I searched through the magazines but there were so many choices and I was sort of overwhelmed, so I decided I would look through magazines here in Hong Kong and pick something out. It is better to go with an idea of what you want rather than try to pick something out on the spot.

After that we hit the electronics section of the mall. E knew exactly where she was going. It must have been a slow day for electronics, because the minute we ventured near, the touts seemed to come out of no where to urge us into their shop. E knew exactly where she was going and blew right past them, and knocked on a shop that looked closed up. I was sort of startled when someone ran up from out of nowhere it seemed like, slid the metal door up, nudged us inside, and then slammed the door shut again! There were two other western girls inside and the walls were lined with digital cameras and other electronic stuff. A Chinese woman pulled up little plastic stools for us and gave us giant folders with the covers of the DVDs that she had for sale. I picked out 6 or 7 "girl movies" that I know Matt would never watch with me (for when he has to work late) and Season 2 of The Sopranos. When the three of us had picked out our movies, we gave them to the woman, she yelled something to a guy helping her, and he proceeded to take a panel out of the ceiling, and scurry up into the roof! I was amazed! She put the ceiling panel back, we waited, and he knocked on the panel again and started handing down our DVDs. Each DVD only cost 8 HK$, or 1 US$. The real test is to see how watchable the DVDs are, but E had been there quite a few times and said that this was a good shop to go to.

After the DVDs, we went to check out the designer hand bags. E and M both had been to this one lady whom they thought had an excellent selection. These girls are really into designer purses, and apparently they have alot of these designer knock offs. We met the sales woman at one shop and she had her assistant lead us up two stories to another shop that had a bunch of clothing in it and no hand bags. She led us to the back of the shop, we climbed over some boxes of merchandize, and opened a door and we were in The Back Room, full of Triple A quality designer knockoffs. The stuff that they keep in the front of the shops is not good apparently, you have to get to know someone so they trust you and will take you back to the good stuff. The room was full of Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Prada, and other designer stuff. Our sales lady was very cautious about security. The door that led to the room had no handle and she opened it from the inside with a string that she very carefully attached to a latch before she shut the door. When we wanted to look at some of the jewelry or ties that she had in catalogs, she would call her assistants on a cell phone, and they would bring the stuff to us from somewhere. Apparently, she had been busted the police before and was forced to operate out of the Shangri La Hotel, which is an upscale hotel across the street.

Now, I am not a hand bag afficionado, and I don't really know much about designers or what purses are good this season and which were good last season. Alot of the bags looked heinous to me, or looked extremely gaudy. Frankly, I don't like it when things have giant labels across them, it seems sort of vulgar. Despite this, the whole process seemed so exciting and secretive that I was entranced by it, and I bought a white quilted Chanel purse, a Gucci handbag, a Louis Vuitton umbrella, and two Tiffany bracelets, complete with the blue box and bag. Knowing that the shop owner had been busted before made it even better. The British girls were really into the designer bags, and were buying stuff for all of their friends back home. They really liked the Burberry and the Louis Vuitton brown bags.

After that we hit the shoe store, but by that point I was totally overloaded and my brain could not make any decisions. I bought some shoes, but now that they are home I really don't like them. But hey, I only payed 30 HK $ for them, which is less than 5 US $.

Another interesting thing about shipping in Shenzhen was the prevalence of squatters rather than Western toilets. I hadn't seen one of those since India and it made me very nostalgic!

Next time I go back to Shenzhen, I am going to get a manicure and pedicure. It only costs 20 HK$ for both! And of course, I will need a massage too.


Contraband Gucci